December 3, 2024 • 58 mins
What happens when the vibrant tapestry of Jewish childhood experiences meets the evolving dynamics of modern Jewish communities? Jessica McCormick joins me on to share her unique journey from Los Angeles to Tucson, Arizona. Together, we explore how her formative years in Hebrew school and Jewish summer camps paved the way for a career shift from Hollywood to impactful roles in municipal government and Jewish nonprofits. Jessica opens up about how these experiences intertwined with her identity as a parent, and we reflect on the shifting prominence of conservative Judaism amidst changing synagogue memberships and community landscapes.
Through heartfelt discussions, Jessica and I highlight the resilience and adaptability required to nurture Jewish identity in an ever-changing world. Join us for an episode rich with personal stories, reflections, and a deep appreciation for the enduring spirit of Jewish communities.
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Episode Transcript
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Nicole Kelly (00:00):
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Hi, I'm Nicole Kelly and thisis Shebrew in the City, and
(00:30):
today I am talking to JessicaMcCormick from PJ Library.
How are you doing this morning,Jessica?
Jessica McCormick (00:38):
I'm well.
How are you?
Nicole Kelly (00:38):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good, so we're goingto go ahead and talk a little
bit about your personal story,as well as PJ Library and the
Grinspoon Foundation today.
So I usually start by asking myguests where they're from and
what their Jewish upbringing waslike, if they had any.
Jessica McCormick (00:58):
Yeah, so I'm from.
I was born in Tucson, arizona,and that is where I'm sitting
right now which is kind of funnybecause most of my adult life I
was in Los Angeles.
So I grew up in Tucson, Arizona,as part of a very.
We were spent most of our livesin a very vibrant conservative
shul.
It's like it was that time inconservative Judaism when it was
(01:22):
standing room only at theChagim.
It's not like that anymore, butI grew up so I was also in
Hebrew school three days a week.
My kid now goes two, but I wasin it three days a week.
I went to Camp Al-Alim and CampRamah.
My parents sent me to SleepawayCamp.
I was in USY, I was in BBYO andso my life was really centered
(01:43):
around Judaism.
And my husband actually makesthe joke when we used to visit
Tucson, because for 22 years Ilived in Los Angeles until he
moved here.
As far as he was concerned,Tucson was like 100% Jews,
because he would come back andvisit with me and those are all
the people he would encounter,the people he would encounter
(02:04):
Towards the end of what youmight think of as like COVID
quarantine period.
We made the decision to leaveLA and move back to Tucson to be
close to grandparents, myparents, my family, and then, of
course, he discovered like therich diversity of life in Tucson
.
And then I would say that LosAngeles, my years in Los Angeles
as a young adult and then as aparent, also really shaped my
Judaism.
That's where I created my ownJewish identity.
It's where I made a shift fromworking in Hollywood, which had
(02:28):
been my early career, intomunicipal government and then
Jewish nonprofits.
And that shift happened becauseI stayed home for several years
with my oldest children I havetwo in college and I have a
seven-year-old and during thoseyears my life was made better by
municipal government, bylibraries, by farmers markets,
but also by Jewish organizations.
(02:49):
And I made a decision when Iwent back in the workforce I had
loved working in Hollywood,loved it, loved it, but I wanted
to go back and work in thoseworlds that had impacted me so
much.
Nicole Kelly (03:00):
It's so funny that you talk about the height of
the conservative movementbecause I grew up in that as
well.
In the 90s, early 2000s, I wentto Hebrew school two times a
week, but it was like two hoursand then most Sundays.
I totally get what you'resaying.
I like to say that I didn'tactually really meet anyone who
wasn't Jewish until I was fiveand went to kindergarten.
(03:20):
So I can completely relate tothat and I'm originally from Los
Angeles.
You are, yeah, I am, I'm fromthe San Fernando Valley.
My family, my sister and myparents still live there, so we
try to go back a couple times ayear and they come here.
So I can totally relate to the,like you said, the height of
the conservative movement, whichis something that's very
different today for variousreasons.
(03:40):
It's kind of crazy how thedecline of that and membership
within synagogues has sodrastically changed in less than
30 years.
It's crazy.
Jessica McCormick (03:51):
It's really different.
And I don't think I realizedthe extent to which it had
happened, because when I wasliving in Los Angeles I did work
for a while at a very largeconservative synagogue.
I worked as the director ofcommunications at the day school
and that was that was, you know, probably had had more of a
heyday, but Sinai Temple wasstill extraordinarily full and
vibrant.
And then for six years, one ofthe things I did in the in the
(04:15):
Jewish community and we can talkmore about my various roles
before PJ library but I was thedirector of something called the
Jewish Emergent Network, whichis really known by its parts
more than its sum.
It was seven progressive Jewishcommunities all around the
country and they came togetherin a network to help raise the
field, to offer programs.
But I was working with placeslike Labshul and Romamu and
(04:36):
Mishkan and Ikar and the Kitchenand Sixth and I Kavanaugh in
Seattle, and these places wereall standing room only right At
that moment.
They were sort of reinventingwhat it could mean to be in
Jewish community and breakingtheir own paths.
And so in those scenarios I wasalso in, you know, places that
(04:57):
were overflowing.
And when I moved back to Tucsonand I went back to my home,
shul, which I have a veryfondness in my heart for.
I'll spend a lot of time therelater this week, I was surprised
to see exactly what hadhappened.
Nicole Kelly (05:12):
I remember high holidays when I was growing up.
They would actually have seats,kind of like on the other side
of the glass outside because itwas so full.
And I don't think the synagogueis that busy anymore, even on
high holidays.
But we belong to a reformedsynagogue that has 2,500
families.
It's one of the largest in thecountry.
So I mean there are benefitsand downsides to large
(05:34):
synagogues.
You had mentioned, you know,working in the Jewish sector
before, you know, going to PJLibrary.
Can you talk a little bit aboutsome of those positions and
what that entailed?
Jessica McCormick (05:52):
Yeah, sure.
So I had been working for thecity of Beverly Hills in
community services when I got myfirst opportunity to work in
the Jewish nonprofit world, andthat was at Sinai Akiva Academy
as the director ofcommunications.
It was a new position for thatday school and it was, you know,
an extremely immersiveexperience to learn about Jewish
nonprofits in that way.
My next role was at the JewishImmersion Network, where I came
(06:13):
in as sort of a program managerand then became the director of
this fledgling brand new program, and that was extremely rare
air to be breathing, because Iwas working all of the time with
remarkable rabbis.
All seven of the communitiesthat made up the network had
just remarkable rabbis at theircenter, and then we were also
working on training early careerrabbis.
(06:35):
And so not only was I learningat sort of at the feet of these
luminaries through this work,but I got to be around clergy
all the time, and I actuallydidn't realize how bereft I
would be of that until I made mynext move.
So I became the executivedirector of the Hillel at the
University of Arizona, myhometown of Tucson, and so we
(06:55):
moved back and working withstudents was remarkable.
But it was just a few months inwhen I realized, oh, it's
really a different life whenyou're not talking to rabbis all
day, every day.
You know, text and music wereso naturally a part of my
day-to-day life for six yearsand I missed that.
But then I was also able tobring that a little bit to the
(07:16):
students at the Hillel and itwas a very tumultuous couple of
years.
At that Hillel, unfortunately,there was a terrible tragedy
that happened on Yom Kippur Daya few years ago.
Right in the building, rightacross the street from my Hillel
, a professor was murdered by astudent who was full of hate and
(07:37):
who erroneously believed theprofessor to be Jewish, and so
it was an extremely complicatedsituation.
As you can imagine.
It was very scary andcomplicated that day on Yom
Kippur as we barricaded in thebuilding and then for months
afterwards as the story unfoldedand of course we tried to help
these students and keep ourHillel a really safe place.
(07:59):
So it was a very tumultuous andexhausting couple of years.
So it was a very tumultuous andexhausting couple of years and
the Hillel, you know when I washired, needed a lot of.
There had been some, in manyways, strong leadership and in
other ways it really neededrebuilding, particularly around
engagement.
There were a ton of Jews onthat campus that weren't being
engaged and it was exhaustingand extremely fulfilling work.
(08:21):
And then, just about a year andtwo months ago, I came to PJ
Library and this has been justit's been just a gift in my life
.
I'm, you know, I'm a little bitof a writer.
On the side I'm a reader.
I have three children who allbenefited in different ways from
PJ Library, and so it's been adelight to make that shift into
(08:44):
immerse in this world of Jewishstories.
Nicole Kelly (08:46):
I'm sorry you had to go through that.
That must have been anabsolutely terrifying experience
.
You know, at the height of thehigh holidays that happening and
having to hide not reallyknowing what was going on.
Jessica McCormick (08:58):
Yes, it was very scary.
Thank you for saying that.
It was, I think, much scarierand more traumatic for the
students.
That's who you know, who Ireally think about.
You know, the sad truth is thatin the Jewish world we have to
have so much training, so muchtraining around potential
terrible events.
But it works, and so I was ableto respond, and the rest of the
(09:23):
incredible staff I worked with.
We were able to respondextremely quickly, almost
instinctively, which is whatthey want, by training you again
and again and again for activethreats, and so we knew what to
do.
But it was very hard for thestudents.
That was their holy space andtheir space to be themselves
freely, and it was a long roadto recapture that feeling for
(09:48):
them in the building.
Nicole Kelly (09:49):
When I was growing up, the GCC under my parents'
house, where my sister had, likeshe'd been in the session of
summer camp before this happened, someone walked in with a gun
and shot people and that waskind of the onset of the
security within the Jewishcommunity.
My synagogue did not have gatesor security when I was much
younger and now you know,there's police officers in front
(10:09):
of our synagogue my daughter'sschool which I'm thankful for,
but every time I see them I kindof think it's really
unfortunate.
This is necessary, but at thesame time I'm very thankful for
the very organized security teamthat the organizations I'm
involved with have.
Jessica McCormick (10:25):
So I totally get the training and training
resources.
Nicole Kelly (10:28):
Yeah, there are a lot of resources, thank goodness
so let's move on to something alittle a little more joyous pj
library.
Uh, we are a big fan of this inmy house.
I read my daughter two pjlibrary books last night.
One was about kangarooscelebrating rochashana, and I
don't remember what the otherone was, but but it was a PJ
Library book about a holiday, Idon't remember which one.
(10:49):
Oh, it was about Sukkot.
It was about Sukkot, so welearned about some of the
holidays that are coming up.
So can you tell me a little bitabout how you got involved with
PJ Library before we jump intothe story of the organization in
general?
Jessica McCormick (11:05):
Yeah, I mean, when I think about my
involvement with PJ Library, Ifirst think about my own
children.
You know, way before I workedfor the organization, my two
oldest children in Los Angeles,weren't didn't have a lot of the
time with the PJ story booksbecause of their age and where
the program was.
But very interesting.
Briefly, we're part of aprogram that we don't run
(11:26):
anymore in America calledSifriyat Pajama, which we run in
Israel.
But my two oldest children,their father is a Sabra, so
Israeli, and so Hebrew speakinghome for them, and they received
for a time storybooks in Hebrew, which was, you know, such an
amazing resource that I don'tthink we really utilized, but
(11:48):
I'm sure lots of other familiesdid.
We tried to read them, we justthere wasn't, there wasn't
fluency.
