PROOF | Winter/Spring 2020

PROOF A PJ LIBRARY ® MAGAZINE

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Investing in People, Partners, and Practice

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Connecting with Jewish Tweens, Book by Book

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Australia: An International Incubator

WINTER/SPRING 2020

FOREWORD

THE

Here is some easy advice to make you a better writer: Avoid clichés. They’re all sizzle and no steak.

Clichés are a great way to say something without saying much of anything. Take the nonprofit standard, “we meet you where you are.” What does it mean exactly? I’ve never known, and I have a rule against using it in my writing.

But today I’m going to break that rule.

Last night, while I was sitting on the floor in my two-year-old daughter’s bedroom and reading her Passover! for the 10,000th time, it occurred to me that PJ Library met me where I was! “Oh no,” I thought, “I am going to use that overused phrase in this edition of PROOF.” My daughter has commandeered the glider in her bedroom and insists I sit on the floor for our nightly reading routine. Every night before climbing into the glider, Aya toddles to her bookshelf and selects a pile of books for us to read. After I get through the pile and unfold my approaching-40-year-old knees to try and stand up to persuade Aya to get into her crib, I see it: PJ Library is quite literally “where I am” in a way no Jewish organization has been before.

PJ Library is my bedtime partner every night in the form of Passover!, Todah, Purim Masquerade, or Just Look at You.

Judaism has a daily role in a meaningful way in my home, thanks to this simple gift of books.

Every day and every night, PJ Library is meeting thousands and thousands and thousands of families where they are. In less than 15 years, PJ Library has grown from sending 200 books in western Massachusetts to delivering 650,000 books each month globally.

In PROOF, we’ve shared many of the reasons for PJ Library’s success, including the books and resources, meeting the needs of the parents, and the entrepreneurial spirit instilled in PJ Library by our founder, Harold Grinspoon. This edition of PROOF is about another key ingredient that enables PJ Library to meet families where they are: the people and partnerships that make PJ Library possible.

With partnerships like the ones described in this edition and yours, the sky’s the limit!

Will Schneider Director of Advancement, PJ Library Proud PJ Library Parent P.S. In this issue of PROOF you will see that a generation of children are growing up in homes where meaningful Judaism has a daily role thanks to PJ Library. We invest in a strong, knowledgeable, and connected Jewish community of the future. If you share our commitment to the Jewish community of the future, please consider a gift to PJ Library.

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I Thought You’d Never Ask BEHIND THE SCENES AT PJ LIBRARY How flexible does a book need to be to make it through US postal machines?

How do books make it to places like Shanghai and Singapore?

How do we ensure a family can use our resources for years to come?

This is a small sample of the questions we answer on any given day at the home office in western Massachusetts. The operational challenges associated with getting 650,000 books written, illustrated, printed, packed, and distributed in 21 countries are fascinating and never-ending. And we need to get it right, because spending an extra ten cents per delivery costs more

NGE TO A BIG CHA OOKS B D R BOA I bet you didn’t notice the postage flexibility rule change of 2010. The rule change required mail to meet a certain level of flexibility to be considered “flat mail.” Our earliest board books did not meet these requirements, so we worked with our publishing partners to employ a different type of paper. Now PJ Library board books are sturdy enough for the hands of toddlers but flexible enough for postage machines. And even big-name publishers are starting to use this paper.

than $60,000 when you consider the size and scope of PJ Library.

From tariffs to packaging, we strive to make decisions that elevate the family experience while ensuring the program can continue on for generations. Here are just a few of the unique considerations we’ve made over the years:

AROUND THE WORLD

KNOW WHEN TO SPEND

Due to customs restrictions, families in Shanghai can subscribe to PJ Library only because volunteers pick up the books in Hong Kong and bring them back to Shanghai.

In Singapore, a 15-year-old boy named Elijah receives the books at his flat and brings them to synagogue once a month to distribute to other children. He took on the role as his Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) project for his Bar Mitzvah.

When we produced the Passover River Ride Game in early 2019, the idea was to print the board game on regular paper. It was inexpensive and would fold nicely to fit into the envelope. But the team hoped this could be a game that families would put away and save for next year’s Passover, so we spent a little more to laminate the activity so it would make it through a seder as well as a year in storage.

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Investing in

People, Partners, and Practice

By Debbi Cooper DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT, PJ LIBR ARY

SINCE THE INCEPTION OF PJ LIBRARY, the Harold

Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) has understood that if we want to make Jewish life exciting and accessible to families, we need to invest in program professionals on the ground. Hundreds of these people around the world bring PJ Library to life in communities. The vast majority of them work for Jewish federations, Jewish community centers, and other Jewish organizations worldwide, but they are also very much a part of the PJ Library team.

Throughout the year, these professionals learn together and from each other in a myriad of ways. Online webinars, Communities of Practice, Jewish professional conferences, and the annual PJ Library International Conference all allow colleagues to gather, debrief, and share ideas. Professionals even visit each other’s communities and bring back learnings to use at home.

The practices, strategies, and teachings from PJ Library often make an impact beyond local PJ Library programs and inform how organizations can better connect to individuals in their communities. It’s a powerful example of how a partnership can transform and impact Jewish life in the 21st century.

It’s been 11 years since I launched PJ Library in Chicago.

I’m now privileged to be the Director of Engagement for PJ Library, responsible for leading a team to design professional learning for our partners and nurture a network of dedicated professionals. We all work to strengthen program professionals’ collective abilities to engage families in meaningful and high-quality Jewish life. Here are some of the important discoveries we’ve made as our work has grown:

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Learning is an ongoing practice ... and takes practice.

