July 2023 - June 2024
Cover image: PJ Library subscribers, Chicago, IL
Dear Members of the PJ Library Community,
This has been a particularly challenging year for the Jewish people. The darkness of October 7 and its aftermath continue to reverberate in our community. How do we navigate the antisemitism we are experiencing, and how do we guide our children through it? How can we elevate moments of Jewish joy amid the grief, fear, and heartache?
When parents and families sought to provide a sense of normalcy for their children this past year, PJ Library was there. We provided stories that uplift Jewish culture, tools to have difficult conversations, and family events at a time when togetherness was vital.
This past year, as PJ Library marked our 18th year, we conducted a comprehensive survey of subscriber families to understand who they are, what they need, the impact PJ Library has for them, and how PJ Library can do even more to support families as they build their Jewish lives. In this report, we are pleased to share the results of this survey.
Amid the uncertainty of these times, one constant stands out: Jewish families desire connection to Jewish life.
As the largest Jewish book program in the world, we are humbled and energized to offer a source of Jewish connection, education, and pride to families around the globe.
Together with you, we are building a proud and strong next generation. Thank you for being part of the story.
Winnie Sandler Grinspoon President Harold Grinspoon Foundation
Alex Zablotsky Executive Director PJ Library
Lara Knuettel Chief Philanthropy Officer PJ Library
18 Years of PJ Library
PJ Library’s incredible growth over the past 18 years has been made possible by the generous ongoing support of thousands of donors and community partners. Together, we marked this milestone year with an eye toward the future.
PJ Library is born
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation starts sending free Jewish books to about 200 children in Western Massachusetts. Families can’t get enough!
PJ Library expands across the US and Canada
PJ Library grows in North America, thanks to incredible Jewish Federations, JCCs, and other partners.
First PJ Library Annual Conference
This beloved annual gathering celebrates, connects, and trains family engagement professionals.
Sifriyat Pijama launches in Israel
Sifriyat Pijama (“Pajama Library”) begins delivering free Hebrew-language storybooks to children in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Education.
PJ Library Alliance launches
Each member of this transformational circle of philanthropists pledges $1 million or more to grow and deepen PJ Library’s work.
PJ Our Way launches
The next chapter of PJ Library, PJ Our Way, encourages tweens to choose their own books each month and interact with their peers through leadership councils.
PJ Library en Español begins
Since launching in Spanish in Mexico, international programs in Russian, Ukrainian, German, and Portuguese have followed.
PJ Publishing goes live
PJ Library launches its own in-house press.
First Author Israel Adventure departs
To inspire excellent new Jewish children’s books, PJ Library begins sending authors and illustrators to Israel. (Attendees have published 20 books inspired by their experiences.)
First edition of PJ Library’s Haggadah published
In Every Generation: A PJ Library Family Haggadah debuts at Passover seders (ritual meals). It is now available in six languages, enlarged print, and braille.
50 millionth book delivered
PJ Library Milestones
Families begin to Get Together
PJ Library offers the Get Together program, an incentive for families to host small Jewishthemed gatherings with two or more other Jewish families.
Podcasts start making waves
PJ Library launches its first storytelling series for kids. (Families have downloaded award-winning PJ Library podcasts over 1 million times!)
We’re in over 40 countries and growing!
Thank you for being part of our journey! Our work is just beginning. Turn the page to see how we are writing the next chapter.
It Costs a Lot to Be This Free
July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024
By
the numbers
The books and resources are free for families — but of course they aren't free.
Purchasing, distributing, sourcing, creating, and designing the unique Jewish content that PJ Library offers costs a lot of money! Only because of generous donors and committed partners at all levels can PJ Library reach families around the world with beautiful stories and critical parenting resources. PJ Library supporters, partners, and volunteers make local programs possible so that families with young children can connect to each other and to the Jewish community.
