who writes stam in Israel

I was asked to put together a list of who writes stam in Israel.

I know that the following facts are accurate:

1) about 50% of frum/ heimishe sofrim writing today do not have ksav kabollah betokef
2) about 50 % of stam produced is not written by frum heimishe sofrim, they are written by  "shababniks" and questionably frum persons
3) A small percentage is written by non frum / women/ arabs

Therefore I came up with the following:


Frum / Heimishe sofrim with Ksav Kaballah

Constitutes  approx 20% of Today’s Sofrim – Most of these write Mehudar for Charedi Private Market


Frum / Heimishe sofrim without Ksav Kaballah

Constitutes approx  15% of Todays Sofrim or just under half of the frum market. Again, many of these write Mehudar but will often write for wholesalers due to lack of Kaballah .


Shababniks / yeshivah dropouts and university students “questionably” frum Jewish males of all ages (most without ksav kabollah) – As per Rabbi Mendelowitz’s book

Constitutes 50% of “Sofrim” producing  Sta”m today .  Most of the “non Mehudar /Mivtzoim style” Stam is written by such sofrim. Virtually all such sofrim write for sochrim or agents.  Most of these end up sold to other wholesalers  or retailers such as Judaica shops. Because of these “layers” ,  a wholesaler or retailer will often have no idea about the type of person who really writes the stam.


Totally Non-Frum /  Females / Arabs

This constitutes 15% (conservative figure) of the market and are often sold by non frum wholesalers to non religious suvenier shiops in Israel and online. These don’t often make it to frum wholesalers or frum owned Judaica shops.



If anyone thinks I have got it wrong please let me know. Thanks

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