Over the last few years, we have learned that “one and done” trainings just aren’t enough, so we’ve transformed those single sessions into multiday experiences. Now professionals can benefit from prework, in-person workshops, opportunities to practice learned skills, one-on-one coaching, and ongoing post-training learning. As a result of our recent “Engaging Families in Volunteering” workshop, program professionals held family volunteer programs across the US. In Washington, DC, 15 families gathered to put together five mitzvah projects to help people experiencing poverty or hardships; in Princeton, New Jersey, families made sandwiches and lunch bags for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Each professional integrated the best practices we modeled, took advantage of one-on-one coaching, and received a subsidy from HGF for their supplies.

Everyone has something to learn, and everyone has something to teach.

What we teach often comes from the field experiences of our program professionals; it’s the result of their experimentation, reflection, and learning as they try different strategies to engage families in Jewish life.

More than half of HGF’s workshop sessions and webinars are taught by program professionals. Some recent webinars include The Art of a Coffee Date, Creating Vibrant PJ Library and PJ Our Way Bridge Programs, and Getting Involved with Good Deeds Day.

In order to create community and Jewish learning for families, people need to experience Jewish community and learning themselves.

Each PJ Library offering for program professionals is intentionally designed to incorporate communitybuilding and meaningful engagement with Jewish ideas and values. Each conference or in-person gathering begins with a peer group meeting that encourages relationship-building among participants and ends with group reflections and sharing. Through this experience, participants have a deeper understanding of how to build these connections within their own communities.

Newer offerings, such as explorations around the latest in-the-envelope activity, the Parent Blessing Never Ender, provide program professionals with a vehicle for Jewish exploration and growth as Torah L’shma (learning for its own sake).

All this investment in our professionals yields incredible dividends. PJ Library has grown to be a beloved, integral part of Jewish life for thousands of families, in large part because of the talents, dedication, and enthusiasm of the professionals who bring PJ Library to life. Playing a role in the growth and development of PJ Library professionals is a privilege. I am grateful to work as part of an organization that understands and prioritizes learning and growth for its most important assets – its people.

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Some of our best creativity has emerged in thinking through how we introduce PJ Library subscribers to camp, preschool, and day school.

We’ve figured out part of the answer, that introductions come in slow tastes of these programs (an afternoon, a day, a Shabbat), and federations will continue to build wider and longer pipelines.

By Jerry Silverman BOARD MEMBER, HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, JEWISH FEDER ATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA PROUD PJ LIBR ARY GR ANDPARENT

PJ LIBRARY CAME AT AN IMPORTANT TIME FOR JEWISH FEDERATIONS – after a

recession and as the world was changing, when federations needed to reconsider what it meant to reach out to community. Relational strategies were in the zeitgeist.

Many organizations were experimenting with getting inside of participants’ lives rather than demanding they show up in formal spaces. Curious leaders of Jewish federations were asking, “How do we make connections between our historic and sacred network of organizations and people’s living rooms?”

Amcha, the people, were increasingly staying where they were (we thought), but our institutions still provided opportunities for fulfillment, joy, and Jewish exploration.

Some agencies were offering opportunities for Jewish federations to invest in their relational experiments, but these were only early investments, too distant to be influential on federations’ strategies. In a relational environment, how could Jewish federation leaders change how they think about Jewish education, including program methodologies, funding, and metrics? PJ Library offered a response to all of this.

More than 90% of Jewish federations fund PJ Library. In most communities, federations also play a role in operating the program. Many accompany the books with strategies meant to engage more families deeper in Jewish life. Through relational connectors, PJ Library subscribers form playgroups, participate in tzedakah projects, and come together en masse to celebrate holidays with crafts, stories, and ritual. They sing the Havdalah blessings over ice cream in town squares and crowd into bookstore corners for storytime.

As they developed these initiatives, Jewish federations needed to adapt and consider the implications of a program like PJ Library for their work. Many of these considerations may seem old hat now, but ten years ago we had only instincts (not proof texts) for all of this. Being in ice cream shops and bookstores, working with people who aren’t members, creating a program outside of agency walls – all of that needed to be figured out, learned, and practiced.

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Ten years ago, PJ Library gave federations a laboratory in which to study all of these principles, enabling federations to successfully do this kind of engagement work with families with young children and then apply the same principles to teens, 20-somethings, families with schoolage children, and empty nesters.

For Jewish federations, PJ Library has brought to life what Jewish engagement and community can look like today: diverse, accessible, lifebased, relational, and rooted in doing.

It has become the centerpiece of a robust Jewish engagement agenda.

It is not surprising to me that PJ Library was the brainchild of Harold Grinspoon, a breakthrough thinker and one of the g’dolim (Hebrew for greatest) of our time. The Harold Grinspoon Foundation has been an invaluable leader. The product is fresh and continually interesting.

It is supportive of implementing professionals, shown by the annual PJ Library International Conference, the many in-person and web-based learning opportunities, and the online resource center offering how-tos, downloads, and guidelines.

I am deeply grateful for this precious gift to the Jewish community. I know it will continue to impact countless lives for many years to come.

Collaboration & Connection How PJ Library Expands the Reach of JCCs

By Doron Krakow PRESIDENT AND CEO, JCC ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA

JCC GREATER BOSTON has

made PJ Library a linchpin in an outreach strategy focused on young families living on the outskirts of its catchment area.

These families are often a little too far away to be thinking about the JCC as a convenient option for an early childhood program, day camp, or any number of other opportunities that wouldn’t even make it onto their radar simply due to distance.

The story of Boston’s JCC could just as well describe Milwaukee, Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, or Tampa. It’s a story of how Harold Grinspoon’s vision created a gateway for young parents making their first steps in a life of engagement with people who spark Jewish consciousness in their families. This happens through books as well as partnerships with great organizations devoted to strengthening Jewish communities from coast to coast — institutions like JCCs. With PJ Library as the critical connector, and in partnership with the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) of Greater Boston (the city’s remarkable Jewish federation), JCC Greater Boston has deployed family engagement professionals across the region to meet, engage with, and involve PJ Library families in their own neighborhoods. Often, these young families are connecting with the Jewish community for the very first time.

