This article was provided by PJ Library.
By Julie Wohl
When Tikvah Womack talks about her Jewish journey, she does so with a tear in her eye. A committed Orthodox Jew, Womack – along with her husband, Tzadik, and their two children — is entrenched in the Jewish community. They send their children to Jewish day schools, they attend synagogue and community events, they even recently participated in the writing of a Torah scroll at Ohr Chadash Academy.
When Tikvah describes her adventures with her children in the Baltimore Jewish community, she talks passionately about PJ Library. Tikvah describes bringing her first child to a Tot Shabbat program. Each week, they would surround themselves with the songs of Shabbat in a community of young families.
She talks about the open, welcoming space, the fact that she did not grow up with these songs and how that did not matter. She talks about bringing her own mother to PJ Library’s Tot Shabbat at the pool and feeling embraced and welcomed on her own terms.
For Tikvah, the welcome that PJ Library offered was a low barrier, loving and accepting one — a fertile ground for her Jewish family to grow and flourish.
For 13 years, PJ Library has been part of Jewish Baltimore, sharing Jewish stories and building memories and family experiences. For participants, PJ Library offers the gift of free books that get delivered every month to their children, an experience of opening special packages and snuggling together at bedtime.
If this alone was the impact of PJ Library in Baltimore, the nearly 500,000 books that have been delivered to children since 2008, it would be enough. However, in this community, PJ Library — which is implemented as a family engagement program through the Macks Center for Jewish Education — is so much more.
Throughout these 13 years, PJ Library has created a number of community experiences for families. These experiences range from huge “PJ On the Town” extravaganzas to small intimate experiences and pop-ups designed for families to meet each other. PJ Library regularly holds holiday celebrations and partners on Jewish communal events with other Jewish agencies and synagogues. And of course, there is Tot Shabbat, the weekly experience where families come together to sing songs, celebrate and meet new friends.
It would be an understatement to say that PJ Library has changed the way families engage in Jewish life in Baltimore. As part of the educational engagement department of CJE, PJ Library was instrumental in creating the CJE’s four-pronged connector model, which prioritizes families and community building in localized, personalized ways. The Community Connectors (there are 12), the Sababa Grandparents (there are five), the Russian-speaking Matryoshka Connectors (there are two) and the Camp Connector (there will soon be one) are changing the face of family engagement and Jewish experiences in Baltimore, one family and one relationship at a time.
While much of the attention surrounds the young families of PJ Library, there are many children who want to stay connected and reading well into their tweens and teens. In 2014, “PJ Our Way” launched in Baltimore, a program for children ages eight-and-a-half to 13 years old. This program offers older children the chance to choose books, get involved in planning programs for themselves, and prioritizes ownership and choice. Since its creation, “PJ Our Way” has become an essential part of reaching Jewish tweens in Baltimore.
With all that there is to be proud of as PJ Library approaches its 13th, year, it is clear that a celebration is in order. For this reason, on Sunday, Nov. 14th from 2-4: p.m., PJ Library will be celebrating its very own “Book Mitzvah.” The afternoon will be filled with lively music, bounce houses, lawn games, mitzvah- and book-related activities and more!
This event is free and open to the community, but registration is required. Please register here: https://bit.ly/pj-book-mitzvah
And, if you know a Jewish child who is not yet signed up for PJ Library (birth to age 8) or “PJ Our Way,” please consider signing them up today! With incredible support from The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore and our generous donors, we genuinely wish to offer this gift to EVERY Jewish child in Baltimore. Sign-ups are easy. Please go to pjlibrary.org/Baltimore or pjourway.org.
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