The Harold Grinspoon Foundation is excited to present the 2018-2019 cohort of PJ Library New York Engagement Grant recipients. A total of $133,100 has been awarded to our partners. Grants ranging from $5,000-$15,000 will support programs designed to expand and deepen the engagement of families raising Jewish children across the New York Metro area.
The 15 selected initiatives offer innovative programs that find and engage families who are new to the implementing organization and connect families to compelling and high-quality Jewish experiences in New York.
Part of a multi-year engagement strategy to extend Jewish engagement in North America, these grants are funded through the PJ Library Alliance. Our partners in the Alliance are the Azrieli Foundation; Carl and Joann Bianco; the Crown Family; William Davidson Foundation; William and Audrey Farber Philanthropic Fund; Genesis Philanthropy Group; Diane and Guilford Glazer/Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles; Jim Joseph Foundation; the Marcus Foundation, Inc.; Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation; Mike and Sofia Segal Family Foundation; Susser Family Trust; Walter, Arnee, Sarah, and Aaron Winshall; Zucker Family Foundation; and two anonymous partners.
This year’s selected initiatives, listed below, are divided into four categories; each category will serve as a community of practice, offering ongoing peer support and collective learning for the professionals implementing the programs. We look forward to working with these partners and seeing their innovative initiatives come to life.
Small Ongoing Programs Outside Manhattan
Sing ‘N Sway & Schmooze on Shabbat!, Bay Ridge Jewish Center (Congregation Sheiris Israel), Brooklyn, NY
Sing 'n Sway & Schmooze on Shabbat! will meet monthly to offer families with children ages 0-5 the opportunity to experience Shabbat together as a family. Each session will promote a special theme such as kindness, tikkun olam, tzedakah, or a holiday. The theme will be geared to parents as well as children and will increase their Jewish awareness and be able to bring Jewish concepts into their homes.
Music and Munchies, Greenburgh Hebrew Center, Dobbs Ferry, NY
Aiming to reach families in the Rivertowns, a free series of events centering around music by Tkiya: The Jewish Community Music Project will be held at local libraries, community centers, and parks to remove barriers and make Jewish experiences more accessible to unaffiliated Jews.
ShaJam with PJ in Westchester, Westchester Jewish Center, Mamaroneck, NY
Building on the success of a similar Sunday morning program, and recognizing the desire for high-quality, Shabbat-themed programs for families relocating from Manhattan and Brooklyn, Westchester Jewish Center will host a monthly PJ Library Shabbat program. This Thursday morning series will expand upon an established relationship with Tkiya.
Community Building Programs
Taste of Shabbat, Malkhut, Forest Hills, NY
Malkhut will launch an initiative to engage new and less-engaged families with young children, combining small, home-based Shabbat and Havdalah gatherings with larger intergenerational Friday night events called “Taste of Shabbat." Taking place five times over the course of the year in Jackson Heights and Sunnyside, Queens, three of these events are crafted for families with children from birth to age 7 and will take place in private apartments. Two of these events will be larger Shabbat evening gatherings for the whole Malkhut community, with family-friendly components.
PJ Love in Action, Romemu, New York, NY
Love in Action uses diverse modalities to engage young families into Jewish life and learning in ways that speak to their desire to perform chesed, be in engaged in tikkun olam, and build community with like-minded families. Each program will include a PJ values-based story, a shared meal, enlivening music, a service component, crafts, and educational and action-focused resources.
Mitzvah Minis, Temple Beth Torah, Melville, NY
Mitzvah Minis is based on providing quality time through fun activities in locations already frequented by parents of young children, but with a "Jewish Twist." Through five events, each at a unique location within our community, parents and children will create new friendships with their neighbors.
Parenting Together, Temple Israel of Northern Westchester, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
Parenting Together is a discussion group for those seeking education about Judaism to enrich their families’ lives. This group is for both interfaith families raising Jewish children, as well as families in which there are two Jewish partners raising Jewish children. Parenting Together’s “Parent’s Night Out” will also be a part of this series to help grow and deepen relationships among parents.