$19.9 Million
Harold Grinspoon Foundation
“I decided to create the Harold Grinspoon Foundation to engage Jews in the richness of the Jewish tradition.” — Harold Grinspoon
$7.3 Million
PJ Library Alliance Partners
The PJ Library Alliance is a collective of leading supporters who each pledge a minimum of $1 million to expand and deepen PJ Library’s work.
$7.1 Million
Community Partners: Federations, JCCs, etc.
Over 200 community partners around the globe support the cost of PJ Library subscriptions in their area and engage local families through programming and events.
$7.7 Million
Individual and Institutional Supporters
More than 6,800 PJ Library grandparents, parents, and friends gave generous donations that helped bring stories, programs, and resources to Jewish families around the world.
$2.8 Million
Israeli Ministry of Education
Sifriyat Pijama, PJ Library’s sister program in Israel, reaches children ages 1-8 in daycare centers, preschools, and elementary schools in Israel.
$44+ Million
PJ Library and Sifriyat Pijama
2023–2024
Operating Budget
An additional estimated $7 million is spent locally by PJ Library’s partner organizations around the world.
The Impact of PJ Library
At PJ Library, we are paying close attention to what it means to raise Jewish children in the world right now. How can PJ Library meet this moment with its unique reach across the spectrum of Jewish families — from those who are highly engaged to those just beginning their journeys?
This past year, we engaged Rosov Consulting to conduct our fifth large-scale survey of PJ Library families in English-speaking countries including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The goal of this research is to understand more about the families we serve and learn where PJ Library can refine its offerings to be even more appealing and essential. We heard from more than 14,000 PJ Library and PJ Our Way families.
PJ Library is a loving and brilliant way to spread joy around the world.
— Arlene R., a PJ Library grandparent and donor
at right: PJ Library subscribers, New York, NY
Photo
PJ Library reaches one in three Jewish children and has a reader base that reflects the diversity of the Jewish people
PJ Library is a beloved foundational experience of Jewish childhood … and Jewish parenting
71% of respondents agree that PJ Library is a valuable parenting tool. Additionally, 82% of families use PJ Library to introduce Jewish topics and 70% said their children’s knowledge of or familiarity with Jewish traditions, values, and/or customs increased either moderately or a lot. Two thirds of children (67%) engage with PJ Library books with an adult one or more times a week.
Books are the cornerstone of PJ Library. But PJ Library is so much more:
Podcasts
PJ Library’s award-winning podcast network, PJ Library Presents, produces shows for children of all ages, in multiple languages, which have been downloaded over 1 million times! Listen at pjlibrary.org/podcast.
Book Flaps
PJ Library includes bonus content for grownups inside each book to prompt conversations and suggest activities.
Holiday Guides
MakeaPassing-OnPackage doesn’tWhenMoosefindsFloppy,he’shappy—buthe reallyneedFloppyanymore,sohepasses ofthestuffyontoBear.Considerpassingonsome enjoyyouroldstuffiesorothertoystokidswhowill them. •SuppliesCardboardbox • Markersandstickers • Oldtoyswithlifeleftinthem 1.areSelectthetoysthatyou someonereadytopassonto
theDecoratetheboxwith Thenmarkersandstickers. fillitup!
friendGiveyourPassing-OnPackagetoayounger center,—ordonateittoathriftshop,survival Someoneorwomenandchildren’sshelter. willbesuretofindyouroldtoys“themostspecialthings.” WhydidMoosedecidetogiveFloppytoBear?
PJ Library provides holiday guides and online resources that include recipes, crafts, and more to bring parents and children together to celebrate Jewish holidays throughout the year.
A Time to Grow: A PJ Library Family Guide for Starting the Jewish New Year was distributed to over 100,000 households. 85% of families said the guide helped them to involve their children in their family's holiday celebrations.
