Soferim — directory of scribes
Scribes who write, check and repair Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot. Each listing shows the services and prices declared by the sofer, and lets you contact them directly.
16 soferim listed
Listing is free and will stay free. TorahGuard takes no commission, books nothing and handles no payment: you write to the sofer, that is all.
Training and background are declared by the sofer. TorahGuard does not verify them and certifies no one. Ask for references as you would with any craftsman — a badly written Torah scroll is passul, and it does not show at first glance.
List my practiceAlexandra Casser
Compiled listingFairfax, United StatesTravels to the client
Alexandra Casser is a soferet based in Fairfax, Virginia, working as a scribe and educator since 2010. She specialises in the restoration of antique Torah scrolls and is authorised by the Memorial Scrolls Trust to work on its sifrei torah. She also repairs tefillin and takes new commissions for sifrei torah, tefillin and mezuzot. She has provided scribal services to dozens of Jewish communities from California to New York and from Wisconsin to Louisiana, and offers Torah repair on or offsite.
- Letter restoration Torah scroll · On request
- Repair Torah scroll · On request
- Repair Tefillin · On request
Avrohom Dovid Wolffe
Compiled listingLos Angeles, United StatesTravels to the client
Avrohom Dovid Wolffe is a sofer STaM based in Los Angeles, where his STaM Center is located at 607 S Orange Drive, Hancock Park, CA 90036. His site states he received certification and smicha ordination from Mishmeret Stam in Bnei Brak, Israel and from the Israel Ministry Department of Professional Qualifications, and that he has served the Jewish community as a scribe since 1999. He names Rabbi Moshe Veiner of Jerusalem and Rabbi Shlomo Aron Kenig A"H as the scribes and rabbis who mentored him. He handles purchase and checking of mezuzot, tefillin and Torah scrolls, can come to a home or business to check and repair them, and gives educational presentations and workshops.
- Checking Mezuzah · On request
- Checking Tefillin · On request
- Checking Torah scroll · On request
Julie Seltzer
Compiled listingBeacon, United States
Julie Seltzer is a scribe and educator based in Beacon, New York. She first learned with Jen Taylor Friedman and has been writing Torah scrolls since 2009, when she was Scribe-in-Residence at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Having completed her fourth Torah scroll, she now focuses primarily on education and Torah repair, and describes her work as helping congregations maintain their Torah scrolls through repair work and education. She offers Torah assessment and repair, megillah commissions, educational workshops in person or via Zoom, and scholar-in-residence weekends.
- Checking Torah scroll · On request
- Repair Torah scroll · On request
- Writing Megillah · On request
Linda Coppleson
Compiled listingWest Orange, United States
Linda Coppleson is a soferet STaM based in West Orange, New Jersey, and a member of the Stam Scribes collective. Her scribal studies began in 2003 under the artist and sofer Eric Ray z"l, and she later studied the halacha of safrut with Jen Taylor. She participated in the Women's Torah Project, writing 20 of its 62 pages, and has since written three sifrei torah. She takes new torah commissions, torah repair, and megillah and mezuzah commissions, and she repairs and restores sifrei torah.
- Writing Torah scroll · On request
- Writing Megillah · On request
- Writing Mezuzah · On request
Melech Michaels
25 years of practice declaredCompiled listingAirmont, United StatesTravels to the client
Melech Michaels runs Mezuzah Depot, a safrus (STa"M) business based in Monsey, New York, specialising in tefillin and mezuzos. The site states he received smicha from Reb Avraham Tzvi Wosner, posek for the Vaad Mishmereth Stam, and has been writing tefillin, mezuzos, megillos and sifrei Torah for over twenty-five years, after learning writing and pen making from Reb Aaron Berlin and battim repair from Reb Yaakov Michael. The stated specialty is mezuzah checking, including house calls that advise where mezuzos are required and install them, plus tefillin checking and repair of parshios, battim and retzuos. Local service calls are offered in Rockland County, northern New Jersey, Westchester County and Manhattan.
- Writing Tefillin · On request
- Writing Mezuzah · On request
- Writing Megillah · On request
Mordechai Pinchas (Marc Michaels)
Compiled listingLondon, United Kingdom
Mordechai Pinchas, also known as Marc Michaels, is a sofer STaM based in London, UK. His site states that he repairs and writes STaM and runs study sessions for communities in the UK and further afield. He writes that while he works with both orthodox and progressive communities, he conducts his business as a scribe following orthodox halacha as defined mostly by the Keset Hasofer and the Mishna B'rurah. He invites enquiries about buying a megillah, mezuzot or a ketubah, and about repairs to a megillah or sefer torah for synagogues. He also states he was awarded a PhD at Cambridge in Jewish manuscripts.
