Ten years ago I wrote an article about how America’s Judaica manufacturers now largely reside in China. The items that aren’t made there are usually created in Israel. Only a few items, like customized skullcaps, are still manufactured in America.
In the past decade, my interest in the subject has shifted from journalistic to corporate. I have a side hustle running a Philadelphia-based publishing company that gets its books from either China or Israel, and I also sell dreidels produced in both Hong Kong and the mainland.
Because of this, the tariffs just enacted are likely to affect me directly—and because they affect me, they affect my customers. I want to give you a window into how I expect the tariffs will affect my business if they are not removed.
Let’s start with wedding bentshers. Many Jewish couples give out customized miniature prayerbooks called bentshers at their weddings as party favors. These books need to be cheap because they’re purchased in bulk, which means that production costs make up a much larger percentage of the price than they do for a typical book. Right now my wedding bentshers cost around $3 apiece. That price could easily rise to $5 or $6. (The machinery for customizing the books is also made in China.)
The reason for this is that my bentshers—and most of my other books—are made in China, which has been my preferred printing source for some time. I used to get my printing done in Michigan, but production times were too long, prices were too high, and customer service was cratering. The last straw was a computer failure that shut down all orders for more than a month. I’d be more than happy to move my business back here, but capacity isn’t going to spring back for a long while and the prices may still be too high.
Then there are the Israeli products, which are now subject to a 17 percent tariff. I’ve been importing the Asufa Haggadah for the last 10 years and have managed to keep the price at $36 or less before shipping. That’s a normal price for a fully illustrated art book. With the tariffs, however, it will be hard to charge less than $40. Though it is a relatively small increase, it tips the book into being more of a luxury item, which isn’t what I went into this business to sell.
The American Booksellers Association is claiming that books will largely be exempt because “informational materials” can’t be placed under tariff through the legislation that Trump is using. That said, customs officials themselves seem to be confused about this exemption, which was created through a Reagan-era amendment to the original legislation and specifically designed to prevent the president from curtailing free speech. In this climate of uncertainty, with Trump dead-set on advancing tariffs that almost all economists oppose, it’s hard to feel confident in the nuances of longstanding legislation.
What’s more, the tariff will have its worst effects on the products—mostly not books—that have not yet been released onto the market. As a small business, I don’t have large amounts of capital to invest in new products, and I can’t tolerate huge losses if something flops. Lower production costs mean that I can afford to make more mistakes and experiment with new products. I was willing to take a gamble on the 20-sided dreidel because the initial production run was cheap enough that it wouldn’t bankrupt me if nobody wanted to buy it.
In other words: raising the cost of manufacturing is going to make me and other creators more cautious when innovating. We’re going to be more conservative, looking for a sure thing instead of a wild new idea. Even now I have two projects in development that involve Chinese and Indian manufacturing. The production cost for the first more than doubled, and it rose by 26 percent for the second. It’s making me seriously wonder whether these projects are worth pursuing when the final product may be unaffordable and production costs make each one a much higher financial risk.
Importing does not represent the bulk of my income. If it diminishes, it will be painful but not catastrophic. But the Judaica and Jewish book market is made up of many small players, and American Jews are about to feel that firsthand. If you thought the cost of living Jewishly was already high, wait until you see what happens next.
David Zvi Kalman, now of Philadelphia, is the owner of Print-O-Craft Press who frequently shares his thoughts at JelloMenorah.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