PJ Library helps parents teach children about themselves and the world around them
The next generation of Jews worldwide
are being raised in homes full of Jewish stories and conversations that highlight the rich diversity of the modern Jewish experience. Parents tell us:
• PJ Library books feature characters that look like their family (69%)
• PJ Library broadens children’s awareness of the diversity of Jewish life (87%)
Representing Jewish Diversity: PJ Library launched a multi-year initiative to increase the number of authentic Sephardic and Mizrahi children’s books. With generous funding from the Samis Foundation, in year one, PJ Library invited seven published authors of Sephardic and Mizrahi backgrounds to create stories inspired by their heritage.
In year two, PJ Library will cultivate and uplift the voices of emerging writers, as part of a year-long fellowship.
PJ Library has an outsized impact for families living farther from hubs of Jewish community
In 2015, PJ Library created the All-Access Community, which reaches nearly 20,000 children in the US and Canada who live far from established centers of Jewish life or in towns just beyond our local partners' service areas. Families living in the All-Access Community and in PJ Library’s Military Community said PJ Library ...
…increased your children's knowledge or familiarity with Jewish traditions, values, and/or customs?
…increased your knowledge or familiarity with Jewish traditions, values, and/or customs?
...increased your confidence to engage with your children regarding Jewish traditions, values, and/or customs?
All-Access and Military Families (agree or strongly agree)
All Other Families (agree or strongly agree)
“My family lives in an area with a very small (basically nonexistent) Jewish population. I, on the other hand, got to grow up in a vibrant Jewish community. It makes me sad that my two children don’t have that. But then there are moments, like when my 2-year-old grabs one of her PJ Library books and starts demanding I read it for the 15th time that day, where I am just so glad, and so grateful, that they’re exposed to Judaism in a way that is so perfect for their age!”
— A PJ Library parent
PJ Library builds – and is built on –community partnerships
Hundreds of organizations around the world utilize PJ Library to engage children and families in Jewish life and build connections between members of Jewish communities.
To encourage and support local communities, PJ Library created PJ Library Implementing Partner Engagement Grants, or IPEG. During this past fiscal year, PJ Library awarded more than $300,000 in grants to expand and deepen community-based engagement opportunities across the US and Canada. With support from this grant, partner organization JewishColorado worked with professionals and family connectors in remote communities outside the Denver hub. They created high-quality, low-barrier Jewish programming to ensure that families throughout the state have access to vibrant Jewish communities.
Without this grant, we wouldn’t have been able to consistently connect, engage, communicate, and strategically plan a full year of gatherings and connections in three outlying communities.
— Bethany Friedlander, PJ Library Manager, JewishColorado
According to the survey results, for families who had attended a PJ Library event in the last year, 33% responded that PJ Library helped them make Jewish friends.
PJ Library Programs Around the World
PJ Library is a global program that, together with its sister program in Israel, serves more than 650,000 children and their families in more than 40 countries and in seven languages.
North America
PJ Library added 56 new titles to the English-language lineup.
Building Connections to Israel
PJ Library partners with the Jewish Agency for Israel to train youth volunteers (ShinShinim) before they embark on a year of service in Jewish communities around the world. More than 170 ShinShinim have received training from PJ Library, and subsequently traveled to Jewish communities across North America, Australia, Europe, and Latin America.
PJ Library’s dynamic growth around the world is the result of many hands coming together in common purpose — to bring Jewish books, educational resources, and community to families raising Jewish children, wherever they live. In just five years, PJ Library has doubled the number of countries with programs. Thanks to incredible partner agencies in dozens of countries and generous support from foundations and individual donors, we will continue to build vibrant libraries in the homes of children in every corner of the globe. Help PJ Library continue to expand with a gift to the newly created International Fund.
UK
PJ Library in the UK has signed up its 18,000th child and sent out its 500,000th book. The program reaches families across the country thanks to its robust partnerships with over 150 partner organizations.
Eastern Europe/Asia
PJ Library has begun creating reading nooks, known as PJ Corners, in Jewish communal spaces in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Montenegro, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan — countries where PJ Library has yet to offer monthly book delivery.
Ukraine
PJ Library in Ukraine continues to reach more than 3,000 children in Ukraine, Europe, and Israel each month with Ukrainian-language books — meeting families wherever they are in a time of war.
