He may not be in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Moshe Manies says he is the world’s most prolific collector of Judaic seltzer bottles — and quite possibly the only one.
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.
“I make people happy when I bring it to parties,” Manies said of his collection. “I get the old-timers talking about it — their face lights up in a very big way, especially when you bring them to a Jewish affair.”
Seltzer, the fizzy drink that’s 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.
Customarily, seltzer was delivered in old-fashioned glass siphon bottles, like the ones lining the shelves of Manies’ garage. But the bottles in Manies’ collection, which are tinted a rainbow of colors including blue, green, purple, amber, yellow and brown, share one detail that sets them apart from most: they all feature a Jewish symbol, like a Star of David or a menorah.
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. There, like in other Jewish neighborhoods, seltzer was a staple. “There’s a lot of history going on out there,” he said.
Manies said he started collecting bottles around 16 or 17 years ago, when he was still living in Brooklyn, accumulating them from flea markets and on eBay. The collection grew slowly but surely — until he moved to Lakewood 12 years ago, and suddenly he had the space to expand it.
Manies’ collection boasts a wide range of sizes and colors. (Joseph Strauss)
“Before I knew it, my collection grew and grew and grew and grew,” Manies said in an interview at his home, motioning to the organized chaos of his garage. There, old-style wooden crates filled with seltzer bottles, as well as old glass Coca Cola bottles, line the shelves along the wall, and vintage beverage-related plaques fill the garage’s walls. (Manies’ car, for what it’s worth, was parked on the street — perhaps out of necessity.)
Manies’ collection extends beyond just his garage. As he gives a reporter a tour through his house, it’s easy to spot more than a dozen lamps with bases that look suspiciously like seltzer bottles.
“That’s a seltzer bottle, that’s a seltzer bottle — that’s a seltzer bottle,” Manies pointed out as he walked through his living room and kitchen.
“It’s a crazy little hobby,” Manies said, laughing.
Manies admitted that, at times, his passion for collecting seltzer bottles can become all-consuming. “You just can’t sleep at night,” he said. “You start thinking about it — buy it, don’t buy it, yes but it, don’t buy it — I just wanna get it off my mind!”
He added, “If I had to go to a psychiatrist it would cost me more than 200 dollars. So I’ll buy a bottle for 200 bucks, I’m better off that way!”
Manies, who sells costume jewelry for a living, said vintage seltzer bottles are often cheaper at flea markets, and that there’s a hierarchy of price based on the rarity of the colors. “The white ones are cheaper,” he said, estimating their value at about $50 per bottle. “Then you got the blue ones, [they’re] a little bit more expensive, and the green ones — those ones are harder to get. You don’t find that many greens. Amber is also a very hard color to get.”
The shelves of Manies’ garage are lined with old wooden crates filled with seltzer bottles. (Joseph Strauss)
Manies’ dedication has paid off in the form of a vast collection that spans all the way back to the 1840s, when a handful of his bottles in his collection — made of clay — were brought over on a ship from Europe.
Another one of Manies’ most treasured items is a 1924 bottle with a label that reads, in part, “This water is good for indigestion, gout, kidneys, fever,” as well as a whole bevy of perceived health benefits. “They believed in those days that it was very, very healthy for you because it cleared out your system,” Manies said.
While the bulk of his collection is too large and too heavy to move around, Manies said he enjoys bringing a few crates to parties, shul and even Shabbat dinner with his brothers.
Despite preserving an important part of Jewish New York history, Manies wasn’t quite ready to call his collection “important.” He did, however, happily concede that it’s a lot of fun.
“You just watch the way that people talk about it,” he said. “It gets them going, you know?”
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