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Meet the world’s foremost — and perhaps only — collector of Jewish seltzer bottles

JL;DR SUMMARY Moshe Manies, a collector from Lakewood, New Jersey, has amassed an impressive collection of 250-300 Judaic seltzer bottles, potentially making him the foremost collector of such items. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistoryJewish TraditionStar Of DavidCollectionLower East SideJudaicaBorough ParkMoshe ManiesSeltzer BottlesFlea Markets

Places mentioned

Lakewood, New Jersey, United States
"With an inventory of some 250 to 300 bottles kept in his garage in Lakewood, New Jersey, Manies who brought part of his collection to the Brooklyn SeltzerFest back in March is helping keep the Jewish legacy of seltzer alive and well."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"Manies obsession with Jewish seltzer bottles began after he first discovered some old seltzer bottles that featured Stars of David, as well as Borough Park addresses the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood where Manies grew up in the 1960s."
New York, United States
"Seltzer, the fizzy drink thats been called Jewish champagne, has played an important role in the history of Jewish New York ever since Eastern European Jews began making, delivering and selling it in the early 1900s, largely on the Lower East Side, as the New York Times wrote in 2023."

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Cairo Item ID 55245
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2025-06-23 18:00:42 UTC
Curated 2025-06-23 19:01:19 UTC