Family Programming/ Parent Empowerment
Shabbat Family Camp & Conversation Series, Honeymoon Israel Foundation, New York, NY
Honeymoon Israel (HMI) will facilitate a Shabbat “Family Camp” to connect couples who are new parents, providing a supportive forum for participants to build a safe space together where they can wrestle with ideas, challenges, and fears about raising children, as well as discuss how Jewish learning and community can provide them with meaning and support. Participants will continue meeting together in a five-part conversation series back home.
PJ Play! and 21st Century Chavurot, The 14th Street Y of Educational Alliance, Inc., New York, NY
The 14th Street Y will hold three new PJ Play! events utilizing current and former artists from its artist fellowship program to develop interactive experiences related to PJ Library books. Outreach will specifically target Hebrew-speaking, interfaith, and LGBTQ+ families. These events will introduce young families to one another and assist with the formation of small groups based on neighborhood or family interest that will meet regularly throughout the year to participate in programming they created to establish their own Jewish traditions.
Family Service Learning Project, Repair The World Inc, New York, NY
Repair the World New York (Repair) is expanding upon its family volunteer program that engages families with young children living in Brooklyn and Harlem, in order to involve them in Jewish life and create a warm, open, and dynamic Jewish community. Repair will continue to offer families opportunities for hands-on volunteer opportunities three times a month with trusted nonprofit partners. In addition, Repair will provide an opportunity for both parents and children to reflect on their volunteer experiences through an engaging and thoughtful forum where families can discuss volunteer activities with a Repair moderator.
History Hunters, Museum at Eldridge Street, New York, NY
This four-part series will make the history of the Jewish Lower East Side come alive for families by focusing on what a child’s life was like back in the early 1900s. Each session will focus on one dimension of a child’s life and will be rooted in history – drawing on historical research and primary documents, including photographs, newspapers, government data, and oral history – and will appeal to children by offering a chance to travel back in time and feel what a kid’s life was really like.
Local Community Programs
Family Cooking Series, JCC of Mid Westchester Inc, Scarsdale, NY
JCCMW's Family Cooking Series is designed to convene around six key Jewish holidays throughout the year, first at JCCMW, then at various secular and Jewish venues in the area. Under the direction of professional chefs, families will prepare holiday-themed foods. At tables with other families, both kids and adults will have opportunities to build new friendships. Jewish educators will share information about each holiday's rituals and practices.
Downtown Family Connection, JCC Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Under the umbrella "JCC Brooklyn," Kings Bay Y creates opportunities for families in North and Brownstone Brooklyn to connect with Jewish life using storefront locations and "pop-ups" in an innovative JCC-with-and-without-walls model. This project will organize and engage young families in and around Downtown Brooklyn following its successful experiences in neighborhoods including Windsor Terrace, North Williamsburg, and Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy. Using youth education and family programming, particularly Shabbat and holiday celebrations and toddler music classes, JCC Brooklyn aspires to facilitate vibrant Jewish life within Downtown Brooklyn.
Pop Up PJ, Marks JCH of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY
Pop Up PJ is a new initiative of the Marks JCH focused on engaging families in two geographic areas where young Russian-speaking families live in growing numbers: Staten Island and the neighborhoods of Mill Basin/Marine Park. Targeting families with children under 5 years old, Pop Up PJ will provide ongoing weekend enrichment classes offered in semesters in both neighborhoods, as well as quarterly Jewish holiday celebrations, pre-natal groups, and parental workshops, working through the thematic content of PJ Library books where relevant, and in partnership with neighborhood-specific parent advisory groups.
Table for You!, YM-YWHA of Washington Heights & Inwood, New York, NY
It's a "Table for You!" is designed to welcome a diversity of new families and build community together around common themes of food and friendship. Eight events will be woven into the natural flow of the year and cycle of holidays from September to May. Our project will welcome different types of families: recent transplants to Upper Manhattan, new parents, unaffiliated Jews looking to infuse Jewish culture and traditions into their lives (including those who might shy away from the formality of synagogue events), and more.
September 18, 2018