- Writing Mezuzah · On request
- Writing Megillah · On request
- Repair Torah scroll · On request
Moshe Boaz — HaSofer STaM
Compiled listingRa'anana, Israel
Moshe Boaz is a sofer STaM and certified magiah (proofreader) working from Ahuza 88 in Ra'anana, Israel. His site states he entered the world of STaM in 2005, learning the craft from the expert scribe Rav Eliezer Adam, and that he is certified by Mishmeret STaM of Bnei Brak with a beit din authorisation from Rabbi Yitzchak Peretz, rabbi of Ra'anana. The business is a centre for the checking, purchase and repair of STaM items of all sizes, types and levels of hiddur, serving the whole country and mainly Ra'anana and the Sharon region. It has been under the supervision of Vaad Kedushat STaM of Bnei Brak since 2012.
- Checking Torah scroll · On request
- Checking Tefillin · On request
- Checking Mezuzah · On request
Rabbi Ishai Mokano — House of Ishai
Compiled listingAshdod, Israel
Rabbi Ishai Mokano is a certified Sofer STaM who was born and raised in Israel and lives and works in the city of Ashdod. His site states that he specialises in the writing, inspection and restoration of Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot according to traditional halachic standards, and lists Torah scroll inspection, restoration and repair, tefillin inspection, mezuzah inspection and kosher certification review among his services. He states certifications from Vaad Mishmereth STaM and the Yad Raphael Institute, and advanced studies in Fine Arts before he entered scribal work. He serves synagogues, Chabad centres, Jewish day schools, yeshivas, community organisations and families, and says he works with clients throughout the United States.
- Writing Torah scroll · On request
- Writing Tefillin · On request
- Writing Mezuzah · On request
Rabbi Kass
Compiled listingMonsey, United StatesTravels to the client
Rabbi Kass is a sofer stam in Monsey, New York, who founded The Sofer Center in 2011. He was ordained by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and certified as a sofer by Rabbi Avrohom Tzvi Vosner, Rav and Posek for the Vaad Mishmeres Sta"m. He sells mezuzos, tefillin, megillos and sifrei torah, some of which he wrote himself, and he checks, repairs and restores them according to halachah. Before founding the centre he was employed full time as a sofer at a sofer stam in Brooklyn, NY. The site lists mezuzah house calls among its services.
- Checking Mezuzah · On request
- Checking Tefillin · On request
- Checking Torah scroll · On request
Rabbi Levi Backman
Compiled listingMiami, United StatesTravels to the client
Rabbi Levi Backman is a certified sofer STaM serving Miami and South Florida, working under the name Miami Mezuzah Center. His site states he is certified by Lemaan Yilmedu and is trained in the halachic writing and inspection of Torah scrolls, mezuzot, tefillin and megillot. He offers mezuzah and tefillin checking with a written inspection certificate documenting the halachic status of each scroll, sells kosher mezuzah scrolls and tefillin, and makes in-home visits across Miami-Dade, South Broward and Boca Raton by request. Service is offered in English, Spanish and Hebrew.
- Checking Mezuzah · On request
- Checking Tefillin · On request
- Writing Mezuzah · On request
Rabbi S.Z. Unsdorfer
Compiled listingLondon, United KingdomTravels to the client
Rabbi S.Z. Unsdorfer runs Sofer UK, a sofer STaM activity based in London. The site sells mezuzot, tefillin and megillot and states that a checking service is available for all items. Checking is priced at £8 per mezuzah and £85 per pair of tefillin, with pickup and drop off across North West London and Central London; for an extra £2.50 per mezuzah he will come to remove the mezuzot, check them and put them back within a day or two, a service offered only within London.
- Checking Mezuzah · On request
- Checking Tefillin · On request
- Checking Megillah · On request
Rabbi Shea Lindner
33 years of practice declaredCompiled listingSpring Valley, United States
Rabbi Shea Lindner has worked as a sofer stam since 1993, first in Brooklyn, New York and, per his site, having since moved to Spring Valley, New York. He writes, sells and checks sifrei torah, tefillin, mezuzos and megillos. He is certified by Rabbi Avrohom Tzvi Vosner, Rav of Va'ad Mishmeres Stam, and by Rabbi Yecheskel Roth, Rav of Bais Talmud Le'hora'ah. He publishes a booklet on safrus called "Kol Sofer".
