Grandparenting with PJ Library

Jewish grandparents play a unique and meaningful role in their families. PJ Library can help.

By Naomi Barnett, Harold Grinspoon Foundation Communications Manager

This story appeared in the summer 2026 issue of PROOF, a PJ Library magazine.

Judy Meritz and Larry Muenz create joyful Jewish experiences as grandparent connectors.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUDY MERITZ AND LARRY MUENZ

Judy Meritz, now a grandparent of three, still fondly remembers time with her own grandparents, her bubbe and zayde. “They vacationed in Far Rockaway [in New York], and we would go there for two weeks during the summer. Long ago, there were Jewish hotels there,” she recalls, picturing the town as it was back then. “Memories. What kids love most about grandparents are the memories.”

Judy and her husband, Larry Muenz, have long recognized PJ Library’s power to connect young children to the joy of Jewish life. For the past two summers, they have harnessed that joy as a foundation for nurturing the unique bond between grandparents and grandchildren as PJ Library grandparent connectors. From their summer home in Quogue, Long Island, they have created a network of other Jewish grandparents who are excited to gather together — both with their grandchildren and with one another — to create unforgettable Jewish summer memories.

PJ Library has long engaged parent connectors as key players in the important work of involving families in Jewish life. These parents build bridges in their communities, plan events, foster relationships, and weave strong local networks to help families feel welcome in the Jewish community. Through PJ Library programming, they bring familiar, friendly Jewish experiences right to a local family’s doorstep. Across the US and Canada, over 220 parent connectors bring PJ Library — along with Jewish values, holidays, and traditions — to life. (Forty work in the metro New York area alone!)

Judy and Larry’s daughter served as a parent connector in Astoria, Queens, convening hundreds of people for Tot Shabbats and Purim carnivals. When she heard that PJ Library was looking to start a connector program for grandparents, she encouraged her parents to apply. They began their term as grandparent connectors in the summer of 2024 and got straight to work.

Quogue, where Judy and Larry have lived full-time for eight years, isn’t known as a particularly Jewish part of the Hamptons. The population of surrounding towns — including Westhampton, Riverhead, and Southampton — swells seasonally as residents flock to summer homes. But Judy and Larry knew there must be other Jewish grandparents around. Their own kids regularly came to visit them with their families. They believed there were other local grandparents hosting visiting grandchildren over the summer. The question was how to find them.

Judy and Larry leaned into the PJ Library brand — and the shared language of Jewish values. “Grandparents know about the books; they know their kids get them,” Judy shares. “So we wrote on flyers, in our social media post, and in a PJ Library email to families in the Hamptons that we were hosting ‘PJ Library events for grandparents raising children with Jewish values.’”

Larry and Judy knew that the Jewish grandparents they hoped to reach in the area likely weren’t members of the only local synagogue. They also knew that other local families might have grandchildren being raised in multifaith households.

“For people who have a daughter- or son-in-law who isn’t Jewish, it’s especially important that the grandkids have access to fun Jewish traditions,” Judy says. “It’s as simple as getting a book about Shabbat and reading it together. I love sharing the fun of celebrating Jewish holidays and sharing Jewish values that are so important in these challenging times. When we read the books and create traditions together, the kids get to associate being Jewish with us and create a special connection to Judaism through their grandparents.”

At Judy and Larry’s first program, Shabbat on the Quogue Dock, 25 attendees gathered for Jewish summer fun with a distinctly local flavor. The couple handed out pails and shovels so children could play on the beach and distributed PJ Library books about Shabbat. At the event, families introduced themselves with an icebreaker, and then everyone sang the blessings for the candles, wine, and challah. The program was meaningful for grandparents and grandchildren, who relished the chance to have fun together at a Jewish-themed event. But grandparents also came away with an added benefit: They learned that they had a built-in Jewish community right in their neighborhood.

“People want a support group; they want to find others with similar values and backgrounds,” says Larry. “Once we started publicizing that we were putting on PJ Library programming, we quickly met Jewish grandparents in the area who we would never have known about otherwise.”

Larry, Judy, and their grandparent peers have found lasting joy in joining together. Along with Shabbat on the Quogue Dock, which has become a recurring event, Judy and Larry hosted a coffee-and-bagel gathering for Jewish grandparents in their own home and met five Jewish couples they hadn’t known previously. Other grandparent-only programming over the past two summers has included a wine-tasting event at a Hamptons winery and Jewish trivia at a local elementary school. As the Jewish grandparent network grows, Quogue has started to feel more like home: Last Hanukkah, the town held a public menorah lighting for the first time.

Judy and Larry consider their experience a win-win-win: As grandparent connectors they are meeting their own needs by fostering a thriving local Jewish community, cementing their grandchildren’s love of Jewish time together, and using PJ Library to help create kid-friendly Jewish experiences for other multigenerational families in the area.

“Kids of this age love spending time with their grandparents,” says Judy. “Grandparents already come with a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s a natural fit because grandparents already have all these Jewish ways: a Yiddish word, a Jewish way of cooking, all those holiday rituals. We want our grandchildren to think being Jewish is fun. So when they can associate Judaism with us, we build that even-stronger connection.”