Mendel Uminer Gets Tenancy Violation Notice Over 10,000 Books in 600-Square-Foot NYC Apartment
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 9
Mendel Uminer Gets Tenancy Violation Notice Over 10,000 Books in 600-Square-Foot NYC Apartment
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 9
Summary
Building management warned Mendel Uminer last winter that his Manhattan studio was in violation of his lease because thousands of books had left it “severely overcluttered.”
The notice said the roughly 10,000-volume collection created a fire hazard by over-accumulating combustible material inside the 600-square-foot apartment near Central Park.
Uminer, a 31-year-old Jewish scholar and freelance Hebrew translator, said he does not see himself as a hoarder and called every book part of a library he needs.
The studio had also served as the base for his literary journal, Notarikon Review, and as a gathering place for New York writers amid stacks of Judaica, criticism, plays and poetry.