MODERN JEWISH families grow and develop in unique ways. Just ask Memphis-based philanthropists Joe and Billie Pierce.
The Pierces met through JDate, the Jewish matchmaking website. Billie was studying at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA while Joe was living in Memphis, where he was born and raised. “We met in a chat room and struck up a conversation,” Billie recalls. “Writing progressed to phone calls, which then progressed to meetings.”
For a couple that met on JDate (while living 874 miles apart), it’s easy for them to relate to modern families and their unique methods for connecting with the Jewish community—and that’s what drew them to PJ Library, and ultimately toward sponsoring a program in Memphis.
DISCOVERING PJ LIBRARY
Billie moved to Memphis in 2002 to marry Joe. When her children were born in 2009, she hadn't yet heard about PJ Library—but that quickly changed. “I was unfamiliar with PJ Library,” Billie recalls. “Friends in Memphis asked me whether I had heard of it. I knew about Sammy Spider and thought those books looked cute for the holidays, but there was a whole world of Jewish books I didn’t know.”
About that same time in 2009, Joe stumbled across a Memphis Jewish Federation article profiling the PJ Library program. “It sounded like a great way for families to get to know their local community and to instill the facets of Jewish values,” Joe says.
Suffice it to say, the Pierces quickly signed up to receive free books through the Memphis PJ Library program.
FROM FAMILY TO FUNDER
At the same time the Pierces were receiving their first PJ Library books, they were also setting up the Joseph and Billie Pierce Family Foundation. “We had merrily been going along, and were very blessed,” Billie says. “My husband was doing well in his business. We were looking for ways to invest and were raising our contributions within our Federation.”
According to Billie, the Pierces connected with programs that supported interfaith families and modern households. That’s why, when their local Federation approached them about sponsoring PJ Library, they moved quickly.
“The Foundation pointed out that the sponsorship of PJ Library was coming to an end,” Billie remembers. “So, they were looking for another sponsor, and I said ‘Absolutely, this would be perfect.’”
Billie adds that PJ Library fit well into their values. “We know families who are in interfaith marriages, and this [PJ Library] may or may not be the only Judaism that touches that child,” Billie says. “Whether a child grows up to become active or identify as Jewish, something in their brain will remember, “Oh, I had a Passover book as a child.”
Today, the PJ Library program in Memphis serves 188 children. It has served 469 children during its existence. Those numbers are poised for growth, however, as the Pierces have recently announced a full funding of the program.
Until now, Memphis children were only eligible for PJ Library through age 5. Today, the Pierces have agreed to expand the age range served from the Apples & Honey age group (6 months to 2 years) through the Hamantaschen age group (8 years).
December 16, 2012