And then they becamesubscribers in this incredible
program that for us was soexciting, pj our way, when they
were just a little bit olderthat's for older age range,
kiddos and then they could pickevery month between fiction,
(12:08):
nonfiction and graphic novels.
They could select their ownbooks every month, and then they
would come in the mail, and sothat was amazing.
And then and then I had my, youknow, now seven year old, and I
was signed up from age zero, ofcourse, and I would you know.
We started receiving all ofthese books that we hadn't had
(12:29):
when my big kids were little,and there were all sorts of
other resources too.
There's a ton of digitalcontent Now I'm privileged to
work with the digital contentteam, but first I was just a
parent.
You know, listening to podcastsand enjoying the music that PJ
Library shared and going onlinefor their holiday resources.
I thought it was wonderful.
So I was sort of an evangelistfor PJ Library way before I ever
(12:51):
worked for the organization,and so are my parents.
When we moved back to Tucson andyou see this a lot grandparents
are really involved withgrandchildren's Jewish lives
many times and they're excitedabout PJ Library.
They like reading books withtheir own grandchildren.
And even though I'm a Jewishprofessional and I had by then
been a longtime PJ subscriber,my mother, I think the day we
(13:15):
told her that we were moving toTucson, changed my address for
me with PJ Library.
She was so concerned that wewouldn't miss a single book that
she took care of that.
And then I came into Tucson,which is a smaller community,
and in each community PJoperates a little bit
differently.
On the ground it's books andresources into homes.
But also we work withimplementing partner communities
(13:37):
and in Tucson the folks whowere running PJ Library
programming for the FederationFoundation, gcc, had all of
these incredible programs andresources and especially in
COVID they would be.
We would go pick up gifts thatthey had made that we would
bring into our home and acrossthe spectrum of the holidays and
(13:58):
we were already celebrating allthe holidays right, family that
built a sukkah, that hadShavuot and it was still so
additive to our lives.
So that's like my first pieceof my story with PJ Library is
loving the program and lovingthe books.
And then when there was anopportunity open for the
director of engagement, whichwas my initial position at PJ
(14:20):
Library, it just seemed likesuch a perfect fit and I felt
extremely privileged to beconsidered for the position and
it felt like a match made inheaven as we were having
conversations and I started alittle over a year ago in that
position and then my positionhas evolved a little bit.
I'm the director of familyexperience, which we could talk
(14:41):
more about what it is I do, butcolloquially within PJ Library
we sort of talk about it as likebooks and not books, and a lot
of what I do is not books,although of course books
permeate everything.
Nicole Kelly (14:55):
We were actually two weeks ago at an event at the
JCC in Harlem where they had ajazz ensemble and it was
co-sponsored with PJ Library, sowe take advantage of the events
that are not books in our areaas well, which my daughter
really liked because she lovesmusic.
I love to hear stories likethat All sorts of connections,
(15:17):
the Jewish, you know, we're allconnected in some way.
So how did this organizationget started?
Jessica McCormick (15:25):
This is a great story.
So, first of all, we've beentalking about PJ Library, but my
actual employer, who I work for, is the Harold Grinspoon
Foundation which is a foundation, you know, started by a Jewish
luminary that I had long admiredbecause I was a PJ Library
subscriber, because he's also anartist and he has a sculpture
(15:46):
in my hometown that I can go andvisit.
But this was his brainchild andhe had other aspects of his
foundation.
He was already an extraordinaryphilanthropist and in 2005,
harold Greenspoon heard aboutDolly Parton's Imagination
Library.
He heard her talking about it Ithink he heard her on the radio
(16:06):
and she wanted kids to havetheir own library of books in
their homes to grow their loveof reading, and he was so
inspired by this and he hadalready been thinking about ways
to share joys of Jewish lifewith children.
That was on his mind as he wasbuilding out his own foundation.
He wanted to build Jewishliteracy, connection to values,
stories, tradition that are atthe center of the Jewish
(16:27):
experience, and so, as he waslistening to Dolly Parton lay
out the structure of her program, the idea for PJ Library
started to take shape and heused Imagination Library as his
blueprint, and they are greatfriends now, harold and Dolly.
Nicole Kelly (16:41):
Oh my goodness, and he called.
Jessica McCormick (16:43):
I know it's so it's so cute.
In fact, like quick side note,my seven-year-old idolizes
Harold, of course.
I work for PJ Library and sawon a cover of one of our own PJ
Library magazines Harold andDolly Parton together and I
explained who she was.
And later we were at a recordstore and he brought me a Dolly
Parton record and said look,mama, it's Harold's friend.
Nicole Kelly (17:07):
We have a Dolly Parton record and said look,
mama, it's Harold's friend.
We have a Dolly Parton littlegolden book that I read to my
daughter sometimes.
We are huge fans of Dolly inthis house.
I feel like Dolly Parton shouldrun for president because she
would do amazing things for thiscountry.
Jessica McCormick (17:19):
Amazing.
So then I realized that I had adeficiency and my child needed
an education in actually whoDolly Parton was.
So, anyway, harold hears thestory.
He calls his daughter-in-lawWinnie Sandler Greenspoon, who
is now the president of theHarold Greenspoon Foundation,
and said we should create aJewish version of this and they
based actually the model ofsourcing and distributing books
(17:42):
With the help of localpartnerships.
We work through localimplementing organizations.
That's still the foundation ofhow we operate today.
All inspired by this momentwhen he heard Dolly Parton
talking and it was just like aperfect marriage of what he had
already been dreaming about forJewish children.
Nicole Kelly (17:58):
So can we kind of break down?
For those that are that have,you know, got a little bit from
what we've already said butdon't necessarily know what PGA
Library does, what exactly dothey do as far as books?
Jessica McCormick (18:10):
Right, right, that's a great question.
So at our heart we are a booksprogram.
We create joyful Jewishexperiences.
We hope that's our goal bysending Jewish storybooks and
activities to families everysingle month.
And the books have theseamazing additional resources, in
many cases not the board books,but as you get older, the
storybooks have flaps where wehave there's incredible
(18:32):
resources on these flaps aboutways to talk about the story
activities you can do in thehome based on the story.
You know, content related toholidays or values or themes in
the books.
So those are going in intohomes and but they're augmented
by a number of other prettyrobust initiatives.
So engagement, like youexperienced with that concert,
through implementing partnercommunities.
(18:54):
We also spend a lot of timeoffering professional
development to people in fields,at GCCs, at federations, at
other implementing partners whoare working on PJ Library, where
that's their portfolio.
They're not our employees butthat's their portfolio.
We offer them professionaldevelopment and we host a big
annual conference for them everyyear to help them build
(19:14):
connections, build their owncommunity, expand their skill
set.
We do holiday guides and gifts,so we send really comprehensive.
We're actually building out oursuite of holiday guides right
now and we're very excitedbecause we're about to send one
into the home that covers whatin the northern hemisphere are
(19:35):
winter holidays it's called ATime to Hope.
We have one for what in thenorthern hemisphere are fall
holidays, a Time to Grow.
We're working on A Time toGather, which will be sort of
spring, what we might think ofas spring holidays.
We're working on a two-partShabbat set and we have a
beautiful Haggadah.
(19:56):
So these are all resources thatwe put into families' homes.
We also send, you know, gifts.
It might be a Hanukkah puzzlethat goes with a storybook or an
apron for grandparents andchildren in different sizes so
that they can cook together.
We send tzedakah boxes intohomes.
So there are a number of giftsand resources that we put in
(20:16):
homes.
We have a tremendous amount ofdigital content, like I was
telling you, a couple ofpodcasts that are extremely well
listened to, but also depth ofadditional content online where
parents and families can go andjust discover ideas and
resources and articles.
We have a program called GetTogether, where we try to
incentivize Jewish families andgive them the tools they need to
(20:39):
host and get together withother Jewish families, which is
a very special program, I thinkvery dear to my heart, which is
a very special program, I think,very dear to my heart.
Nicole Kelly (20:50):
And I'm trying to think.
Jessica McCormick (20:55):
I know I'm missing stuff.
That's a lot.
All of it is designed yeah, no,it's an extremely big program
and it's all designed to inspirefamilies, you know, on their
own Jewish journeys for them, tohelp them explore holidays and
rituals, sort of on their ownterms.
Nicole Kelly (21:05):
So who pays for the books specifically and the
physical gifts that are sent?
Is it just the GrinspoonFoundation?
Are there other organizationsinvolved?
Things like that, privatedonations, yeah.
Jessica McCormick (21:17):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So all of that, and PJ is, ofcourse, totally free for
families.
It's a no-strings-attachedprogram, so right.
So Harold Grinspoon'sgenerosity is immense, but we
were able to do this actuallythanks in large part to the PJ
Library Alliance, which is acollective of generous
(21:37):
philanthropists who arededicated to supporting families
in creating this sort ofvibrant Jewish future, and, of
course, also private donations.
We're fueled by privatedonations as well, so we
couldn't do the work that we dowithout a global community of
individual donors andorganizational donors at all
levels of support, and that alsoincludes parents and
(21:57):
grandparents.
Nicole Kelly (21:58):
So it literally takes a village to make PJ.
Jessica McCormick (22:01):
Library run.
It literally takes a village.
Nicole Kelly (22:02):
Just like everything else in parenting,
kind of just jumping back to thegridspoon foundation for a
second, because I did not knowwho he was until I did a little
bit of a google search and he'svery impressive, um, so I
definitely you know wouldsuggest googling him.
And how like he dropped out ofcollege to work for you know.
He drove ice cream trucks andmanaged that, and he's now this
(22:25):
hugely successful real estatedeveloper.
He signed the Giving Pledge,the one that Bill Gates had a
bunch of very, very wealthypeople sign.
So if you don't know who he is,I would check that out and as
well.
Like you said, he's an artistand a sculptor, so you can look
that up online too.
He's a poet as well.
Oh my goodness, and he's stillgoing.
(22:46):
He's in his 80s, right, andhe's, he's still.
He's still going.
He's in his 90s oh he's his 90s.
We should all be so.
Jessica McCormick (22:54):
I work remotely.
I we should all be so lucky,and we're so lucky to have
Harold with us.
Um, I work remotely, but I goto the office several times a
year and he's in the office whenI visit there every day.
It's remarkable.
He's extremely inspiring.
Nicole Kelly (23:11):
That's crazy.
So what other organizationsdoes his foundation support?
Jessica McCormick (23:19):
Right.
So there are actually manyprojects of the Harold Greenspan
Foundation.
They're all aimed atstrengthening Jewish communities
worldwide and connecting peopleto Jewish values, tradition,
culture.
So PJ Library is a really bigone.
J Camp 180 is launched in 2004,and it helps build capacity of
(23:40):
nonprofit Jewish camps throughmentorship, professional
development opportunities andchallenge grants.
So camps are really close toHarold's heart.
We have Life and Legacy.
That started in 2010.
And through partnerships withfederations and foundations,
life and Legacy helps Jewish dayschools and synagogues and
(24:01):
social service organizations allsorts of Jewish organizations
build endowments to createfinancial stability, and so
that's what that project does.
And, by the way, it's reallyexciting for us in the PGA
Library world because ourcolleagues at JCamp 180 and Life
and Legacy work in many of thesame implementing partner
communities, and so we can seethe ways that the work unfolds
(24:22):
in these communities along anumber of fronts, like all
dreamed up by Harold.
