During challenging times, books can be a safe place to explore complicated issues. As the children in our lives are processing the recent Pittsburgh shooting and as their awareness of anti-Semitism grows, it’s helpful to see examples of these themes in well-loved books. It is impossible, however, to speak about anti-Semitism without first introducing the…
(JTA) — The Saturday evening event at a Jewish day school in western Massachusetts will in many ways look like a typical havdalah. There will be a musical ceremony marking the end of Shabbat with a braided candle, grape juice and spice bags. But the event at the Lander Grinspoon Academy in Northampton will also…
A bored boy studying Talmud. A man reading a newspaper on the Sabbath. A Jewish king dressed like Christian royalty. An Orthodox Herzliya City Council member has cited these children’s books illustrations as evidence that the Israeli version of PJ library promotes “pluralism” in an online petition to ban the program from Israeli schools, saying…
Harold Grinspoon is not a scholar, he is a businessman – a fact which he reminded me of multiple times throughout our conversation. Yet, despite his protestations, Grinspoon has done more than most in terms of cultivating the next generation of Jewish learners. He isn’t a lecturer, an author, a rabbi, or in any way…
(JTA) — About 2,000 Jewish families in Moscow will receive free tickets to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center located in the Russian capital. The families, subscribers to the PJ Library, a program providing free Jewish children’s books to families, which last year expanded to Russia, starting on the second day of Chanukah, or Monday, Dec. 26, will…
(JTA) — The line between respecting diverse religious beliefs and violating the rights and dignity of gays and lesbians is at the center of a debate between gay advocates and the PJ Library over a children’s picture book featuring a family with two fathers. “The Purim Superhero,” by Elisabeth Kushner, was published by Kar-Ben Publishing…
A foundation that distributes free Jewish books to Jewish children in North America and Israel is launching an initiative to deliver Arabic books to Israeli-Arab preschoolers. The Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s PJ Library and Sifriyat Pajama, PJ’s sister program in Israel, have collectively given away more than 10 million books in nine years. The new initiative…
The William Davidson Foundation made $30 million in grants for the Jewish community of Detroit. The foundation, named for the late owner of the Detroit Pistons basketball team, also allocated $18 million to help improve economic conditions in southeast Michigan. The funding for Jewish life includes a $5 million, five-year grant to support the PJ…
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