I just wanted to share details about this Jewish book I have started to read to my son called “A Time to Hope” by PJ Library. It’s a really lovely book for kids.
PJ Library is a charity that provides free educational books to Jewish children of all ages, starting from 3 until the end of primary school mainly. My family has benefitted over the past 10 years from PJ Library’s free books, and experienced the positive impact of their brilliant, funny, insightful, inspiring books first hand.
I’ve also been nosing around their website resources and it’s not just for kids – it’s a great educational read for everyone, adults included! They are also great resources for non-Jewish people to read too.
I love how they include information about Sigd too which is a festival celebrated by Ethiopian Jews. It’s really interesting to hear about their traditions too. It’s such a miracle so many thousands of Ethiopians were saved and flown to Israel. However many times I read about this, I’m always amazed. 8,000 Ethiopian Jews were saved in November 1984 (“Operation Moses”) and then 15000 Ethiopians were saved over 3 days in May 1991 (“Operation Solomon”). Picture that, so many incredible, beautiful lives saved. Now, this Jewish community called “Beta Israel” are thriving in Israel and their customs and traditions are well respected, nurtured and celebrated. It’s lovely how Jewish people from all over the world share the same traditions but also, it’s so interesting to see how they vary according to each person’s culture depending on where in the world they come from.
I love how on this website, all the resources are neatly organised under each festival, for example, any songs, music, traditions, art or cooking activities for kids, recipes, or stories that relate to that particular festival. There are also lots of opportunities in this book to self-reflect, to see how these stories relate to our everyday lives and make us more conscious of how we are spreading our light in the physical world and perhaps inspire us to spread even more….
It’s easy to follow, it can be read in small chunks and the design is nice and bright which always fills me with hope.