And then Voices and Visions,which is dear to my heart
because I benefited from it as aHillel director.
It's a poster program that usesthe power of art to interpret
words of great Jewish thinkers,and these posters are just
offered as gifts to beautifyJewish spaces, and they go all
(24:48):
over North America into Jewishspaces and so every year at
Hillel, when I worked there, itwas like my great privilege to
get this package in the mail anddecide where these pieces of
art would go.
So those are the core projectsof the foundation, and HGF
collaborates with Jewish andphilanthropic organizations to
(25:11):
expand investments in all ofthose projects.
And I should also say thatHarold Greenspoon is also a
visionary local philanthropistand his local philanthropy in
Massachusetts, where he lives,is sort of a different aspect of
the work, but I would hate tonot say that because he also
makes such a big differenceright in his own backyard.
Nicole Kelly (25:33):
So there's a lot of ways to benefit.
So if somebody listening isinterested in something that's
other than PJ Library, wherewould they go to look for these
resources?
Jessica McCormick (25:43):
The Harold Greenspoon Foundation website is
is pretty robust and can pointpeople in the right direction.
Nicole Kelly (25:49):
Perfect, perfect, uh.
So jumping back to PJ Library.
Who can sign up for PJ Library?
Are there restrictions as tofar like?
You have to be this type ofJewish.
You have to be that who'sallowed to sign up for this.
Jessica McCormick (26:02):
Great.
So this is actually, I think,part of Harold's genius and his
vision.
We welcome all Jewish familiesand and this is actually, I
think, part of Harold's geniusand his vision we welcome all
Jewish families and this issuper important to him.
So PJ Library welcomes like anincredible diversity of Jewish
experience, serving familieswhether they have a lot of
previous Jewish knowledge orvery little, religiously
observant or not Any part of theJewish spectrum.
(26:22):
All families that have anyconnection to being a Jewish
family at all are welcome tosubscribe, and we hope they
subscribe.
And we know that these books gointo homes that really are
across the Jewish spectrum, fromextremely observant homes to
people to families for whom PJLibrary Books and Resources
(26:44):
might be their only Jewishtouchpoint.
I love that.
Nicole Kelly (26:46):
I love that it's so you only Jewish touchpoint.
I love that.
I love that it's so, you know,inclusionary.
I think that's an actual wordfor everybody.
What about educators?
So let's say you're a Jewisheducator, you run a young
children's program in asynagogue or a GTC, but you're
not, you know, bringing intoyour physical home but into a
(27:07):
school situation.
Are they allowed to sign up aswell?
Jessica McCormick (27:11):
That's a good question.
So we used to have a programseveral years ago and this is
sort of the nature.
We're not a baby organizationanymore but in many ways we
still function like a startup.
Right, it was a new idea andwe're always testing new ideas.
So several years ago we had aprogram called PJ Goes to School
.
They came with books andmaterials on how to use them in
a classroom.
We sunset that program to focuson the family experience at
(27:33):
home.
We do have organizationalsubscriptions where
organizations can sign up andreceive a book each month and
use them.
You know however they wouldlike, but anecdotally we know
that in addition to theorganizational subscriptions,
tons of our books are inclassrooms and particularly, but
not only, in Jewish spaces.
We send books to each child ina family.
(27:54):
Families end up with anincredible library of PJ library
books and some of those youknow remain sort of family
heirlooms and people hang on tothem and now we're starting to
see the first generation of PJkids having their own kids,
which is remarkable because theystill have their PJ library
books.
They're getting these new books.
But we also know that families,particularly with multiple kids
(28:16):
, end up with a ton of books andsome of those make their way
into beautiful donations, intoJewish organizations and into
public school libraries andcirculation, and so we know
those books are really wellloved and used in all sorts of
different settings by all sortsof different educators.
Nicole Kelly (28:33):
I love that you're that there's like a
generational thing going now,because you know when
something's been around for solong, you know the, you know
Lador Vador, literally to fromgeneration to generation.
That's so great that you guyshave been around long enough, uh
, to make that happen Just onthe cusp, like just on the cusp.
Jessica McCormick (28:51):
It's really exciting.
Nicole Kelly (28:52):
Very young, very young, very young parents, uh, I
guess who, uh, who, um, were,were some of the first PJ
library kids.
Is PJ library is affiliatedwith a specific Jewish movement?
You mentioned JCC.
Um, I, you, you know it seemslike it's like a non-specific,
like conservative reform, thatit's not affiliated with any of
(29:15):
those.
I don't know how to let merephrase this question Is PG
Library affiliated with aspecific Jewish movement?
You had mentioned the JCC.
Jessica McCormick (29:26):
Yeah, no, we're not.
So we work.
We do work with implementingpartners in North America.
The way we work, we work withover 183 implementing partners
in various communities to help,you know, grow our subscription,
get books into more Jewishhomes and also grow their family
engagement locally.
We want people connected totheir own local community and so
(29:47):
many of the organizations wework with are JCCs and
federations, but not always JCCsand federations, and we're
totally non-denominational interms of how we're affiliated,
just like how anybody cansubscribe for the book, and the
books themselves reflect aspectrum of Jewish practices as
well.
You can see a lot of differenttypes of Jewish practice in our
(30:08):
books and we're always trying todiversify our stories and our
characters and our settings.
We talk about, on the book sideof PJ Library, windows and
mirrors.
We want to give children andfamilies windows into other
types of Jewish life and valuesand rituals that may not be
their own or may not yet betheir own.
But we also want mirrors, right, we want kids to see their own
(30:31):
Jewish experience reflected inthe stories we want them to see
themselves.
It's so important, and so we'realways trying to diversify our
stories because we know thatwe're not affiliated with a
specific part of the Jewishworld and we really want our
stories to speak to everybody.
Nicole Kelly (30:48):
I love that.
I love that it's exposingpeople to maybe people who are
more religious, but justholidays in general and, like I
said, animals.
There were kangarooscelebrating Rosh Hashanah last
night, which is a very uniqueJewish experience.
We've read that book a coupletimes this week Alligator Seder
by Crush.
Jessica McCormick (31:04):
Yes, we have.
Yes, okay.
Nicole Kelly (31:08):
Yes, we have Alligator Seder too.
I was picking a second book andI was like, do we go Sukkot, do
we go Passover?
I was like we'll do Sukkotbecause it's coming up soon, but
Alligator Seder is definitelywith my daughter's books.
Why is it important to sendbooks to children in this
specific age group?
Because you could do just oneto three, one to four, because
you know four tends to be thecutoff for like young children
(31:30):
program.
Why did the foundation and PJlibrary decide to extend past
four or five?
Jessica McCormick (31:39):
Right, right, we go from birth to 12.
So, look, I think that you'retalking about really early
childhood and there's sort of aconventional wisdom that that
might be the time when familiesare making decisions on how to
raise their children or howtheir Jewish home or life is
going to look.
But I actually think it extendsmuch further than that and we
(31:59):
want Jewish parents and Jewishchildren, jewish grandparents,
non-jewish caregivers helping toraise Jewish children.
We want all of them to beempowered and we want to
continue helping to build forpeople on their own terms Jewish
identity, jewish joy, jewishresilience, a set of Jewish
(32:19):
understanding around.
You know holidays and values,and so it's really important for
us that we're not just a babybook program and the stories get
so much more sophisticated as achild grows.
But it's also amazingreinforcement.
Right, you might have alligatorseder in your home, but by the
time a child is 12, they willhave a library of Passover
(32:43):
stories.
They'll have a number ofdifferent ways to think about
the Passover experience, fromthe storybooks, from the holiday
guides we put into the homes,and then for several years
they'll get to pick their ownstories and what matters to them
.
So I think that the entire agespectrum we're sending to.
These are all people like.
(33:05):
The journey doesn't stop at acertain age, and so it's
important to us to reach kidsfrom birth through age 12.
And listen our educators andour experts.
They curate Jewish books tomatch each developmental stage
of a child's journey, frominfancy to independent reader.
We have a whole team thatspends quite a lot of time
thinking about what goes intothe home at each age and stage.
Nicole Kelly (33:27):
You talked a little bit about how the program
shifts from middle school agechildren.
Was this something that was?
I assume this is something thatwas added a little bit later.
Why did you choose, to you know, expand the program, and how
does it change when the kids geta little bit older?
Jessica McCormick (33:44):
Yeah, so much later.
2014 is when PJ Arway launched,so I feel like my oldest kids
must have been right towardstowards the beginning of it,
benefiting from it andindependent readers tweens, I
mean.
I think it's.
Nicole Kelly (33:58):
I think it's common wisdom that they don't
want to be told what to do ortold what to consume, and so we
wanted to give them, or, ifyou're my daughter, it's already
the case.
It's already the case, rightThreenagers, people say
sometimes, yes, she's prettygreat, but she definitely is
opinionated.
Jessica McCormick (34:20):
Yeah.
So then children get to pick.
These tweens get to pick, whichis a very powerful experience.
So our older readers are ages 9through 12.
And you know some kids one ofmy kids, my middle kid, only
read graphic novels by choice,you know, unless they had to
read something for school for aperiod of something like six
years, and I'm very happy toreport that he's a great reader
(34:42):
as a young adult now, and I lovegraphic novels.
I think it gives a lot ofpeople a different path in to
literacy, and so our middlegraders can pick each month
between fiction, nonfiction,graphic novels along a number of
different themes, so they'renot just getting one piece of
content, and that's, I think,really exciting.
And they also through PJR way.
(35:05):
There are some opportunitiesfor them to interact with their
peers through local leadershipcouncils In some cases there's
been some specific programmingand also they can go online and
leave reviews for the books sothat in other months their own
peers can use their feedback todecide which books to bring into
their home.
Nicole Kelly (35:24):
How do they choose the books?
Is that done online throughlike a portal?
How does that work?
Jessica McCormick (35:28):
Exactly, it's online through a portal Great.
Nicole Kelly (35:32):
How many households does PJ Library serve
?
I don't know if you have exactnumbers, but nationally,
internationally.
Jessica McCormick (35:41):
So internationally we send 600 and
I think it's 650,000 books amonth.
Oh, my goodness, that's it'sincredible and in 2022, we sent
our 50 millionth book.
Nicole Kelly (35:55):
That's a lot of books, especially considering
how small the Jewish populationis worldwide.
Jessica McCormick (35:59):
That's an immense footprint on that and
it's an immense footprint andwe're very proud and that's I
mean, that's Harold's vision.
You know he's he's.
He's a great guy because it'san immense footprint and we're
very proud and that's I mean,that's Harold's vision.
You know he's a great guybecause he's an ideas man and
he's an execution man.
You know, sometimes you havesomebody who's an ideas person
and somebody else who's a doer,and Harold is everything.
Um, but it's, it's an immensepart of market share,
(36:21):
particularly in North America.
We're also in over 40 countriesand we know there are so many
more Jewish homes that we wouldlike to offer these, these,
these books too.
So we are always looking togrow and get these books in as
many homes as possible.
Nicole Kelly (36:36):
Yeah, I definitely .
I don't remember how Iinitially found out about PGA
Library.
I don't remember, but I signedup pretty much right after my
daughter was born and eventsthat aren't are co-hosts of PGA
Library through our synagogue,through things like the JCC.