PJ Library welcomed the Jewish communities of Turkey, Bermuda, Argentina, and Thailand to the roster of PJ Library international programs.
PJ Library served as a trusted pillar of support around the world and in Israel following October 7
PJ Library’s sister program, Sifriyat Pijama (“Pajama Library”), and its Arabic-language companion, Maktabat al-Fanoos (“Lantern Library”), reach more than 350,000 Hebrewspeaking children and 170,000 Arabic-speaking children with culturally appropriate books. Both operate through schools in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Education.
In Israel in 2023, we witnessed the deadliest day for Jewish people in 80 years. After the October 7 attack and amid the ensuing war, antisemitism spiked across the globe to a peak not seen in decades. The Jewish community came under threats previously unknown in our generation, and Jewish parents faced new questions from their children about safety, hate, and what it means to grow up Jewish today.
PJ Library met the moment with strong and unwavering support for Jewish families and communities in Israel, North America, and around the world.
In Israel after October 7
• Within two weeks of the attack, working with local authorities, the programs sent books in Hebrew and Arabic to some 6,700 children displaced from their communities in Israel’s south.
• Sifriyat Pijama packed and shipped thousands of activity kits for educators to use with children in evacuee centers across Israel.
• Maktabat al-Fanoos produced a series of live virtual programs for families in Arabic-speaking communities. Thousands of families tuned in.
In North America and around the world
• PJ Library aggregated content on our website to help parents talk to their children about Israel and antisemitism. During October 2023, web traffic to PJ Library pages about Israel was up more than 800%.
• In response to growing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, PJ Library hosted a series of webinars for Jewish children’s book creators that featured expert speakers and offered guidance on how to navigate antisemitism online and in the publishing industry. The sessions drew hundreds of registrants.
• PJ Library opened up the Get Together program in December 2023 to allow families to include all friends and neighbors — Jewish or otherwise — in their Hanukkah celebrations to engage allies and share light.
• This past spring, PJ Library mailed all 170,000+ North American families information (with more resources online) to help them celebrate Yom Haatzmaut.
Photo at left: Courtesy of Keren Grinspoon Israel
Alliance Donors
The PJ Library Alliance is a collective of leading philanthropists who each pledge a minimum of $1 million to support PJ Library’s growth, sustainability, and innovation. An inaugural investment from the William Davidson Foundation inspired new philanthropic leaders to join together to build on PJ Library’s success and take the program to new heights.
Current PJ Library Alliance Partners:
Harold Grinspoon Foundation
The Marcus Foundation, Inc.
The Azrieli Foundation
Carl & Joann Bianco
Winnie and Steven Grinspoon
Howard & Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation
Koum Family Foundation
Micah Philanthropies
Anonymous
Ann and Nate Levine Family Foundation
Arnold S. and Madaleine Penner Family Foundation
Crown Family Philanthropies
Joseph and Debra Weinberg Family Foundation
Edward and Mary Ellen Loebl
Marilyn Einstein and Steven Sim Charitable Fund
Mike & Sofia Segal Family Foundation
The Molly Blank Fund of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
One8 Foundation
Stephen Saks
Sam Berman Charitable Foundation
The Sherrie R. Savett Family Foundation
Diane Troderman
Wilf Family Foundations
Walter, Arnee, Sarah & Aaron Winshall
Zucker Family Foundation
Thank you for being our partner
PJ Library is a global community of families who make PJ Library books among their most beloved; of family-engagement professionals who help families find belonging in Jewish community; of authors, illustrators, and publishers who bring beautiful Jewish stories to life.
Support from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Alliance partners, Community partners like Federations and JCCs, institutional supporters, and thousands of donors helps keep PJ Library free for families, always and in every corner of the globe.
Thank you for being part of the story.
Join us
Donors of all amounts keep PJ Library free for families. Make a gift at pjlibrary.org/donate.
Photo at left: PJ Library subscribers, Leeds, MA
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