Kiddishkeit: The PJ Library Brings Jewish Literacy Home

By PENNY SCHWARTZ

At bedtime, Clara Brown likes to snuggle up while her father reads Bagels from Benny and Chicken Soup by Heart, two of her favorite books. But up until one year ago, these award-winning Jewish children’s books would not have been found on the five-year-old girl’s well-stocked bookshelf.

While her parents liked the idea of reading Jewish children’s books to their three young children, they were at a loss when it came to selecting books.

“Am I going to go shopping for this? What will I be looking for?” her father, Scott Brown, says of the challenges he faced as a parent with a limited Jewish education. “In the rough and tumble of everyday life, we just don’t get it together to buy these books,” says the father of three from Northampton, Massachusetts.

But all that changed 13 months ago, when the Browns were among the first families to enroll in the PJ Library, a program sponsored by the Harold Grinspoon Family Foundation.

Launched in December 2005, in western Massachusetts, the home-base for the Grinspoon Foundation, the PJ Library sends pre-selected, age-appropriate Jewish children’s books to Jewish families with children up to the age of five.

Every month, Clara Brown receives a new Jewish children’s book or audio CD delivered by U.S. mail, selected by a committee of Jewish educators, Jewish children’s librarians, and others from the world of Jewish children’s literature.

Scott Brown is grateful for the program, which he fondly describes as Jewish children’s books for dummies. Now, PJ Library books are among the regular selections he and his daughter read at her bedtime.

“People have vetted these high-quality books,” he says, which is a great advantage for parents without the background to develop the kind of critical eye in the field of Jewish children’s books.

Getting first-rate Jewish children’s books into the hands of young Jewish families who might otherwise not be reading these books with their kids is exactly what Harold Grinspoon envisioned when he launched the program.

The inspiration for PJ Library came in a serendipitous moment, about four years ago, Grinspoon says, when he heard a story on National Public Radio about a program created by country-western singer Dolly Parton which distributes books to inner-city children.

While establishing Parton’s program in western Massachusetts, it occurred to Grinspoon that this would make an ideal project for the Jewish community.

“We Jews need to get Yiddishkeit into the homes, we need a soft sell for unaffiliated Jewish families,” Grinspoon recalls thinking at the time.

In just over one year, the PJ Library has extended its reach from 200 children in the pilot program in western Massachusetts to almost 3,700 in 28 communities across the country, including San Francisco, Columbus, Denver, Sarasota, Shreveport, and Detroit, explains Marcie Greenfield Simons, interim director of the PJ Library.

The cost of the program is $60 per child per year, generally paid by a philanthropic partner, sometimes through a local Jewish Federation.

The lack of easy access to Jewish children’s books is a deterrent for young Jewish families in Shreveport, Louisiana, agrees Rabbi Foster E. Kawaler, whose family foundation is supporting the PJ Library in that southern city.

“Our local bookstores don’t carry books like this, and they are virtually impossible to buy from a catalog or online, where you can’t see them, handle them, or read what they say,” Kawaler writes in an email.

In less than one year, 400 families have signed up for the program in Detroit, says Lisa Soble Siegmann of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. An additional 400 families will be added with new funding.

“No matter how busy parents may be, there is still bedtime. Parents read to their kids, it’s that simple. We are not asking them to come to a program, or to sign up for a class. As long as parents are reading anyway, why not make it a Jewish experience?” says Soble Siegmann.

“Our mantra is that no child should be forced to read a Jewish children’s book,” asserts Natalie Blitt, program director with the PJ Library.

Children should choose a book because of a wonderful story, illustrations, and characters that attract readers, Blitt continues. PJ Library books have to match the quality of secular books that are already on the family’s bookshelves, Blitt says.

“We are looking for the diversity of the Jewish community, to show families that there isn’t one version of what it’s like to be Jewish,” Blitt tells JBooks.com.

Some complaints have come from families who are not comfortable with books about God, for instance, Blitt says.

But for Susan Cook, a parent in Northampton, the books provided the first opportunity she had to talk about God with her two children. Cook, a non-Jewish parent in an interfaith family, finds the book helpful in learning about the holidays and Jewish values such as giving.

“It’s a real challenge to find high quality books, especially when you’re looking not just for the religious market,” observes Heidi Estrin, librarian at the Feldman Children's Library of Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida, and a member of the PJ Library selection committee.

Estrin, who is the past chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Awards committee, says that of the approximately 150 new Jewish children’s books published each year, very few are for younger kids.

While many books for young children may be perfect for religious-school educators, they will not become well-loved favorites at home.

Estrin recalls one discussion among the selection committee about a book that depicted angels, a sensitive topic among some observant Jews who believe that angels aren’t part of Jewish theology. In the end, she says, the quality of the book trumped the less significant issue of the angels.

A debate over a book about Jerusalem which describes the importance of the holy city to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, has been put off for now, Estrin says.

“I used to hear that Jewish children’s books don’t sell. I think we’re changing that,” says Natalie Blitt.

Blitt sees changes on the horizon. The PJ Library is purchasing more than 1,000 books in each age category and expects this to increase to 2,000 next year, she says.

Now, even secular publishers are starting to take notice, bringing new titles to their attention.

While orders from PJ Library have not yet affected publishing numbers at Kar-Ben, a Jewish publishing house, director Joni Sussman sees great potential as the number of children involved in the program increases.

Grinspoon, a tough, 77-year-old businessman, is getting pleasure from the role he may be playing as the pied piper of the Jewish children’s book world.

He says he gets a kick out of running into parents who thank him for bringing Jewish children’s books into their homes.

“I am an uneducated Jewish person,” Grinspoon says. “I am a person who loves the Jewish people.” Grinspoon recalls that he was from a poor family but has done very well financially as an entrepreneur. “I have a responsibility to give back my wealth,” he says.