You guys are always around andhave someone to talk to people
and examples of books and giveout like magnets and stickers.
So you know, I, if I hadn'theard about it initially, I
(36:59):
absolutely would have heardabout it, you know, through some
sort of event and you guys soyou guys do a really great job
of of outreach in regards tothat.
Jessica McCormick (37:07):
I, I mean, I love to hear that.
That's actually a lot.
So we have a core staff at theHarold Greenspoon Foundation,
but we have these amazingpartners in the field.
You know those, those folks whoare at events that you go to.
So in New York it's actuallyour staff and our people.
It's such a big market for usthat we run New York and work
with, of course, many partnersin the field, but in every other
community those are employeesof a GCC or a federation or
(37:31):
another Jewish organization andwe offer some really lovely
professional development.
But they're just an amazingteam.
They're out there using thetools that we provide to make
their family engagement the bestit can be, and that's what we
want to see.
We just want to see peoplebeing plugged into community.
We love it.
Nicole Kelly (37:50):
You had mentioned other countries.
So, according to the website,pj Library now sends books to
over 40 countries in sevenlanguages.
Why did the organization thinkit was important to expand
beyond the US and how successfulhas that aspect of the
organization been?
Jessica McCormick (38:12):
So I think it's been pretty successful and
what's amazing?
So I'll start with what I thinkis amazing and then I can give
you like a more official answer.
What I think is amazing andthen I can give you like a more
official answer.
What I think is amazing is thatJewish children all around the
world are having a commonexperience because of PJ Library
, and I really mean all aroundthe world.
We work differently indifferent countries, but it's
(38:34):
remarkable that a child inUkraine and obviously a child in
Israel and a child in Australiaand a child in Israel and a
child in Australia and a childin South America and a child
even I took a trip to Japan thissummer and our international
director said oh, do you want meto connect you with the PJ
parents in Tokyo?
That all over the world thereare Jewish families having a
common experience.
(38:55):
Now, the books are not alwaysthe same.
It's actually an enormousoperation, because books that
might resonate in New York mightnot resonate at all in Mexico
right.
And a book that resonates inMexico may or may not resonate
in Argentina, and so it's anenormous undertaking, but the
idea there was really the same.
(39:15):
We want to empower Jewishfamilies around the world, from
the unaffiliated to the deeplyinvolved, from Russia to Uruguay
.
We want families all around theworld, from the unaffiliated to
the deeply involved, fromRussia to Uruguay.
We want families all around theworld to be able to create
their own treasured Jewishmoments and memories through the
simple act of reading storiestogether, and we want to honor
people's like local traditionsand also give them these windows
(39:36):
into Jewish practice around theworld.
So it's it's like very exciting, exciting, and it's an enormous
, an enormous endeavor.
Nicole Kelly (39:44):
Yeah, it sounds like it, especially trying to
figure out what would resonatein different countries, because
Judaism varies greatly withinthe United States.
So I can't imagine trying tokind of gauge other countries,
especially countries that don'thave a large traditional Jewish
population, like Uruguay orJapan.
But we, you know, we're a small, mighty population and we're,
(40:05):
we are everywhere and that's soexciting that the organization
is able to share that withpeople in other countries.
You know, I love that.
I love that so much.
Pj Library also self-publishes.
I noticed this pretty early onthat the books have your logo
and, like you said, those littleflaps.
My daughter's starting to getbooks that have information with
flaps and things like that.
(40:26):
So does this make the operationeasier, more difficult, when
did this start?
You know how does that work?
Jessica McCormick (40:35):
Yeah, so not all of our books are
self-published.
In fact, an enormous amount ofour books go through external
traditional publishers, andbecause we operate in such
quantity, we're able to putcovers and book flaps on books
even when we're working withpublishers.
But we also do have apublishing arm.
(40:56):
Pj Publishing started in 2014.
And the idea was to providemore opportunities for authors
and illustrators to publish awider array of Jewish stories
for our families.
So oftentimes we would noticethat there was a promising
manuscript that anotherpublisher didn't pick up for
whatever reason, and so PGAPublishing would make an offer
(41:16):
and publish it, and now, if thebook looks like it has potential
for us, we'll make an offerright away the PJ Publishing arm
and that's a huge change in howour own publishing arm has
worked, but we still loveworking with publishers.
We just wanted to be able tohave the capacity to move the
(41:37):
Jewish stories that we wanted tosee going to parents and to the
world, and so it gives us alittle bit more flexibility and
it's changed the way.
You know, we're able to workwith authors and illustrators.
Nicole Kelly (41:48):
As far as you know , choosing the books every month
and everything like.
Let's say, you know I have mydaughter.
We get books once a month.
If I signed up a second child,would I get the same books?
Would you say, okay, she'salready.
Great question, you know shealready has books.
How does that work?
Jessica McCormick (42:02):
Yeah, such, such a good question and I
couldn't.
I couldn't even begin.
I'll, I'll.
I'll tell you the sliver of itthat I understand, because the
logistics of it boggle my mind.
Our operations team is, I mean,the cream of the crop, seconds.
And then the idea is that youwould not get repeat books, or
at least not many.
We don't use books, I believeit's every four years, and so
(42:27):
that's not perfect timing, rightfor all families, but for the
majority of our families, evenif they have many children, they
won't receive a lot of repeatbooks.
Now, at the same time that wedon't recycle books more than
every four years, we're alsoconstantly adding new titles,
and so the likelihood then thatyou get a book over and over and
(42:48):
over again.
Now we do send a welcome bookto families.
Joseph had a little overcoat,and so some families wind up
with multiple copies of that.
I think, or maybe just I did,because I already had such a
large Jewish library before mykids started PJ.
But they work really hard andit's a very complicated
(43:09):
operation to try to get freshbooks to each child and each
family.
Nicole Kelly (43:15):
I love that because we have a book selection
committee Sorry go ahead.
I love that, you know,obviously depending on, like,
the difference between children,but you know the most part a
child gets, I think part of theexcitement is getting a book in
the mail so that the youngersibling still has that
experience.
You know they're not just likeokay, here's the leftover books
(43:35):
from your older sibling, so theyget their own books just like
their older sibling would.
Jessica McCormick (43:45):
With their name on it.
It comes with their name on iton the envelope.
It's very exciting.
You know my seven-year-old sohe's been getting pj library
books his whole life and itdoesn't become less exciting
when he comes home from schooland there's a pj envelope for
him.
He loses his mind.
And now, by the way, we have towork really hard because, um, I
work at pj now and I get all ofthe books each month and they
kept Akiva's subscription my sonis Akiva so that he could still
(44:08):
get his own and that's reallyspecial for him.
And so now it's very importantfor him to figure out, when all
of the envelopes come, which oneactually is his.
Nicole Kelly (44:20):
I love that.
I love this organization somuch.
I love it.
We talked about donatingdirectly to PJ Library.
What about if you wanted tohost an event?
How would you do?
How would you facilitate?
You know how would you go aboutmaking donations, hosting
events.
Is there a way to sign up onthe website?
Jessica McCormick (44:37):
Well, I would love to talk about pjlibraryorg
slash donate, Please.
Anybody can go there anytimeand help make this work possible
.
It's really important work, andwhen I say no Strings Attached,
I really mean that All theseresources just go to families
for free.
So I love that.
In terms of hosting events, Idon't know, I can't think of a
(45:02):
way that somebody would host anevent, but I never want to close
a door to something.
I think the best thing forparents to do is to get involved
with their local PJ library,you know, with the implementing
partner organization, tounderstand what events they're
doing.
Anybody can host a get together, which is incredible.
(45:23):
That's not meant to be.
That's not fundraising for PJ.
That's just meant to get youtogether with your friends, In
fact.
In fact, we will be happy toreimburse you for some of your
expenses to the tune of ahundred dollars, so that you can
gather in whatever way ismeaningful for you with other
Jewish families and help createcommunity on your terms.
So I think there are differentways to gather with other PJ
(45:44):
families and I would hate tospeak on behalf of our
advancement team.
They might love to havesomebody you know help us raise
money in creative ways butpjlibraryorg slash donate is
where I'd love people to checkout.
Nicole Kelly (45:58):
Yes, remember that website.
Send them money.
Jessica McCormick (46:01):
Thank you, they're doing great work.
Thank you for asking, by theway.
Nicole Kelly (46:05):
Yeah, I mean charity and philanthropy is such
a part of Judaism and what mypersonal beliefs in general.
You know my mother, you knowfrom a young age, instilled in
us that you don't throw thingsaway, you donate them there's.
You know you don't throw thingsaway, you donate them there's.
You know you're giving awayclothes.
There's an organization thatgives clothes to women who need
(46:27):
outfits for job interviews orgirls for prom, and she was very
active in organizations.
So it's very important to me toalways find ways to get back to
the community and that's such ahuge cornerstone of my
daughter's school's, you know,mo is that from a very early age
they encourage them to getinvolved with the community and
help others.
So I'm always looking for waysto do that and encourage other
people.
Maybe I'll look into hosting anevent.
(46:47):
I'm involved with a couple ofyoung parents like not parents
who are young, but parents ofyoung children, and we're always
looking for things to do.
So maybe I'll reach out to a PGlibrary representative and
figure that out.
Jessica McCormick (47:00):
Yeah, we would love it and you don't even
have to do that.
You can sign up for assubscribers can sign up to host
a get-together online.
It's pretty easy and there arelots of tools and ideas and
that's also no strings attached.
Listen, I'm so glad you askedabout donations, but also just
pjlibraryorg.
I mean, become a subscriber,you know that's, that's the.
That's the main thing we want.
We want to be getting storiesinto people's homes to help them
(47:23):
build their own Jewish life.
Nicole Kelly (47:24):
Not to mention all the online resources which I
really have not utilized.
I will admit I feel like that'ssomething I need to look a
little more into and play musicand look at the the online
content that you guys have.
Jessica McCormick (47:37):
There's, it's , it's.
It's extremely deep.
Our digital content team isremarkable and it's extremely
deep.
Our digital content team isremarkable.
You can find so many resourcesfor every holiday, every value,
every tradition.
There are so many details onthe books and how you can use
the books in your own life.
And then our podcast.
I just can't say enough.
We have a couple of differentpodcasts and they're so
(47:57):
wonderful to listen to it.
Really, I suppose some kidsmight listen to podcasts on
their own my seven-year-old isjust starting to do that but
mostly it facilitates familytime for us.
We'll listen to a podcasttogether in a car or when we're
traveling and then we talk aboutit, and the podcasts are just
this remarkable additive productthat we have.
(48:18):
So definitely check those outif you haven't.
Nicole Kelly (48:21):
I'm obviously a big believer in podcasts, though
my husband and I really onlykind of jumped on the podcast
train maybe like a year agobecause we don't have cars and I
like to read on the train, sohe's much more podcast heavy
than I am.
But the idea of listening to apodcast my daughter while we're
like playing or doing something,I think I like that.
I like that as opposed to likea TV being on or something like
(48:44):
that.
Jessica McCormick (48:46):
It's quite lovely and, you know, one of the
things we know that parentstell us is, yes, the PJ Library
products help them with theirJewish life, but they also just
help them with family time.
Right, just quality family timesitting on the couch or having
a kid in your lap.
It's called PJ library.
It stands for, you know, pajamalibrary.
It's.
