Jewish children statewide to get free books, music
Reprinted from the 3/16/07 issue of The Jewish Voice & Herald

By Jonathan Rubin

jrubin@jfri.org

PROVIDENCE — If you’re Jewish and have young children, start checking your mailbox.

Jewish bedtime stories and music CDs — all free — will soon be on their way every month to hundreds of Rhode Island families, courtesy of a new philanthropic initiative announced in February.

The “PJ Library - Jewish Bedtime Stories & Songs for Families” will deliver stories of Noah’s Ark and dinosaurs strolling on Shabbat along with holiday sing-a-longs and children’s questions about God. The illustrated books and music are chosen by a national panel of educators. More than 8,000 books will be sent out this spring, and it is hoped that hundreds of the estimated 1,000 children between the ages of six months to six years will sign up to continue the program, free of cost.

The Library is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, a trendsetting philanthropic organization that looks for creative ways to create “Jewish experiences” in communities around the country. Their attention was drawn to Rhode Island through the Bureau of Jewish Education, which so impressed Foundation founder Harold Grinspoon and his wife, Diane Troderman, that they chose Rhode Island to receive seed funding to purchase, mail and track the materials. A few local donors have already stepped up to keep the program rolling past the initial months, including former Federation president David Hirsch and his wife, Hope; and a grant was awarded from the Rhode Island Foundation; nearly half of the $100,000 needed has already been raised.

The program exploded recently from a few cities to 23 communities nationwide, and educators and families involved with the program have been making a very big deal out of it.

“PJ Library is coming to Rhode Island!” said Linn Freedman to much applause at the Builders of Jewish Education awards banquet Feb. 28.

“We are so impressed with this latest project of yours and the potential it has with our community,” she said.

Troderman, chair of the national Jewish Education Services of North America (JESNA) and co-founder of the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, was guest speaker that evening. She said that educational models like the book program empower someone “to be an active agent in his or her learning.”

She said that the PJ Library is “the signature piece of our foundation” and that it represents a shift towards non-traditional kinds of Jewish experiences that “make memories,” from Jewish camps to Israel missions to youth groups and teen philanthropy.

When the program ended, free books were given to the more than 200 who attended.

Some books on the list include The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel, Happy Birthday, World by Latifa Berry Kropf, Sammy Spider’s First Trip to Israel by Sylvia Rouss, and the music CD “ShirLaLa Chanukah!” by Shira Kline.

For more information visit www.pjlibrary.org  or call Rich Walter at the Bureau of Jewish Education at 331-0956.