- Writing Torah scroll · On request
- Writing Tefillin · On request
- Writing Mezuzah · On request
Rabbi Shmuel Ahron Traube
Compiled listingBoro Park, United States
Rabbi Shmuel Ahron Traube has been certified by Vaad Mishmeres Stam since 1998 and learned by Rabbi Avroham Markowitz. The Bais HaStam about page describes him as a professional certified magiha (checker) and sofer, recognised for expertise in current and historical judaica and safrus items, able to recognise the handwriting of many well-known sofrim. He established Bais HaStam in Boro Park, Brooklyn, thirty years ago, and has been active as a volunteer for Vaad Mishmeres Stam, where the page says he gained knowledge from Rabbi Granetstein and Rabbi Greenfield.
- Proofreading Mezuzah · On request
Rabbi Yochanan Salazar
Compiled listingNorth Miami Beach, United StatesTravels to the client
Rabbi Yochanan Salazar is described on the Sofer On Site site as a master sofer, educator and lecturer, and heads the company's Torah Restoration Department. Born in Ecuador, he moved to the United States as a teenager and studied at Hudson College and NJIT before entering safrut. He received rabbinic ordination in 2004 from Rabbi Daniel Channen in Beit Shemesh, Israel, apprenticed in safrut under the Rabbis Druin at Sofer On Site in Miami, and received his ordination as a sofer from Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Hayyim. He travels around the country restoring Torah scrolls on site and teaching communities proper techniques of Torah care.
- Repair Torah scroll · On request
- Letter restoration Torah scroll · On request
Shevi Yekuti
30 years of practice declaredCompiled listingBnei Brak, Israel
Shevi Yekuti is a sofer STa"M based in Bnei Brak, Israel, whose site states thirty years of experience with sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzot and a certificate of ordination from Mishmeres STa"M Bnei Brak. He is the author of a book on the laws of STa"M, "Maayan David". The site's service pages cover mezuzah checking, and the checking and repair of sifrei Torah. Contact details published are a Bnei Brak post box, telephone and e-mail.
- Checking Mezuzah · On request
- Checking Torah scroll · On request
- Repair Torah scroll · On request
Yitzchak Goldstein — Machon Ot (מכון אות)
Compiled listingJerusalem, Israel
Yitzchak Goldstein directs Machon Ot, which he founded in 1986 (5746) together with his late brother-in-law Rabbi Yitzchak Steiner z"l. The institute specialises in the renewal of old Torah scrolls, anti-theft coding, and research into Torah scroll manuscripts. To learn how to renew old scrolls, the institute turned to museums and manuscript experts, who taught them how to restore, repair and date old Torah scrolls and return them to synagogue use. The site states that more than 17,000 Torah scrolls are documented in Machon Ot's international database.
- Letter restoration Torah scroll · On request
- Repair Torah scroll · On request
- Photographic documentation Torah scroll · On request
What a sofer does
A sofer STaM writes Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot by hand, on parchment and in ink, letter by letter. He also checks existing items, repairs those that have deteriorated, and proofreads a scroll before it goes into use. These are distinct acts, priced separately: someone looking to have tefillin checked is not looking for the same thing as someone commissioning a Torah scroll.
How to choose
Ask the sofer where he trained and under whom, as you would of any craftsman. Ask to see his work. Ask who will proofread what he writes. TorahGuard certifies no one and has no means of doing so: this page puts you in touch, it guarantees you nothing.
Frequently asked
- Does TorahGuard verify soferim’s qualifications?
- No, and the site never implies otherwise. Training, teacher and years of practice are what the sofer states, or what a public page says of him. A Torah scroll written by someone without the required competence is passul, and a client cannot tell on his own: ask for references directly.
- Does listing cost anything?
- No. The directory is free for the sofer and for the reader. TorahGuard takes no commission, books nothing, collects nothing, and relays no messages: you write to the sofer directly.
- Why do some listings show no prices?
- Because the sofer has not published any. The site shows a figure only when it comes from him, or from a page where he wrote it. Everything else is on request. A guessed price would commit the craftsman on his behalf.
- How was my listing created without my asking?
- Some listings were compiled from public pages — a workshop’s own site, an association’s directory. They carry the words “compiled listing” and a link to their source. You can claim it to correct it, or ask for its removal by writing to contact@torahguard.com.