It's the idea that you knowyou're cozy and spending this
(49:07):
family time together and andthat's a benefit completely in
addition to or separate from theJewish benefit we're just
facilitating quality family time, and the podcast can also do
that.
Nicole Kelly (49:20):
So talking about, you know, working with authors
and new books.
I feel like my husband and Ihave a million ideas for
children's books, notnecessarily Jewish.
But let's say there's somebodywho is a new or unknown author.
How would they go aboutsubmitting?
Do they pitch an idea?
Do they have to have a storywritten?
Do they have to have an artist?
How would they go about doingthat?
(49:41):
Where would they submit?
What would you guys request?
So if you could let me know howto do that, Sure, Maybe I'll
get you a book.
Jessica McCormick (49:49):
So first of all, you should write all those
children's books.
Look, we work with all types ofdifferent authors and anyone
can submit a manuscript by goingto the how we Choose Books
section of our website.
So any author Now that submit amanuscript by going to the how
we choose books section of ourwebsite.
So any author Now that is amanuscript that's complete.
(50:10):
It does not need to haveillustrations, but that's like a
complete manuscript, not anidea.
Of course, we also buy frompublishers, right, and so there
are many authors who might sellbooks based on pitches, but
those are typically authors thatare agented, you know, and and
are and already working in thatprofessional capacity.
But, yeah, we encourage, if youhave a manuscript, go to go on
our website, click on how wechoose books and submit it to us
(50:31):
.
We love reading new work.
I actually that's not really mydepartment, so I would say my
colleagues love reading new workand I just benefit just benefit
from it when it comes down thepipe a little further.
Nicole Kelly (50:43):
I think we all benefit from it.
So if you've got an idea, headover to PJ Library and shoot
your shot, I guess.
One thing I noticed on thewebsite that is very unique is
you have something called theFirst Time Camp Awards.
Can you talk to me a little bitabout what that is and how that
got started?
Jessica McCormick (51:01):
Sure, well, as you know, because we've been
already talking about it, jewishcamp is very sacred and
important to Harold, and youknow he has the J Camp 180
program.
So PJ Library wants to help oursubscribers attend Jewish
Overnight Camp for the firsttime, and so we offer awards to
qualifying families.
We administer camp awardsthrough the One Happy Camper
(51:22):
platform, so there are a numberof different organizations that
offer similar incentives, and sodo we, and so to be eligible to
receive an award from PJLibrary, a camper has to be all
of a following you have to be acurrent or former PJ Library
subscriber or the sibling of onein a PJ Library subscription
family.
You have to be looking toattend a nonprofit Jewish
(51:44):
overnight camp in the UnitedStates or Canada, and we have
the list of qualifying camps.
You can find it on the OneHappy Camper website.
You have to be attendingovernight camp for the first
time.
We're just thinking about thisin my family because my big kids
went to camp for a long time,but my seven-year-old is going
next year for the first time.
It's very exciting.
You have to start talking aboutit way early in the year, right
(52:04):
so that they're ready to go.
So first-time campers childrenwho've never attended a Jewish
overnight camp for 12 or moreconsecutive days.
Right, there are some specificshere, but I would love to share
them with your listeners.
Campers who attended like a oneweek taste of camp kind of
program in the previous year areactually still eligible to
apply because we want them to gofor a longer experience.
(52:26):
So you have to be going for 12or more consecutive days and you
have to be a resident of US orCanada.
So there are a few more thingsthat families could look at, a
few more rules, but that'spjlibraryorg slash camp and we.
It's really a feel-good programto offer incentives to our
(52:47):
subscribers so that they canhave this other Jewish
experience.
Nicole Kelly (52:50):
I think that's so special.
I went to camp an overnightcamp when I was 14.
I didn't have the opportunityto do so when I was younger, but
it was a really greatexperience and something I'm
hoping to do for my daughter,and I think it's really
beautiful that the organizationand Harold, you know, through
his foundation facilitates that.
So, before we jump into ourshort form questions, is there
(53:13):
anything else you want to talkabout?
You know, your personal story,or PJ Library in general, or
Harold, or anything like that orPJ Library in general, or
Herald or anything like that.
Jessica McCormick (53:25):
You asked a lot of really good questions.
This was a deep interview.
I think I just want people toknow about it and sometimes in
the circles I run in because Iwork for PJ Library, it feels
like everybody knows about it.
But of course that's not trueand I want so many people to
know that these resources areavailable to them, that it
really is a free resource, thatit's just a gift of the Harold
(53:49):
Greenspoon Foundation and ourincredible alliance donors and
you know individual donors thatit's a gift and that it's books
and it's so much more.
It's these holiday guides andthese gifts and these
resources's books, and it's somuch more.
It's these holiday guides andthese gifts and these resources
and the podcast and all of thecontent online and the get
together program where we helpyou, you know, create your own
(54:11):
hyperlocal community on yourterms.
I just want people to knowabout it.
Nicole Kelly (54:16):
I hopefully this, this podcast, will reach reach a
few new subscribers.
That's my hope and one of thereasons I wanted to talk to you
guys, because I really do lovethe organization.
I am an avid reader.
I'm trying to instill that withmy daughter.
It's working so far becauseshe'll carry books around with
her, even though she can't readyet.
She takes books to school withher.
She was running around the parkwith a Dr Seuss book two weeks
(54:39):
ago.
I'm such a fan of encouragingliteracy and that's really what
this organization is, along withthe Jewish aspect, so it's like
the perfect thing for my family.
I love it so much.
Jessica McCormick (54:52):
I love that story about your daughter
because she's already.
She's not even decoding, yetshe's already doing that thing
that I think many readers do,which is I take a book
everywhere and 80% of the time Inever crack it, but I don't go
to a doctor's appointment.
Nicole Kelly (55:06):
I don't go to a baseball game.
Jessica McCormick (55:08):
I don't go anywhere without it and like is
my shoulder probably a littlewonky from carrying books around
my whole life Totally.
But it's worth it and I lovethat your little child is
already a book toter.
Nicole Kelly (55:19):
She takes after her mom.
I used to get in trouble forreading at the dinner table,
Like we go to a restaurant andI'd read a book.
I just yeah, it's what I do.
It's what I do.
So this next section is shortform questions in the style of
the actor studio.
They don't need to be longexplanations if you don't want
to.
What is your favorite Yiddishword?
Jessica McCormick (55:39):
For sure, shtickle.
It means like a little bit.
It was a word I already lovedand then one, but it has a
really funny moment in one of mybig kids' favorite songs.
I have a little challah fromwhen they were little, and so
for sure shtickle.
Nicole Kelly (55:53):
What is your favorite Jewish holiday?
Jessica McCormick (55:57):
Pesach for sure Passover.
And when I moved to LA, even asa college student, I told my
family I want you to come visitme, for Pesach, that's what I
would like to host.
And so, even in this tiny,these tiny apartments in my
early years in LA, my familywould come from all over and
there were some years when I waslike this is crazy making, why
have I done this?
(56:17):
But I love Pesach.
It's a home-based holiday andeverything about it, and
particularly the smells and thestorytelling Just love it.
Nicole Kelly (56:29):
If you were to have a bat mitzvah today, what
would the theme of your party be?
Jessica McCormick (56:35):
So I do not mean to sound snooty here, but
I'm going to say that my twooldest kids they had their b'nai
mitzvah together.
They're very close in age andsometimes people will say to me
what was their theme, and I'llsay Torah.
And that was sort of the themeof mine too.
I was bat mitzvahed at aconservative synagogue in Israel
(56:56):
and the theme was sort of Torah.
And so that's not to sneeze atthese amazing parties which I've
enjoyed my whole life, but whenI think of becoming a child of
the commandments, I actuallyjust think of Torah.
Nicole Kelly (57:12):
What profession other than your own would you
want to attempt?
Jessica McCormick (57:17):
Okay, I don't know that I would actually want
to attempt this because I lackgrace and all musical ability.
But a Broadway star, obviouslythat's the dream, that's what I
want to be.
I was in New York last week andI was able to see two shows and
I think I just likedisassociate sometimes and I
think I'm up there on stage, youknow, kicking well, that was
(57:42):
what I moved to New York for,and I ended up doing a lot of
other stuff, so I definitely canrelate to that all right.
Nicole Kelly (57:45):
Well, thank you so much for joining me, jessica.
So if you're interested insigning up for PJ Library and
any of their programs, head totheir website and you can get
some free books in the mail andsome great resources.
This is Ben Sheber in the Cityand some great resources.
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Hi, I'm Nicole Kelly and thisis Shebrew in the City, and
(00:30):
today I am talking to JessicaMcCormick from PJ Library.
How are you doing this morning,Jessica?
Jessica McCormick (00:38):
I'm well.
How are you?
Nicole Kelly (00:38):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good, so we're goingto go ahead and talk a little
bit about your personal story,as well as PJ Library and the
Grinspoon Foundation today.
So I usually start by asking myguests where they're from and
what their Jewish upbringing waslike, if they had any.
Jessica McCormick (00:58):
Yeah, so I'm from.
I was born in Tucson, arizona,and that is where I'm sitting
right now which is kind of funnybecause most of my adult life I
was in Los Angeles.
So I grew up in Tucson, Arizona,as part of a very.
We were spent most of our livesin a very vibrant conservative
shul.
It's like it was that time inconservative Judaism when it was
(01:22):
standing room only at theChagim.
It's not like that anymore, butI grew up so I was also in
Hebrew school three days a week.
My kid now goes two, but I wasin it three days a week.
I went to Camp Al-Alim and CampRamah.
My parents sent me to SleepawayCamp.
I was in USY, I was in BBYO andso my life was really centered
(01:43):
around Judaism.
And my husband actually makesthe joke when we used to visit
Tucson, because for 22 years Ilived in Los Angeles until he
moved here.
As far as he was concerned,Tucson was like 100% Jews,
because he would come back andvisit with me and those are all
the people he would encounter,the people he would encounter
(02:04):
Towards the end of what youmight think of as like COVID
quarantine period.
We made the decision to leaveLA and move back to Tucson to be
close to grandparents, myparents, my family, and then, of
course, he discovered like therich diversity of life in Tucson
.
And then I would say that LosAngeles, my years in Los Angeles
as a young adult and then as aparent, also really shaped my
Judaism.
That's where I created my ownJewish identity.
It's where I made a shift fromworking in Hollywood, which had
(02:28):
been my early career, intomunicipal government and then
Jewish nonprofits.
And that shift happened becauseI stayed home for several years
with my oldest children I havetwo in college and I have a
seven-year-old and during thoseyears my life was made better by
municipal government, bylibraries, by farmers markets,
but also by Jewish organizations.
(02:49):
And I made a decision when Iwent back in the workforce I had
loved working in Hollywood,loved it, loved it, but I wanted
to go back and work in thoseworlds that had impacted me so
much.
Nicole Kelly (03:00):
It's so funny that you talk about the height of
the conservative movementbecause I grew up in that as
well.
In the 90s, early 2000s, I wentto Hebrew school two times a
week, but it was like two hoursand then most Sundays.
I totally get what you'resaying.
I like to say that I didn'tactually really meet anyone who
wasn't Jewish until I was fiveand went to kindergarten.
(03:20):
So I can completely relate tothat and I'm originally from Los
Angeles.
You are, yeah, I am, I'm fromthe San Fernando Valley.