PJ Library is one of the most outstanding outreach and family engagement resources we have at our disposal.

That is a repeating refrain at 30 JCCs across the continent that serve as the lead local partner in the JCC Movement’s work with PJ Library and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. I’ve even said it myself. And over the years, as both JCCs and PJ Library continue to adapt to meet the needs of young Jewish families, I am sure I will repeat it again and again.

JCC Greater Boston hosted their 2019 Wacky Purim celebration at the local mall’s play area.

The kinds of programs and events that the JCCs' outreach professionals bring to such outlying communities include holiday celebrations, cultural activities, storytelling, films, Mommy & Me programs, after-school activities, and so much more. JCCs are no longer just the physical spaces and institutions with which they have been so reflexively associated. A JCC is an array of programs and inspired professionals that don’t need a building to touch people’s lives and engage families in Jewish life. Thanks to PJ Library, they are doing it with remarkable success in growing numbers of communities. Boston is a great example, where PJ Library has made it possible for the JCC to add more than 200 families per month to its roster over the last three years.

Through follow-up and continuing engagement, JCC Greater Boston has increased registration for its day camp, and its cultural and recreational programs are growing by leaps and bounds. It is a burgeoning revolution in Jewish engagement.

JCC Association of North America leads and connects the JCC Movement: JCCs, camps, and JWB Jewish chaplains advance and enrich North American Jewish life.

Connecting with Jewish Tweens by

Saskia Swenson Moss ENGAGEMENT OFFICER PROUD PJ OUR WAY PARENT

Book by Book

&

Rachel Goodman

BOOK SELECTION ASSOCIATE

IT’S 3 P.M. IN CLEVELAND, 2 P.M. IN DALLAS, AND NOON IN SAN JOSE, and

dozens of kids from across America are logging onto a webinar to learn techniques for making podcasts. All come armed with unique experiences, projects, and stories: Hanah, 9, from Florida, recently made a video about a Jewish holiday; Josh, 11, from Illinois, designed a fun book quiz; and Rylee, 10, from New York, just interviewed an author. As each child’s face appears on the screen, parents wave hello in the background, and curious younger siblings check out what is going on.

Who are these dedicated, creative, energetic tweens? They are members of the PJ Our Way national kids’ teams who are creating content for the PJ Our Way website, reading and reviewing potential PJ Our Way books, and engaging in Jewish conversations in a way that has never been done before.

Young children love to sit on their parent’s lap and have a fun picture book read to them. They often care more for the experience than the content. The excitement of a parent connecting with them through a story creates a closeness.

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Tweens do not operate this way.

Already beginning to differentiate from their parents, 9- to 12-year-olds thrive when given the ability to make independent choices. To be told to read a book that someone else chose for them is, in their words, “a big fail.”

The key to designing a program that speaks to a particular age group is to include those very people in the planning process. The initial PJ Our Way Design Team was made up of three boys and four girls. Under the guidance of a Jewish educator, the team read advance copies of the book selections and populated the PJ Our Way website with reviews,

videos, author interviews, and blogs to help PJ Our Way members choose between the books.

The combination of purposeful work, stimulating stories, and social engagement with peers from around the country kept the first Design Team members engaged and committed.

Since then, the program has expanded.

The Design Team now focuses on multimedia content. A Content Team develops written and graphic projects.

An Advisory Committee shares valuable feedback about books that PJ Our Way is considering adding to the lineup.

In 2015, stimulated by the PJ Our Way national kids' team, communities across America started to create local design teams. Lori Rubin, then the Director of Family Engagement at the Jewish Learning Venture, and her PJ Library colleague Robyn Cohen put out the call to tweens in the Philadelphia Jewish community, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. “It was an incredible way for tweens to get together and see themselves as part of something big.

Many of them don’t have other Jewish kids in their neighborhoods, so getting together on an ongoing basis allows them to make Jewish friends and talk about the content of the books they have read with others.”

Like the kids themselves, each local design team comes with different interests, and the process of letting kids choose what they want to focus on produces excitingly different results.

This year the Milwaukee Design Team will be partnering up with a new local design team that just launched in Winnipeg, Manitoba. To get to know one another, the two teams are planning a package exchange and have excitedly brainstormed what kinds of things to include. Maps, special foods, letters, and photos all go into the mix to answer, "What it is like to be Jewish in Winnipeg or Milwaukee?"

The Decline

BY CARL A NAUMBURG, PHD CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER & AUTHOR PJ OUR WAY CONTENT OFFICER ( AND PARENT )

Orlando, Florida

There are currently more than a dozen local kids’ teams throughout North America. They flourish in Jewish communities as large as Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, and Atlanta, and as small as Rochester and Tallahassee.

In the world of Jewish engagement, a lot is known about programming for families with young kids. Parents with infants, toddlers, and kindergartners have at their fingertips parent groups, tot Shabbats, Music Together classes – a variety of hands-on programs that meet their child’s developmental needs. There are also viable options for Jewish teens who are independent enough to get involved with youth groups that give them meaningful Jewish experiences. Where our community had been particularly lacking is in the area of innovative Jewish programming for tweens. The key is involving the children themselves in the process. And if you do so in a fun, meaningful way, these tweens shine. Confident about their abilities and excited about their heritage, they are already rejuvenating our American Jewish community.

