COLLECTIBLES: Bubble Gum Not Included

“Hey, I’ll trade you a Ruderman for a Feinstein!” No, this is not a proposed baseball-card swap, but the kind of deal that might occur among children with a religious bent: trading rabbi cards. Since they were introduced last August, more than 400,000 have been sold at 20 cents apiece, or 99 cents for a pack of five. On the back of each 4-in. by 6-in. card, printed in English and Hebrew, are the rabbi’s dates of birth and death, the books he published and details about his life.

Created by Arthur Shugarman, a Baltimore accountant, the cards aim to inspire Jewish youngsters by helping them put faces to the names they learn in Hebrew school. Shugarman started a nonprofit company called Torah Personalities, which now distributes the cards. The most coveted one: Moshe Feinstein of New York City, an expert on Jewish law who died in 1986.