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Health & Fitness

Twenty Local Temples and JCCs Are Co-funding Bedtime Book Reading Program for Children

To help small children learn about Judaism, twenty local Jewish temples and JCCs are participating in a monthly storybook distribution program called PJ Library. The illustrated, educational books are intended for reading to pajama-clad children at bedtime. On occasion, a music CD is substituted.

Yorktown's Rosenthal JCC is one of the participating organizations.

The books are distributed free of charge by mail to families raising Jewish children. The upper age limit for the children is set by each of the twenty participants who also help support the program financially; the upper age ranges from 5 to 8. The subjects covered include Jewish traditions, history, holidays, values, the bible and folktales.

“There’s no catch, no hidden agenda; the books are free,” says Rabbi David Holtz of Tarrytown's Temple Beth Abraham, a conservative and reform synagogue. "Participants do not have to be a member of a synagogue, or any Jewish organization to get the PJ Library books. They simply need to have a member of the Jewish faith in their family." The upper age limit for this temple is eight. 

Each community decides whether it will be one book per family or one book per child per month. For Temple Beth Abraham it is one book per family. 

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“Reading to our children about their Jewish heritage is very important and sometimes the simplest ideas can have the highest impact,” said Melissa Baer, a member of Temple Beth Abraham and its PJ Library Coordinator. “These books are a brilliant idea and we are proud to be involved.” 

The participating PJ Library congregations in this region include 19 located in Westchester County and one in Putnam County (Brewster). Each one is responsible for a portion of the cost for providing PJ Library books to the residents that live in its specific surroundings.

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation covers approximately 60 percent of the monthly program's cost, the Steinhardt Foundation pays a portion of the balance and at Temple Beth Abraham, the Harriet Verter Jewish Education Fund picks up the remaining costs.

The Harriet Verter Jewish Education Fund provides grants for various Tarrytown-area programs that foster and promote Jewish education. It was established in 2009 by Melissa Baer and Herb Baer (her husband) along with Mrs. Baer’s parents, Stephen and Arlene Simms of Port St. Lucie, Florida. Harriet Verter, who will be 95 in November is Melissa Baer's grandmother.

Currently, the Tarrytown temple co-funds the monthly mailing of about 100 books to families living in Tarrytown or neighboring communities. It is prepared to enroll up to 400.PJ Library was created in 2005 by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. It was inspired at that time by Dolly Parton’sImagination Library which sends books to children in underprivileged areas of the United States.

When formed, PJ Library mailed books to 200 families. Its monthly audience has since grown to more than 110,000 children in the United States, Canada and at American military installations.

Organizations (temples or JCCs) in this region co-sponsoring PJ Library programs are shown below:

Since its inception, PJ Library has mailed 3,679,234 books bearing 283 different titles.

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If in doubt about which organization serves the community where they live, interested families can refer to the above websites or to "How to sign up to receive free books" at the PJ Library website,www.pjlibrary.org/parents-and-families/enrollment.aspx

 “These are beautiful books that will enhance the Jewish life of any young family and we think it’s important to get young Jewish families off to a great start,”   Melissa Baer pointed out.
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