Columbus, Georgia

by Nine

—

It’s become a monthly ritual that my daughters (ages 9 and 11) always look forward to. It generally goes something like this: I tell the girls it’s time to select their PJ Our Way books. They bicker about who gets to choose first, we flip a coin, someone disputes the results of the coin toss, we toss again. Eventually, both girls take the time to read each book description and other kids’ reviews before settling on their choices. After they’ve read their books, they use some of their precious screen time to log on and write their own reviews, and the process begins again.

My girls think of PJ Our Way as something fun they get to do every few weeks. And while I agree with them, I also see it as a powerful tool for their ongoing literacy development. Children who reach reading proficiency by third grade (which is when both of my girls signed up for PJ Our Way) are more likely to be academically successful in the future than those who don’t, according to research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Unfortunately, this also seems to be the age at which many kids are putting down their books. Recent research by Scholastic has identified a “decline by nine,” in which the percentage of children who report reading books for fun – five to seven days a week – drops from 57% to 35% between the ages of 8 and 10.

Yikes!

Fortunately, we parents can do something about this.

Experts have offered a variety of ideas for keeping pre-tweens’ noses in books, such as allowing them to choose what they read, providing opportunities to connect with other kids who have read the same books, and using technology as a bridge to reading.

Check, check, and check. PJ Our Way nails them all, and I’m seeing the magic happen in our home.

The girls get to read books that align with their interests, whether it’s a biography of Albert Einstein or Judy Blume or a story about what it would be like to travel back in time to the days of Moses and Miriam or live with a golem in your town. My voracious reader who doesn’t love to write gets excited to craft her reviews, and I wonder when my reluctant reader will stop being surprised by how much she enjoys books about everything from being the only Jewish kid in your class at a new school to preparing for a bar or bat mitzvah you’re not entirely sure you want. As for me, I’m so grateful that my daughters are learning the stories of our people – both past and present – connecting to the Jewish community, and strengthening their own evolving identities. And I know that we’re combating the decline by nine, one PJ Our Way book at a time.

By Samara Q. Klein DIRECTOR OF PJ PUBLISHING

THE FIRST TIME I PLACED A BOARD BOOK IN MY DAUGHTER’S HANDS, SHE ATE IT … at least she tried to.

After my daughter had put every board book we owned into her mouth several times over, she began to turn the pages by snatching them in her fists then slamming them down, often tossing the book aside when she was done.

Ah, that’s why we give babies board books, I thought.

As much as our first experiences with books are about hearing words read aloud and seeing illustrations on pages, those first experiences are also about engaging with books as physical objects – feeling, sniffing, and tasting them too.

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We know from research that reading books with children has tremendous benefits for their cognitive growth, from honing conceptual development to increasing vocabulary. The more we engage children with books, the better off they are for it. But engaging babies and toddlers is a multisensory experience, and books that go beyond the standard structure of text and illustrations – books with formats that reinforce their topics and content – can enhance the connection between the young child and the book, as well as the connection between the young child and the caregiver reading the book. At PJ Publishing we strive to make these connections, with Judaism at the heart of each.

Just Look At You

Purim Masquerade

Written by Bara Bat-Shem Illustrated by Jane Massey

In Just Look at You, a child smells with their nose (af), feels with their fingers (etz-ba-ot), tastes with their mouth (peh), hears with their ears (oz-nay-im), and sees with their eyes (ay-nay-im). The final page holds a mirror for children to look into and find and identify those same sensory body parts on themselves.

Written and Illustrated by Samara Q. Klein (me!)

With two simple holes, a board book is also a mask! In Purim Masquerade, children and caregivers become a part of the board book as they hold it up to their faces, peer through the eye holes, and transform into characters from the Book of Esther.

LET’S PLAY A GAME

I’m going to tell you about two forthcoming PJ Publishing books, and you decide what formats you would use to reinforce the topics and content and to enhance the connections between the books and their readers. Then check the answers to the right to see what we came up with.

About the Book Harvest Blessings

Written by Amy Meltzer Illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford

Harvest Blessings is comprised of two lyrical poems: one an ode to the fruits and vegetables that are gifts from the earth, ending with the Ha’adamah blessing; the other an ode to the fruits and vegetables that are gifts from the trees, ending with the Ha'etz blessing.

Making it Multisensory We decided on a flip-book format. One side, Gifts from the Earth, shows vibrant cross sections of fruits and vegetables growing in the ground. Flip to the other side, Gifts from the Trees, where colorful trees and bushes abound with fruits. The two books meet in the middle with the blessings.

Dónde está Shmata? (Where is Blankie?)

Written by Tana Ross Illustrated by Elisa Kleven

When a little girl loses her beloved Shmata, she becomes increasingly desperate as she searches for it throughout her animal-filled home and tropical yard ... until Bubbe arrives with Shmata in hand.

We decided on a lift-the-flap format, so that readers get to search for Shmata too!

Children explore the world in many ways, through sight, sound, and tactile experiences and with the guidance of loving adults.

PJ Publishing takes all of these factors into consideration to craft books that are just right for our youngest readers. After all, my daughter wasn’t the first baby to eat a book. And she won’t be the last!

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ON THE

Shelf Being 6 years old with PJ Library

The most common questions about PJ Library we get are: Where is PJ Library? Can we visit?

JAN 2019

Bitter and Sweet

Written by Sandra V. Feder Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker Moving away from old friends is bitter, but making new ones is sweet. A lot of life is like that, as the character in this story discovers. It turns out that a balance of flavors is the key – and the earlier we learn that lesson, the happier we are.

You can visit because the library is in your home! PJ Library is sending your children a library of Jewish books of their own, one each month throughout their childhood. Here is a glimpse of that library for a 6-year-old in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. By the time kids are 6, they can handle books with more text on the page, subtler illustrations, and weightier themes – all of which translate into more sophisticated PJ Library selections.

