Steimatzky (sold)

Steimatzky (1920 – present) is the oldest and largest bookstore chain in Israel. Founded by Tzvi Steimatzky in 1920, the first store was opened in Tel Aviv at 6 Hertzel Street. Steimatzky's half-brother Yechezkel Steimatzky opened the second store on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in 1925. Yechezkel, a Russian-born immigrant from Germany, originally went to the British Mandate of Palestine for the opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but decided to stay after he saw the potential for success in opening a foreign language bookstore whose clients would be a growing population of immigrants along with British Army soldiers serving under the British Mandate. He found that the bookstore was so successful that he opened another store in Haifa the following year. By 1927, the Steimatzky brand had expanded outside the British Mandate, when a store opened in Beirut. During World War II, a Steimatzky store opened in Baghdad next to the British Army base, and branches in Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus soon followed. After the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the expansion throughout the Middle East came to an end. In 1948 another store opened in Tel Aviv on Allenby Street. Eri Steimatzky, Yechezkel's son, joined the company and became its general manager in 1963. By 2010, Steimatzky operated over 160 stores throughout Israel, dominating the market in Israel. By September 2017, however, the gap between Steimatzky and its closest competitor, Tzomet Sfarim, was closing; Steimatzky had reduced their number of branches to 140 compared to Tzomet Sfarim's 96 stores.