My family, my sister and myparents still live there, so we
try to go back a couple times ayear and they come here.
So I can totally relate to the,like you said, the height of
the conservative movement, whichis something that's very
different today for variousreasons.
(03:40):
It's kind of crazy how thedecline of that and membership
within synagogues has sodrastically changed in less than
30 years.
It's crazy.
Jessica McCormick (03:51):
It's really different.
And I don't think I realizedthe extent to which it had
happened, because when I wasliving in Los Angeles I did work
for a while at a very largeconservative synagogue.
I worked as the director ofcommunications at the day school
and that was that was, you know, probably had had more of a
heyday, but Sinai Temple wasstill extraordinarily full and
vibrant.
And then for six years, one ofthe things I did in the in the
(04:15):
Jewish community and we can talkmore about my various roles
before PJ library but I was thedirector of something called the
Jewish Emergent Network, whichis really known by its parts
more than its sum.
It was seven progressive Jewishcommunities all around the
country and they came togetherin a network to help raise the
field, to offer programs.
But I was working with placeslike Labshul and Romamu and
(04:36):
Mishkan and Ikar and the Kitchenand Sixth and I Kavanaugh in
Seattle, and these places wereall standing room only right At
that moment.
They were sort of reinventingwhat it could mean to be in
Jewish community and breakingtheir own paths.
And so in those scenarios I wasalso in, you know, places that
(04:57):
were overflowing.
And when I moved back to Tucsonand I went back to my home,
shul, which I have a veryfondness in my heart for.
I'll spend a lot of time therelater this week, I was surprised
to see exactly what hadhappened.
Nicole Kelly (05:12):
I remember high holidays when I was growing up.
They would actually have seats,kind of like on the other side
of the glass outside because itwas so full.
And I don't think the synagogueis that busy anymore, even on
high holidays.
But we belong to a reformedsynagogue that has 2,500
families.
It's one of the largest in thecountry.
So I mean there are benefitsand downsides to large
(05:34):
synagogues.
You had mentioned, you know,working in the Jewish sector
before, you know, going to PJLibrary.
Can you talk a little bit aboutsome of those positions and
what that entailed?
Jessica McCormick (05:52):
Yeah, sure.
So I had been working for thecity of Beverly Hills in
community services when I got myfirst opportunity to work in
the Jewish nonprofit world, andthat was at Sinai Akiva Academy
as the director ofcommunications.
It was a new position for thatday school and it was, you know,
an extremely immersiveexperience to learn about Jewish
nonprofits in that way.
My next role was at the JewishImmersion Network, where I came
(06:13):
in as sort of a program managerand then became the director of
this fledgling brand new program, and that was extremely rare
air to be breathing, because Iwas working all of the time with
remarkable rabbis.
All seven of the communitiesthat made up the network had
just remarkable rabbis at theircenter, and then we were also
working on training early careerrabbis.
(06:35):
And so not only was I learningat sort of at the feet of these
luminaries through this work,but I got to be around clergy
all the time, and I actuallydidn't realize how bereft I
would be of that until I made mynext move.
So I became the executivedirector of the Hillel at the
University of Arizona, myhometown of Tucson, and so we
(06:55):
moved back and working withstudents was remarkable.
But it was just a few months inwhen I realized, oh, it's
really a different life whenyou're not talking to rabbis all
day, every day.
You know, text and music wereso naturally a part of my
day-to-day life for six yearsand I missed that.
But then I was also able tobring that a little bit to the
(07:16):
students at the Hillel and itwas a very tumultuous couple of
years.
At that Hillel, unfortunately,there was a terrible tragedy
that happened on Yom Kippur Daya few years ago.
Right in the building, rightacross the street from my Hillel
, a professor was murdered by astudent who was full of hate and
(07:37):
who erroneously believed theprofessor to be Jewish, and so
it was an extremely complicatedsituation.
As you can imagine.
It was very scary andcomplicated that day on Yom
Kippur as we barricaded in thebuilding and then for months
afterwards as the story unfoldedand of course we tried to help
these students and keep ourHillel a really safe place.
(07:59):
So it was a very tumultuous andexhausting couple of years.
So it was a very tumultuous andexhausting couple of years and
the Hillel, you know when I washired, needed a lot of.
There had been some, in manyways, strong leadership and in
other ways it really neededrebuilding, particularly around
engagement.
There were a ton of Jews onthat campus that weren't being
engaged and it was exhaustingand extremely fulfilling work.
(08:21):
And then, just about a year andtwo months ago, I came to PJ
Library and this has been justit's been just a gift in my life
.
I'm, you know, I'm a little bitof a writer.
On the side I'm a reader.
I have three children who allbenefited in different ways from
PJ Library, and so it's been adelight to make that shift into
(08:44):
immerse in this world of Jewishstories.
Nicole Kelly (08:46):
I'm sorry you had to go through that.
That must have been anabsolutely terrifying experience
.
You know, at the height of thehigh holidays that happening and
having to hide not reallyknowing what was going on.
Jessica McCormick (08:58):
Yes, it was very scary.
Thank you for saying that.
It was, I think, much scarierand more traumatic for the
students.
That's who you know, who Ireally think about.
You know, the sad truth is thatin the Jewish world we have to
have so much training, so muchtraining around potential
terrible events.
But it works, and so I was ableto respond, and the rest of the
(09:23):
incredible staff I worked with.
We were able to respondextremely quickly, almost
instinctively, which is whatthey want, by training you again
and again and again for activethreats, and so we knew what to
do.
But it was very hard for thestudents.
That was their holy space andtheir space to be themselves
freely, and it was a long roadto recapture that feeling for
(09:48):
them in the building.
Nicole Kelly (09:49):
When I was growing up, the GCC under my parents'
house, where my sister had, likeshe'd been in the session of
summer camp before this happened, someone walked in with a gun
and shot people and that waskind of the onset of the
security within the Jewishcommunity.
My synagogue did not have gatesor security when I was much
younger and now you know,there's police officers in front
(10:09):
of our synagogue my daughter'sschool which I'm thankful for,
but every time I see them I kindof think it's really
unfortunate.
This is necessary, but at thesame time I'm very thankful for
the very organized security teamthat the organizations I'm
involved with have.
Jessica McCormick (10:25):
So I totally get the training and training
resources.
Nicole Kelly (10:28):
Yeah, there are a lot of resources, thank goodness
so let's move on to something alittle a little more joyous pj
library.
Uh, we are a big fan of this inmy house.
I read my daughter two pjlibrary books last night.
One was about kangarooscelebrating rochashana, and I
don't remember what the otherone was, but but it was a PJ
Library book about a holiday, Idon't remember which one.
(10:49):
Oh, it was about Sukkot.
It was about Sukkot, so welearned about some of the
holidays that are coming up.
So can you tell me a little bitabout how you got involved with
PJ Library before we jump intothe story of the organization in
general?
Jessica McCormick (11:05):
Yeah, I mean, when I think about my
involvement with PJ Library, Ifirst think about my own
children.
You know, way before I workedfor the organization, my two
oldest children in Los Angeles,weren't didn't have a lot of the
time with the PJ story booksbecause of their age and where
the program was.
But very interesting.
Briefly, we're part of aprogram that we don't run
(11:26):
anymore in America calledSifriyat Pajama, which we run in
Israel.
But my two oldest children,their father is a Sabra, so
Israeli, and so Hebrew speakinghome for them, and they received
for a time storybooks in Hebrew, which was, you know, such an
amazing resource that I don'tthink we really utilized, but
(11:48):
I'm sure lots of other familiesdid.
We tried to read them, we justthere wasn't, there wasn't
fluency.
And then they becamesubscribers in this incredible
program that for us was soexciting, pj our way, when they
were just a little bit olderthat's for older age range,
kiddos and then they could pickevery month between fiction,
(12:08):
nonfiction and graphic novels.
They could select their ownbooks every month, and then they
would come in the mail, and sothat was amazing.
And then and then I had my, youknow, now seven year old, and I
was signed up from age zero, ofcourse, and I would you know.
We started receiving all ofthese books that we hadn't had
(12:29):
when my big kids were little,and there were all sorts of
other resources too.
There's a ton of digitalcontent Now I'm privileged to
work with the digital contentteam, but first I was just a
parent.
You know, listening to podcastsand enjoying the music that PJ
Library shared and going onlinefor their holiday resources.
I thought it was wonderful.
So I was sort of an evangelistfor PJ Library way before I ever
(12:51):
worked for the organization,and so are my parents.
When we moved back to Tucson andyou see this a lot grandparents
are really involved withgrandchildren's Jewish lives
many times and they're excitedabout PJ Library.
They like reading books withtheir own grandchildren.
And even though I'm a Jewishprofessional and I had by then
been a longtime PJ subscriber,my mother, I think the day we
(13:15):
told her that we were moving toTucson, changed my address for
me with PJ Library.
She was so concerned that wewouldn't miss a single book that
she took care of that.
And then I came into Tucson,which is a smaller community,
and in each community PJoperates a little bit
differently.
On the ground it's books andresources into homes.
But also we work withimplementing partner communities
(13:37):
and in Tucson the folks whowere running PJ Library
programming for the FederationFoundation, gcc, had all of
these incredible programs andresources and especially in
COVID they would be.
We would go pick up gifts thatthey had made that we would
bring into our home and acrossthe spectrum of the holidays and
(13:58):
we were already celebrating allthe holidays right, family that
built a sukkah, that hadShavuot and it was still so
additive to our lives.
So that's like my first pieceof my story with PJ Library is
loving the program and lovingthe books.
And then when there was anopportunity open for the
director of engagement, whichwas my initial position at PJ
(14:20):
Library, it just seemed likesuch a perfect fit and I felt
extremely privileged to beconsidered for the position and
it felt like a match made inheaven as we were having
conversations and I started alittle over a year ago in that
position and then my positionhas evolved a little bit.
I'm the director of familyexperience, which we could talk
(14:41):
more about what it is I do, butcolloquially within PJ Library
we sort of talk about it as likebooks and not books, and a lot
of what I do is not books,although of course books
permeate everything.
Nicole Kelly (14:55):
We were actually two weeks ago at an event at the
JCC in Harlem where they had ajazz ensemble and it was
co-sponsored with PJ Library, sowe take advantage of the events
that are not books in our areaas well, which my daughter
really liked because she lovesmusic.
I love to hear stories likethat All sorts of connections,
(15:17):
the Jewish, you know, we're allconnected in some way.
So how did this organizationget started?
Jessica McCormick (15:25):
This is a great story.
So, first of all, we've beentalking about PJ Library, but my
actual employer, who I work for, is the Harold Grinspoon
Foundation which is a foundation, you know, started by a Jewish
luminary that I had long admiredbecause I was a PJ Library
subscriber, because he's also anartist and he has a sculpture
(15:46):
in my hometown that I can go andvisit.
But this was his brainchild andhe had other aspects of his
foundation.
He was already an extraordinaryphilanthropist and in 2005,
harold Greenspoon heard aboutDolly Parton's Imagination
Library.
He heard her talking about it Ithink he heard her on the radio
(16:06):
and she wanted kids to havetheir own library of books in
their homes to grow their loveof reading, and he was so
inspired by this and he hadalready been thinking about ways
to share joys of Jewish lifewith children.
That was on his mind as he wasbuilding out his own foundation.