While this library belongs to one child, one of the extraordinary things about PJ Library is the shared experience of having the same library as other kids around the world who are the same age.

When we read [Mitzvah Pizza], we told our kids we were actually going to Philadelphia on an upcoming trip. My son, Daniel, immediately asked if he could take some of his share money and buy sticky notes for people to try pizza. Fast forward to today and here we are. It was so awesome watching him come and do his mitzvah.

Thank you to PJ Library for reinforcing the values we are trying to teach at home.

- JESSICA, PJ LIBRARY PARENT IN ATLANTA

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MAY 2019

The Sages of Chelm and the Moon

Written by Shlomo Abas Illustrated by Omer Hoffmann Some Chelm stories aren’t quite as relatable to today’s audiences as others.

This one holds up very well, which is why it was also selected by our sister program in Israel, Sifriyat Pijama.

SEP 2019

The Mouse Who Danced the Hora

Written by Pamela Mayer Illustrated by Christine Davenier Put out by our very own imprint, PJ Publishing, this book centers on a joyful mitzvah – entertaining a bride and groom. Even rodentphobes will find themselves rooting for Tillie Mouscovitz.

FEB 2019

MAR

APR

2019

2019

Mitzvah Pizza

Written by Sarah Lynn Scheerger Illustrated by Deborah Melmon This book is based on the real-life Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, owned and run by Mason Wartman in Philadelphia. “The focus on tzedakah and giving back to others” was reflected in his restaurant, said Wartman, whose pizzeria fed countless homeless customers before closing last spring.

Passover Magic

Shimri’s Big Idea

Written by Roni Schotter Illustrated by Marylin Hafner What’s magical about Passover? The same thing that’s magical about so many Jewish holidays: family togetherness. But there’s a little sparkle of extra magic in this story too.

JUN

JUL

2019

2019

Mr. Tempkin Climbs a Tree

Written by Aubrey Davis Illustrated by Marie Lafrance

Written by Cary Fagan Illustrated by Carles Arbat

If this story feels familiar, it’s because it’s a spin on a really, really old one – the Talmudic tale of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and the chicken that eventually morphed into a herd of goats!

Cary Fagan has written multiple PJ Library selections, including The Market Wedding, Ten Old Men and a Mouse, Oy, Feh, So?, and My New Shirt. We’re excited to share his latest with PJ Library families.

2019

This story proves that even small people can make a big impact. It also might get families interested in Hezekiah's Tunnel, just one of so many amazing sites to see in Israel.

AUG 2019

A Hen for Izzy Pippik

OCT

Written by Elka Weber Illustrated by Inbal Gigi Bousidan

What a Way to Start a New Year

Written by Jacqueline Jules Illustrated by Judy Stead Some days don’t go the way we hope they will, even special days like Rosh Hashanah. This story will resonate with kids who are still learning the twin arts of resilience and gratitude.

NOV

DEC

2019

2019

Things Should Match

Written by Sheldon Oberman Illustrated by Paul Meisel When the Book Selection Committee first read this story, it was part of a larger collection of stories by the late, great Sheldon Oberman. We loved it so much, we arranged to have it illustrated as a stand-alone picture book for PJ Library families.

Hanukkah Hamster

Written by Michelle Markel Illustrated by André Ceolin Here’s a Hanukkah story, an immigrant story, and an Israel story that also happens to focus on the solidly Jewish values of returning lost objects, caring for animals, and welcoming the stranger. That’s some heavy lifting for one delightful book!

A special surprise was sent to PJ Library and PJ Our Way subscribers in December: aprons! We hope these aprons inspire families to try new Jewish recipes, get messy with crafts, and make lifelong memories.

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Children's Podcasts Igniting Imaginations j Sparking Conversations

By Rebecca Sheir HOST/ WRITER /PRODUCER, WBUR’S CIRCLE ROUND PODCAST

IN AN ERA WHEN SO MANY OF US ARE ABSORBED BY SMARTPHONES, tablets, and laptops, you may not be surprised to hear that young people are not immune.

More than 40% of children in the US have their own tablet, and kids 8 and younger spend roughly 50 minutes a day captivated by a mobile device’s glowing screen (according to the 2017 study The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight).

To these children – and their families – I am pleased to offer an antidote that’s both high-tech and high engagement: Children’s podcasts.

Remember when family entertainment meant huddling around the radio and feasting your ears on the latest serial drama or comedy program? Well, from science podcasts like Wow in The World to literary podcasts like Book Club For Kids to storytelling podcasts like Circle Round – which I produce for WBUR, Boston’s NPR station – today’s children’s podcasts harken back to those sepia-toned days ... no glowing screen necessary.

Well, almost no glowing screen necessary; you do need an internet-connected device to download a podcast.

But good news: once you hit ‘play,’ you and your kids can let that screen go dark and let your imaginations light up, whether you’re driving to soccer practice, staying in on a rainy day, or winding down before bedtime.

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And the experience and engagement don’t have to end when the episode does. A survey by the podcast consortium Kids Listen shows that 80% of children listen to the same podcast episode more than once, and nearly 20% gobble up the same episode more than ten times! Not only that, but 75% initiate a conversation about what they learned, reenact something they heard, or ask to take part in an activity inspired by the podcast.

On Circle Round, we adapt folktales from around the world as sound- and music-rich radio plays for modern audiences.

As the host, I end every episode with “Now, it’s your turn,” an invitation for listeners to take part in a specific activity (e.g., telling a personal story, creating a dramatic scene, drawing a picture) that helps them reflect on the themes in the folktale they just heard. Then I ask them to share their story, scene, or picture with someone they love.

The goal is to spark dialogue and get children to connect with others as they explore timeless, universal themes and virtues – from self-acceptance and generosity to persistence and imagination.

