By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews
The idea is that if you send it, they will come. What’s being sent, about 1,500 children’s books to local Jewish families, has been an unqualified success, according to Rosalie Eisen, director of community development for PJ Library, a program of the Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
“Seattle has reached an incredible milestone, particularly for a West Coast community with all the unique challenges of West Coast communities,” Eisen said. “It’s reaching the highest percentage of eligible Jewish children of all the 176 PJ Library communities across the country.”
Local PJ Library programs send out free books to Jewish families with children between the ages of 6 months and 5-1/2 years old, though some communities run the program until the age of 8. The idea is that the books will spur member families to greater involvement in their communities. The Seattle program has been running for three years, with a total of 1,900 children having been recipients of the books.
To mark the achievement, Eisen visited Seattle on May 3 to recognize the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, which administers the program locally.
Since its inception in Seattle in 2009, the Grinspoon Foundation has contributed $166,000, with the rest of the funding coming from the Federation and other local organizations and donors to cover the cost of the books, plus a staff person to administer the program. Eisen said that with the establishment of an endowment for the program, the foundation would continue to support the program into the foreseeable future, book for book.
With the books sent every month, are the people coming? The answer depends upon how such a claim is measured. It would be difficult to suggest that a family joined a synagogue, for example, based upon whether the children were excited about receiving their book in the mail. But Eisen pointed to a national study conducted by the Jewish Education Service of North America of PJ Library members that showed 90 percent of respondents saying the books had inspired conversations about Judaism, and about a third saying the books had influenced families’ decision to observe Shabbat or Jewish holidays.
Measuring PJ Library events, however, is much easier. According to Amy Hilzman-Paquette, who runs the Seattle program, they are wildly successful,.
“Right now we’re doing weekly story times, sometimes twice a week,” Hilzman-Paquette said. “We have our music, we have our story, we have arts and crafts that really bring back the values of the story.”
At a weekly event at the Mockingbird Books in Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood, Hilzman-Paquette said as many as 60 children and their caregivers attend.
“The outgrowth from that is an opportunity for the parents to start talking to each other, which is really the key,” she said. “Of course we want to be sure they’re connecting with the books, but if they can make a new friend and be connected in a new way, then we’re really doing our job.”
While PJ Library sends about 70,000 books each month across the U.S., it gives out 120,000 Hebrew-language books, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, to Israeli children in the public schools. That number is expected to rise to 180,000 this year. That project, called Sifriyat Pijama, made its way to the U.S. because there was “a lot of concern in this country about second- and third-generation Israelis becoming totally assimilated,” Eisen said.
A new program announced this week will bring these illustrated Hebrew-language books to kids ages 3—6 to several day schools across the country, including the Seattle Jewish Community School.
“Part of their initiative is to connect Israeli and secular Hebrew speakers to options in the Jewish community, specifically Jewish day schools,” said Deborah Frockt, director of admissions and advancement at SJCS.
This program is intended for families with at least one Hebrew speaker in the home, but “if somebody wants a Hebrew book and can use it in their family, then yeah, they can sign up,” Frockt said.
Sifriya Pijama B’America, funded by the Los Angeles-based Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, will have signups exclusively at three events in May and June at the school.
“Folks have to come to an event at the school in order to qualify to receive the books,” Frockt said.
Two of the events will be in conjunction with the standing monthly PJ Library program but with stories and music in both Hebrew and English. A third, on May 20, with stories, music, and catered Israeli food, will be done almost entirely in Hebrew. Kids are encouraged to come in their PJs.