He wanted to build Jewishliteracy, connection to values,
stories, tradition that are atthe center of the Jewish
(16:27):
experience, and so, as he waslistening to Dolly Parton lay
out the structure of her program, the idea for PJ Library
started to take shape and heused Imagination Library as his
blueprint, and they are greatfriends now, harold and Dolly.
Nicole Kelly (16:41):
Oh my goodness, and he called.
Jessica McCormick (16:43):
I know it's so it's so cute.
In fact, like quick side note,my seven-year-old idolizes
Harold, of course.
I work for PJ Library and sawon a cover of one of our own PJ
Library magazines Harold andDolly Parton together and I
explained who she was.
And later we were at a recordstore and he brought me a Dolly
Parton record and said look,mama, it's Harold's friend.
Nicole Kelly (17:07):
We have a Dolly Parton record and said look,
mama, it's Harold's friend.
We have a Dolly Parton littlegolden book that I read to my
daughter sometimes.
We are huge fans of Dolly inthis house.
I feel like Dolly Parton shouldrun for president because she
would do amazing things for thiscountry.
Jessica McCormick (17:19):
Amazing.
So then I realized that I had adeficiency and my child needed
an education in actually whoDolly Parton was.
So, anyway, harold hears thestory.
He calls his daughter-in-lawWinnie Sandler Greenspoon, who
is now the president of theHarold Greenspoon Foundation,
and said we should create aJewish version of this and they
based actually the model ofsourcing and distributing books
(17:42):
With the help of localpartnerships.
We work through localimplementing organizations.
That's still the foundation ofhow we operate today.
All inspired by this momentwhen he heard Dolly Parton
talking and it was just like aperfect marriage of what he had
already been dreaming about forJewish children.
Nicole Kelly (17:58):
So can we kind of break down?
For those that are that have,you know, got a little bit from
what we've already said butdon't necessarily know what PGA
Library does, what exactly dothey do as far as books?
Jessica McCormick (18:10):
Right, right, that's a great question.
So at our heart we are a booksprogram.
We create joyful Jewishexperiences.
We hope that's our goal bysending Jewish storybooks and
activities to families everysingle month.
And the books have theseamazing additional resources, in
many cases not the board books,but as you get older, the
storybooks have flaps where wehave there's incredible
(18:32):
resources on these flaps aboutways to talk about the story
activities you can do in thehome based on the story.
You know, content related toholidays or values or themes in
the books.
So those are going in intohomes and but they're augmented
by a number of other prettyrobust initiatives.
So engagement, like youexperienced with that concert,
through implementing partnercommunities.
(18:54):
We also spend a lot of timeoffering professional
development to people in fields,at GCCs, at federations, at
other implementing partners whoare working on PJ Library, where
that's their portfolio.
They're not our employees butthat's their portfolio.
We offer them professionaldevelopment and we host a big
annual conference for them everyyear to help them build
(19:14):
connections, build their owncommunity, expand their skill
set.
We do holiday guides and gifts,so we send really comprehensive.
We're actually building out oursuite of holiday guides right
now and we're very excitedbecause we're about to send one
into the home that covers whatin the northern hemisphere are
(19:35):
winter holidays it's called ATime to Hope.
We have one for what in thenorthern hemisphere are fall
holidays, a Time to Grow.
We're working on A Time toGather, which will be sort of
spring, what we might think ofas spring holidays.
We're working on a two-partShabbat set and we have a
beautiful Haggadah.
(19:56):
So these are all resources thatwe put into families' homes.
We also send, you know, gifts.
It might be a Hanukkah puzzlethat goes with a storybook or an
apron for grandparents andchildren in different sizes so
that they can cook together.
We send tzedakah boxes intohomes.
So there are a number of giftsand resources that we put in
(20:16):
homes.
We have a tremendous amount ofdigital content, like I was
telling you, a couple ofpodcasts that are extremely well
listened to, but also depth ofadditional content online where
parents and families can go andjust discover ideas and
resources and articles.
We have a program called GetTogether, where we try to
incentivize Jewish families andgive them the tools they need to
(20:39):
host and get together withother Jewish families, which is
a very special program, I thinkvery dear to my heart, which is
a very special program, I think,very dear to my heart.
Nicole Kelly (20:50):
And I'm trying to think.
Jessica McCormick (20:55):
I know I'm missing stuff.
That's a lot.
All of it is designed yeah, no,it's an extremely big program
and it's all designed to inspirefamilies, you know, on their
own Jewish journeys for them, tohelp them explore holidays and
rituals, sort of on their ownterms.
Nicole Kelly (21:05):
So who pays for the books specifically and the
physical gifts that are sent?
Is it just the GrinspoonFoundation?
Are there other organizationsinvolved?
Things like that, privatedonations, yeah.
Jessica McCormick (21:17):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So all of that, and PJ is, ofcourse, totally free for
families.
It's a no-strings-attachedprogram, so right.
So Harold Grinspoon'sgenerosity is immense, but we
were able to do this actuallythanks in large part to the PJ
Library Alliance, which is acollective of generous
(21:37):
philanthropists who arededicated to supporting families
in creating this sort ofvibrant Jewish future, and, of
course, also private donations.
We're fueled by privatedonations as well, so we
couldn't do the work that we dowithout a global community of
individual donors andorganizational donors at all
levels of support, and that alsoincludes parents and
(21:57):
grandparents.
Nicole Kelly (21:58):
So it literally takes a village to make PJ.
Jessica McCormick (22:01):
Library run.
It literally takes a village.
Nicole Kelly (22:02):
Just like everything else in parenting,
kind of just jumping back to thegridspoon foundation for a
second, because I did not knowwho he was until I did a little
bit of a google search and he'svery impressive, um, so I
definitely you know wouldsuggest googling him.
And how like he dropped out ofcollege to work for you know.
He drove ice cream trucks andmanaged that, and he's now this
(22:25):
hugely successful real estatedeveloper.
He signed the Giving Pledge,the one that Bill Gates had a
bunch of very, very wealthypeople sign.
So if you don't know who he is,I would check that out and as
well.
Like you said, he's an artistand a sculptor, so you can look
that up online too.
He's a poet as well.
Oh my goodness, and he's stillgoing.
(22:46):
He's in his 80s, right, andhe's, he's still.
He's still going.
He's in his 90s oh he's his 90s.
We should all be so.
Jessica McCormick (22:54):
I work remotely.
I we should all be so lucky,and we're so lucky to have
Harold with us.
Um, I work remotely, but I goto the office several times a
year and he's in the office whenI visit there every day.
It's remarkable.
He's extremely inspiring.
Nicole Kelly (23:11):
That's crazy.
So what other organizationsdoes his foundation support?
Jessica McCormick (23:19):
Right.
So there are actually manyprojects of the Harold Greenspan
Foundation.
They're all aimed atstrengthening Jewish communities
worldwide and connecting peopleto Jewish values, tradition,
culture.
So PJ Library is a really bigone.
J Camp 180 is launched in 2004,and it helps build capacity of
(23:40):
nonprofit Jewish camps throughmentorship, professional
development opportunities andchallenge grants.
So camps are really close toHarold's heart.
We have Life and Legacy.
That started in 2010.
And through partnerships withfederations and foundations,
life and Legacy helps Jewish dayschools and synagogues and
(24:01):
social service organizations allsorts of Jewish organizations
build endowments to createfinancial stability, and so
that's what that project does.
And, by the way, it's reallyexciting for us in the PGA
Library world because ourcolleagues at JCamp 180 and Life
and Legacy work in many of thesame implementing partner
communities, and so we can seethe ways that the work unfolds
(24:22):
in these communities along anumber of fronts, like all
dreamed up by Harold.
And then Voices and Visions,which is dear to my heart
because I benefited from it as aHillel director.
It's a poster program that usesthe power of art to interpret
words of great Jewish thinkers,and these posters are just
offered as gifts to beautifyJewish spaces, and they go all
(24:48):
over North America into Jewishspaces and so every year at
Hillel, when I worked there, itwas like my great privilege to
get this package in the mail anddecide where these pieces of
art would go.
So those are the core projectsof the foundation, and HGF
collaborates with Jewish andphilanthropic organizations to
(25:11):
expand investments in all ofthose projects.
And I should also say thatHarold Greenspoon is also a
visionary local philanthropistand his local philanthropy in
Massachusetts, where he lives,is sort of a different aspect of
the work, but I would hate tonot say that because he also
makes such a big differenceright in his own backyard.
Nicole Kelly (25:33):
So there's a lot of ways to benefit.
So if somebody listening isinterested in something that's
other than PJ Library, wherewould they go to look for these
resources?
Jessica McCormick (25:43):
The Harold Greenspoon Foundation website is
is pretty robust and can pointpeople in the right direction.
Nicole Kelly (25:49):
Perfect, perfect, uh.
So jumping back to PJ Library.
Who can sign up for PJ Library?
Are there restrictions as tofar like?
You have to be this type ofJewish.
You have to be that who'sallowed to sign up for this.
Jessica McCormick (26:02):
Great.
So this is actually, I think,part of Harold's genius and his
vision.
We welcome all Jewish familiesand and this is actually, I
think, part of Harold's geniusand his vision we welcome all
Jewish families and this issuper important to him.
So PJ Library welcomes like anincredible diversity of Jewish
experience, serving familieswhether they have a lot of
previous Jewish knowledge orvery little, religiously
observant or not Any part of theJewish spectrum.
(26:22):
All families that have anyconnection to being a Jewish
family at all are welcome tosubscribe, and we hope they
subscribe.
And we know that these books gointo homes that really are
across the Jewish spectrum, fromextremely observant homes to
people to families for whom PJLibrary Books and Resources
(26:44):
might be their only Jewishtouchpoint.
I love that.
Nicole Kelly (26:46):
I love that it's so you only Jewish touchpoint.
I love that.
I love that it's so, you know,inclusionary.
I think that's an actual wordfor everybody.
What about educators?
So let's say you're a Jewisheducator, you run a young
children's program in asynagogue or a GTC, but you're
not, you know, bringing intoyour physical home but into a
(27:07):
school situation.
Are they allowed to sign up aswell?
Jessica McCormick (27:11):
That's a good question.
So we used to have a programseveral years ago and this is
sort of the nature.
We're not a baby organizationanymore but in many ways we
still function like a startup.
Right, it was a new idea andwe're always testing new ideas.
So several years ago we had aprogram called PJ Goes to School
.
They came with books andmaterials on how to use them in
a classroom.
We sunset that program to focuson the family experience at
(27:33):
home.
We do have organizationalsubscriptions where
organizations can sign up andreceive a book each month and
use them.
You know however they wouldlike, but anecdotally we know
that in addition to theorganizational subscriptions,
tons of our books are inclassrooms and particularly, but
not only, in Jewish spaces.
We send books to each child ina family.
(27:54):
Families end up with anincredible library of PJ library
books and some of those youknow remain sort of family
heirlooms and people hang on tothem and now we're starting to
see the first generation of PJkids having their own kids,
which is remarkable because theystill have their PJ library
books.
They're getting these new books.
But we also know that families,particularly with multiple kids
(28:16):
, end up with a ton of books andsome of those make their way
into beautiful donations, intoJewish organizations and into
public school libraries andcirculation, and so we know
those books are really wellloved and used in all sorts of
different settings by all sortsof different educators.