It’s just one way of using the podcast format to encourage young people to engage with the world and people around them. All they have to do is turn off those glowing screens ... and turn on their imaginations.

Circle Round is one of our favorite children’s podcasts. That’s why we’re so excited to team up with producers Rebecca Sheir and Eric Shimelonis to bring Onions & Garlic, a classic Jewish folktale, to a new generation of PJ Library readers. Families with 8-year-olds, look for it in your mailboxes come May 2020!

FIRST LOOK Illustrator Sabina Hahn brings a scene from Onions & Garlic to life.

The Creation of PJ Library's New Podcast

By Alli Thresher DIGITAL CONTENT LEAD, PJ LIBR ARY PROUD PJ LIBR ARY PARENT

IN EARLY 2017, A COLLEAGUE ASKED ME WHETHER I LIKED PODCASTS, and

I very near fell out of my chair – I love podcasts. Little did I know this question would kick off a process that would lead to the creation of the podcast series that PJ Library families are currently listening to on repeat.

One of my favorite parts about working for PJ Library is bringing wonderful, new stories to families. Long before I worked for PJ Library, or became a parent myself, I remember curling up with my niece, reading a brightly colored bedtime story about a beautiful chicken alone in New York City. She’d crack up as I gave all of the characters voices and demand, “Again!

Again!” (Eventually, a rule was made that Auntie Alli could not do storytime at bedtime because little L would get too riled up.)

I’m obsessed with stories and not just picture books. I love filmmaking and theater, and I love listening to a good story. My devices are all loaded with podcasts, and as I visit with friends or take family trips with my sons and nephews, I’m likely to find the kids sitting around a tablet or a CD player (remember those?) listening to stories – drawing, asking questions, and shushing each other to hear the next part.

But it’s more than just my love of storytelling that got me excited about creating a podcast for PJ Library. In my work, I’m creating content that is relevant to how families spend their time together, adding a bit more Jewishness to their daily lives. And so, when parents are already turning to podcasts and audio stories to keep their kids occupied, it made sense that PJ Library could occupy that space too. Similar to how Jewish stories take over bedtime, a PJ Library podcast of Jewish stories could take over road trips.

Initially, we developed three pilots with creators and organizations outside of PJ Library, and after a year of research and production, we assembled a focus group of PJ Library families, compiled feedback, reviewed what we learned, and began budgeting for what would come next.

We learned that parents are hungry for audio content that keeps their kids engaged. Parents told us that they wanted stories that felt familiar and had simple, easy-to-reinforce messages about Jewish values. Kids echoed those sentiments but were also pretty passionate about quirky sound effects and original music. For me, the biggest learning throughout

the process was that most of the work could be done in-house. With writing help and a team of contractors for sound design and recording, we could focus on doing what PJ Library does best – finding fantastic Jewish stories to bring into the homes of listeners.

And so, Have I Got A Story For You! was born.

In each episode, families are introduced to a classic Jewish folktale or story that’s been updated with a contemporary twist.

In addition, each story has its own resources page on the PJ Library website (also gotastorypodcast.com) with more information about the source material as well as activity ideas, PJ Library books the family might enjoy, and more. In doing this, the podcast easily fits into the content PJ Library is already creating, including the books, in-the-envelope activities, and resources on the PJ Library website.

You can check out season one on gotastorypodcast.com. Make sure to subscribe for special previews and news about season two, due out in 2020.

An

International Incubator

Coffs Harbour

Perth Sydney

Melbourne

Tasmania

The Story Behind PJ Library in Australia (New Zealand too!)

By Justine Saidman DIRECTOR OF PJ LIBR ARY IN AUSTR ALIA , SHALOM

THE FIRST TIME I ATTENDED the PJ Library International Conference in 2015, I was

one of only six international representatives. There were two others from Russia, two from Mexico City, and one from Singapore. I had traveled the furthest and I was somewhat of a novelty: “You came all the way from Australia?” people asked me.

“That’s so far. How long was the flight … you travelled for 24 hours to be here? Wow!” They applauded when I was introduced, a sense of wonder on their faces, and I could see them all thinking … there are Jews in Australia? Really? Australia?

While Australia is indeed an island on the edge of the Diaspora, what most people don’t realize is that it was the first PJ Library community outside of Israel, the United States, and Canada.

The Australian Jewish community is approximately 120,000 strong. Small

by American standards but very active. Some reports indicate that Australian Jews give more money per capita to Israel than any other Jewish community in the world.

The east coast cities of Melbourne and Sydney are home to Australia’s largest Jewish communities with about 55,000 and 50,000 Jews, respectively.

Meanwhile, Perth, on the west coast, has the third largest Jewish 1 6 PJLI BRARY.O RG

community with about 10,000 Jews.

The distance between Perth and Sydney is approximately the same as that between Los Angeles and New York.

Overwhelmingly, the Australian Jewish community is made up of Holocaust survivors and their descendants and immigrants from South Africa, Russia, and Israel. In fact, about 10% of Australian Jews speak Russian, and another 10% speak Hebrew at home. The latest research indicates that at least 50% of Jewish children living in Australia do not attend a Jewish day school.

When PJ Library first started sending books to Australia in 2011, our operation was very elementary.

Subscribers registered through an online form and our staff managed their information manually on an Excel spreadsheet. The books were shipped directly to our office in small boxes – sometimes there were 50 or 60 boxes!

We stacked them on one side of the office and then, as a team, unpacked them.

Before preparing the books for shipping, we counted every single book, checking our number against the list of books that were sent. (If there was a discrepancy, we went back and recounted or searched for a missing box.) Then a team of dedicated grandparent volunteers spent a morning putting our funder stickers on each book, labeling envelopes, and packaging the books for postage. While books were packaged, someone would read aloud from the various titles. Together we drank tea and ate cake and discussed the merits of one book over another. This was our small inner PJ Library community.

We absolutely love PJ Library books. Being in Coffs Harbour, it is truly the only contact with Jewish life my son gets besides Shabbat dinner.

- MELISSA, PJ LIBRARY PARENT

At the end of assembly, there were too many envelopes for us to drop into the mail, so a local Jewish postman came with his car to collect the boxes of packages and mail them for us. He later became the grandparent of a PJ Library child and we hand-delivered his grandchild’s first book to him.

In many ways, PJ Library in Australia was a real laboratory for the global expansion of the program. In our tiny office, there was room to try various ways of distributing books, get real-time feedback from a small but very passionate community of readers, and experiment with different models of engagement and community partnerships.

This incubator state was heightened by the fact that in Sydney, PJ Library was fully funded and supported by our dedicated community funding organization The Jewish Communal Appeal (JCA). All operational concerns and engagement protocols were expertly managed by Shalom, a long-standing and successful community engagement organization that has championed programs like Limmud, Melton, and LaunchPad in Australia.

Shalom’s openness to experimentation and innovation enabled PJ Library to be open to the various modes of ‘doing Jewish’ outside of what is commonly accepted in the US. Issues like the absence of a Thanksgiving ritual in secular culture, the lack of snow during an Australian Hanukkah, and the variances of language norms all became important topics of conversation which ultimately strengthened the practice

of PJ Library and the way it operates inclusively as an organization.

This year I attended the PJ Library conference with a colleague. There was a large international contingent with representatives from Sifriyat Pijama in Israel as well as teams from Russia, South Africa, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. I was reminded about the magic of Jewish connections, which stretch like elastic across oceans and somehow even through language. We spend so much time focusing on the impact of PJ Library and the people who benefit directly from receiving our beautiful books that we can forget the magic that comes from the community of professionals who have connected through their passion for Jewish literacy and community.

Upon reaching 750 subscribers, it sadly became untenable for us to manually manage the packing and distribution of books. We made the switch to a mailing house, which became instrumental in supporting all the growth that was about to come.

In 2017, The Australian Jewish Funders brought three foundations together to support PJ Library’s expansion across all of Australia, leveraging existing infrastructure to build an efficient national program. Funders and organizations don’t typically partner on continent-wide initiatives so this special collaboration shows just one more way PJ Library can bring positive change to the Jewish community. As we look to continue growing, we will need more committed and visionary funders to join us.

After nationwide expansion, we added New Zealand to our PJ family. We are now serving approximately 2,800 families including eight families living on the tiny island of Tasmania off the southern coast of Australia. The power of PJ Library in remote places like this is demonstrated by the words of one subscriber: “Living in a small regional community, we’ve learned one of the best ways to share the warmth of Judaism is through stories. Our children have entered the worlds of shtetls, kvetching, and most importantly, mitzvot through the vibrant books we look forward to receiving monthly. For this, we thank PJ Library!”

Sharon Arnott Photography

I am honored to now count among my dearest friends those special people who represent PJ Library throughout the world from New Zealand to the UK and beyond. Together we inspire each other to continue to celebrate the richness of Jewish tradition, one story at a time.

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PARTNER

Spotlight

PJ Library in Southern Arizona Implemented by: Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona

Together at the Annual Aspen in August Gathering (L-R): Steve Sim and Marilyn Einstein with Harold Grinspoon, PJ Library’s Founder, and Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, President of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO, Jill Rosenzweig

and Mary Ellen Loebl invited me to lunch.

They were both donors, Jill being the first in Tucson. Mary Ellen was and still is our PJ Library Program Professional.

I came home impressed by what they described and with a folder of info to share with Steve. It was an easy decision for us: Free Jewish books every month for parents (or grandparents) to share with their children.

We also appreciated that the national funder, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, chose to involve the local community financially as well as in planning events.

We have personally attended a number of the local events and are always impressed by how creative and well attended they are and the way they are received by the participating families – with excitement, enthusiasm, and commitment. PJ Library is an incredible outreach program and we are proud to be supporters through the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona.

Marilyn Einstein and Steve Sim Tucson, Arizona

WE GIVE BECAUSE THE STORIES CHERISH OUR JEWISH HERITAGE AND RESPECT AND EXPLORE OUR JEWISH VALUES. We want

our children and our children’s children to know, understand, and appreciate these customs, traditions, and values.

The books provide a format for communication and discussion about Jewish life that might otherwise not occur – both within and between families. We support PJ Library so that those stories will form a basic structure of Judaism for our children.

Dr. Herschel and Jill Rosenzweig Tucson, Arizona

WHEN ASKED WHY WE SUPPORT PJ LIBRARY, OUR ANSWER IS

PJ LIBRARY CONNECTS, in a

very gentle way, Jews who are marginalized, by themselves or by others. For those who recognize their Jewishness, it reinforces the traditions and stories.

The Grinspoons and their foundation have spent a great deal of time, effort, and resources. They are to be commended on their accomplishments.

Dr. Ron and Kathy Margolis, Margolis Foundation Tucson, Arizona

SIMPLE. WE CARE.

We care about the future of our children, and we care about the future of their children.

PJ Library helps to educate all of our Jewish children, teaching them to understand and treasure their Jewish heritage.

These young PJ Library book recipients represent the future of the Jewish people, and it is critical that they know who they are.

Dr. Edward and Mary Ellen Loebl Tucson, Arizona

Winning Our Own Parenting Marathons (And Sometimes Actual Ones)

By Winnie Sandler Grinspoon PRESIDENT, HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION

Do you ever look at other parents and wonder what their secrets are? How do they make it look easy to juggle parenting and everything else going on in their busy lives?

That’s what went through my mind as I read about a woman named Cynthia Arnold, who made the news for her run at this year’s Missoula Marathon. Cynthia ran the entire marathon while pushing her kids in a triple stroller.

The stroller, plus kids, weighed roughly 185 pounds and she did it in record time – 3 hours and 11 minutes. Incredible!

I am in awe of anyone who runs a marathon, but especially a parent of young children. It takes incredible commitment to train over months and months to be ready for race day. You need time and energy, both of which are in short supply with kids, jobs, households, and every other responsibility. To run a marathon while maintaining a sub-7:20 pace with a six-, four-, and one-year-old in tow is just remarkable to me.

When my three kids were small, the last thing I was thinking about was breaking records. Getting to the end of the day, through dinner and baths and the nightly bedtime routine often felt like its own endurance race.

But, like other parents, I juggled parenting with work and family and taking on personal challenges that I wanted to do for myself. One of those challenges was to become a bat mitzvah.

I had turned down the chance to go to Hebrew school as a child. It was something I came to regret, especially as I was trying to pass on Jewish practices and traditions to my children. This pre-dated PJ Library; I didn't have Jewish books arriving at the door to help me. I knew that without some effort on my part, I would never understand the basics of Judaism and what it had to offer. It was time to take it on.

And so I began a two-year course of study.

I wasn’t alone. I studied with 10 other women, each of whom came to the class with their own stories. Some had been raised in other faiths and had become Jewish as adults. One woman had been raised in an Orthodox community where only boys participated in the coming-of-age ceremony.

Most of the class had either skipped religious education

altogether or had started in Hebrew school but dropped out. All of us were mothers, and most of us had young children at home. One woman brought her baby to class, and we took turns holding her so our friend could take notes.

Like the marathon runner, we each had our support system – friends, spouses, babysitters, family. We cheered each other on, just like the crowd that lined Cynthia’s race.

We found helpers, including our older children. There is a cute video clip, called "The Popsicle Moment," of Cynthia and her kids during the race. Someone from the sidelines hands Cynthia three popsicles as she runs by, and she passes them down to the kids. The youngest one can’t quite figure out how to get past the plastic wrapper and starts to fuss and reach back to mom. Just then, six-yearold big sister Marguerite leans over to help. Marguerite knew to be ready to help with popsicles, games of I-spy, and other activities. It was something she and her mother had talked about and planned for, just in case.

I look back at the photos of me on the morning of my bat mitzvah, posing with my three young children, and I wonder how I managed to do it. I am sure my husband was a big help that morning as we got the kids dressed and ready, and we had a well-packed diaper bag with toys and snacks and books to keep everyone happy while I was up on the bima.

Like all busy parents, my classmates and I had our strategies and our helpers, and we continued to grow as people – both as parents and as individuals with our own ambitions.

Becoming parents did not mean we gave up our personal goals; it just meant that we needed to plan well, prioritize, and squeeze in time for ourselves. As I look back, I am thankful that I took on my own personal challenge as I navigated those busy years with three small children by my side.

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NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID SPRINGFIELD, MA PERMIT NO. 71

67 Hunt Street, Suite 100 Agawam, MA 01001 USA 413-276-0800 www.pjlibrary.org

The Normalizing Effect of PJ Library

By Sarah Rizzo CONTRIBUTOR, INTERFAITHFAMILY | PROUD PJ LIBR ARY PARENT

I REMEMBER THE DAY MY JEWISH GRANDMOTHER broke

the news to me that because my mom was Jewish, I too was Jewish. I cried, thinking it meant that we could no longer celebrate Christmas or Easter. As far as I had understood up until that moment, I was both Jewish and Christian. She was trying to pass along a lesson on Jewish lineage, but I missed the message.

At the time, I enjoyed the doubling up of presents that came with celebrating both winter holidays. I loved getting Easter candy and indulging in treats that were definitely not kosher for Passover. To me, that crossover of both upbringings was very much about the things I would get and had little to do with religious traditions and heritage.

Now in an interfaith marriage myself, I consider myself only Jewish, and my husband and I are raising our children in the Jewish faith. We celebrate Christian holidays with extended family and have a Christmas tree in our house at Christmastime for the sake of continuing a tradition we both had growing up, but otherwise, our children feel Jewish in a way that I did not as a child.

I have PJ Library to thank for a lot of that. Because of these books, my preschooler just recently called me ima (Hebrew for "mother") because she wanted to test out terminology used in one of her books. When it rains heavily outside, she relates to Noah and asks questions about the flood. She sees characters setting the table for Shabbat, and she’s reminded of the rituals that we have at home, reinforcing an experience we share together as a family.

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PJ Library gets her excited about being Jewish and about sharing her Jewish knowledge and traditions with friends and family who do not share the same background. She goes to a secular preschool and during Passover, she told her teacher that she couldn’t have the school-provided snack. Instead, she was excited to share matzah and applesauce with her friends, talking about how Jewish people do not eat chametz during Passover. Her school practices letter association by eating their way through the alphabet. Because she had talked so much about her love for challah her teacher asked if we would bake one for C week that she could share with her classmates. I wonder how confused her friends were when they learned a new sound that the letter C can make!

I’m so thankful for the normalizing effect PJ Library has on our children’s Jewish experience. It is so important to me that my children feel proud of who they are. I want them to go out into the world sharing bits of their traditions with people who don’t have any experience with them.

If they talk about the beauty in our traditions, while spreading ahava (love in Hebrew) and shalom, maybe, just maybe, they can grow up in a more tolerant world.

Thank you, PJ Library, for the many gifts you’ve given to my family, including the gift of hope for a world filled with love and peace.