Nicole Kelly (28:33):
I love that you're that there's like a
generational thing going now,because you know when
something's been around for solong, you know the, you know
Lador Vador, literally to fromgeneration to generation.
That's so great that you guyshave been around long enough, uh
, to make that happen Just onthe cusp, like just on the cusp.
Jessica McCormick (28:51):
It's really exciting.
Nicole Kelly (28:52):
Very young, very young, very young parents, uh, I
guess who, uh, who, um, were,were some of the first PJ
library kids.
Is PJ library is affiliatedwith a specific Jewish movement?
You mentioned JCC.
Um, I, you, you know it seemslike it's like a non-specific,
like conservative reform, thatit's not affiliated with any of
(29:15):
those.
I don't know how to let merephrase this question Is PG
Library affiliated with aspecific Jewish movement?
You had mentioned the JCC.
Jessica McCormick (29:26):
Yeah, no, we're not.
So we work.
We do work with implementingpartners in North America.
The way we work, we work withover 183 implementing partners
in various communities to help,you know, grow our subscription,
get books into more Jewishhomes and also grow their family
engagement locally.
We want people connected totheir own local community and so
(29:47):
many of the organizations wework with are JCCs and
federations, but not always JCCsand federations, and we're
totally non-denominational interms of how we're affiliated,
just like how anybody cansubscribe for the book, and the
books themselves reflect aspectrum of Jewish practices as
well.
You can see a lot of differenttypes of Jewish practice in our
(30:08):
books and we're always trying todiversify our stories and our
characters and our settings.
We talk about, on the book sideof PJ Library, windows and
mirrors.
We want to give children andfamilies windows into other
types of Jewish life and valuesand rituals that may not be
their own or may not yet betheir own.
But we also want mirrors, right, we want kids to see their own
(30:31):
Jewish experience reflected inthe stories we want them to see
themselves.
It's so important, and so we'realways trying to diversify our
stories because we know thatwe're not affiliated with a
specific part of the Jewishworld and we really want our
stories to speak to everybody.
Nicole Kelly (30:48):
I love that.
I love that it's exposingpeople to maybe people who are
more religious, but justholidays in general and, like I
said, animals.
There were kangarooscelebrating Rosh Hashanah last
night, which is a very uniqueJewish experience.
We've read that book a coupletimes this week Alligator Seder
by Crush.
Jessica McCormick (31:04):
Yes, we have.
Yes, okay.
Nicole Kelly (31:08):
Yes, we have Alligator Seder too.
I was picking a second book andI was like, do we go Sukkot, do
we go Passover?
I was like we'll do Sukkotbecause it's coming up soon, but
Alligator Seder is definitelywith my daughter's books.
Why is it important to sendbooks to children in this
specific age group?
Because you could do just oneto three, one to four, because
you know four tends to be thecutoff for like young children
(31:30):
program.
Why did the foundation and PJlibrary decide to extend past
four or five?
Jessica McCormick (31:39):
Right, right, we go from birth to 12.
So, look, I think that you'retalking about really early
childhood and there's sort of aconventional wisdom that that
might be the time when familiesare making decisions on how to
raise their children or howtheir Jewish home or life is
going to look.
But I actually think it extendsmuch further than that and we
(31:59):
want Jewish parents and Jewishchildren, jewish grandparents,
non-jewish caregivers helping toraise Jewish children.
We want all of them to beempowered and we want to
continue helping to build forpeople on their own terms Jewish
identity, jewish joy, jewishresilience, a set of Jewish
(32:19):
understanding around.
You know holidays and values,and so it's really important for
us that we're not just a babybook program and the stories get
so much more sophisticated as achild grows.
But it's also amazingreinforcement.
Right, you might have alligatorseder in your home, but by the
time a child is 12, they willhave a library of Passover
(32:43):
stories.
They'll have a number ofdifferent ways to think about
the Passover experience, fromthe storybooks, from the holiday
guides we put into the homes,and then for several years
they'll get to pick their ownstories and what matters to them
.
So I think that the entire agespectrum we're sending to.
These are all people like.
(33:05):
The journey doesn't stop at acertain age, and so it's
important to us to reach kidsfrom birth through age 12.
And listen our educators andour experts.
They curate Jewish books tomatch each developmental stage
of a child's journey, frominfancy to independent reader.
We have a whole team thatspends quite a lot of time
thinking about what goes intothe home at each age and stage.
Nicole Kelly (33:27):
You talked a little bit about how the program
shifts from middle school agechildren.
Was this something that was?
I assume this is something thatwas added a little bit later.
Why did you choose, to you know, expand the program, and how
does it change when the kids geta little bit older?
Jessica McCormick (33:44):
Yeah, so much later.
2014 is when PJ Arway launched,so I feel like my oldest kids
must have been right towardstowards the beginning of it,
benefiting from it andindependent readers tweens, I
mean.
I think it's.
Nicole Kelly (33:58):
I think it's common wisdom that they don't
want to be told what to do ortold what to consume, and so we
wanted to give them, or, ifyou're my daughter, it's already
the case.
It's already the case, rightThreenagers, people say
sometimes, yes, she's prettygreat, but she definitely is
opinionated.
Jessica McCormick (34:20):
Yeah.
So then children get to pick.
These tweens get to pick, whichis a very powerful experience.
So our older readers are ages 9through 12.
And you know some kids one ofmy kids, my middle kid, only
read graphic novels by choice,you know, unless they had to
read something for school for aperiod of something like six
years, and I'm very happy toreport that he's a great reader
(34:42):
as a young adult now, and I lovegraphic novels.
I think it gives a lot ofpeople a different path in to
literacy, and so our middlegraders can pick each month
between fiction, nonfiction,graphic novels along a number of
different themes, so they'renot just getting one piece of
content, and that's, I think,really exciting.
And they also through PJR way.
(35:05):
There are some opportunitiesfor them to interact with their
peers through local leadershipcouncils In some cases there's
been some specific programmingand also they can go online and
leave reviews for the books sothat in other months their own
peers can use their feedback todecide which books to bring into
their home.
Nicole Kelly (35:24):
How do they choose the books?
Is that done online throughlike a portal?
How does that work?
Jessica McCormick (35:28):
Exactly, it's online through a portal Great.
Nicole Kelly (35:32):
How many households does PJ Library serve
?
I don't know if you have exactnumbers, but nationally,
internationally.
Jessica McCormick (35:41):
So internationally we send 600 and
I think it's 650,000 books amonth.
Oh, my goodness, that's it'sincredible and in 2022, we sent
our 50 millionth book.
Nicole Kelly (35:55):
That's a lot of books, especially considering
how small the Jewish populationis worldwide.
Jessica McCormick (35:59):
That's an immense footprint on that and
it's an immense footprint andwe're very proud and that's I
mean, that's Harold's vision.
You know he's he's.
He's a great guy because it'san immense footprint and we're
very proud and that's I mean,that's Harold's vision.
You know he's a great guybecause he's an ideas man and
he's an execution man.
You know, sometimes you havesomebody who's an ideas person
and somebody else who's a doer,and Harold is everything.
Um, but it's, it's an immensepart of market share,
(36:21):
particularly in North America.
We're also in over 40 countriesand we know there are so many
more Jewish homes that we wouldlike to offer these, these,
these books too.
So we are always looking togrow and get these books in as
many homes as possible.
Nicole Kelly (36:36):
Yeah, I definitely .
I don't remember how Iinitially found out about PGA
Library.
I don't remember, but I signedup pretty much right after my
daughter was born and eventsthat aren't are co-hosts of PGA
Library through our synagogue,through things like the JCC.
You guys are always around andhave someone to talk to people
and examples of books and giveout like magnets and stickers.
So you know, I, if I hadn'theard about it initially, I
(36:59):
absolutely would have heardabout it, you know, through some
sort of event and you guys soyou guys do a really great job
of of outreach in regards tothat.
Jessica McCormick (37:07):
I, I mean, I love to hear that.
That's actually a lot.
So we have a core staff at theHarold Greenspoon Foundation,
but we have these amazingpartners in the field.
You know those, those folks whoare at events that you go to.
So in New York it's actuallyour staff and our people.
It's such a big market for usthat we run New York and work
with, of course, many partnersin the field, but in every other
community those are employeesof a GCC or a federation or
(37:31):
another Jewish organization andwe offer some really lovely
professional development.
But they're just an amazingteam.
They're out there using thetools that we provide to make
their family engagement the bestit can be, and that's what we
want to see.
We just want to see peoplebeing plugged into community.
We love it.
Nicole Kelly (37:50):
You had mentioned other countries.
So, according to the website,pj Library now sends books to
over 40 countries in sevenlanguages.
Why did the organization thinkit was important to expand
beyond the US and how successfulhas that aspect of the
organization been?
Jessica McCormick (38:12):
So I think it's been pretty successful and
what's amazing?
So I'll start with what I thinkis amazing and then I can give
you like a more official answer.
What I think is amazing andthen I can give you like a more
official answer.
What I think is amazing is thatJewish children all around the
world are having a commonexperience because of PJ Library
, and I really mean all aroundthe world.
We work differently indifferent countries, but it's
(38:34):
remarkable that a child inUkraine and obviously a child in
Israel and a child in Australiaand a child in Israel and a
child in Australia and a childin South America and a child
even I took a trip to Japan thissummer and our international
director said oh, do you want meto connect you with the PJ
parents in Tokyo?
That all over the world thereare Jewish families having a
common experience.
(38:55):
Now, the books are not alwaysthe same.
It's actually an enormousoperation, because books that
might resonate in New York mightnot resonate at all in Mexico
right.
And a book that resonates inMexico may or may not resonate
in Argentina, and so it's anenormous undertaking, but the
idea there was really the same.
(39:15):
We want to empower Jewishfamilies around the world, from
the unaffiliated to the deeplyinvolved, from Russia to Uruguay
.
We want families all around theworld, from the unaffiliated to
the deeply involved, fromRussia to Uruguay.
We want families all around theworld to be able to create
their own treasured Jewishmoments and memories through the
simple act of reading storiestogether, and we want to honor
people's like local traditionsand also give them these windows
(39:36):
into Jewish practice around theworld.
So it's it's like very exciting, exciting, and it's an enormous
, an enormous endeavor.
Nicole Kelly (39:44):
Yeah, it sounds like it, especially trying to
figure out what would resonatein different countries, because
Judaism varies greatly withinthe United States.
So I can't imagine trying tokind of gauge other countries,
especially countries that don'thave a large traditional Jewish
population, like Uruguay orJapan.
But we, you know, we're a small, mighty population and we're,
(40:05):
we are everywhere and that's soexciting that the organization
is able to share that withpeople in other countries.
You know, I love that.
I love that so much.
Pj Library also self-publishes.
I noticed this pretty early onthat the books have your logo
and, like you said, those littleflaps.
My daughter's starting to getbooks that have information with
flaps and things like that.
(40:26):
So does this make the operationeasier, more difficult, when
did this start?
You know how does that work?
Jessica McCormick (40:35):
Yeah, so not all of our books are
self-published.
In fact, an enormous amount ofour books go through external
traditional publishers, andbecause we operate in such
quantity, we're able to putcovers and book flaps on books
even when we're working withpublishers.
But we also do have apublishing arm.
(40:56):
Pj Publishing started in 2014.
And the idea was to providemore opportunities for authors
and illustrators to publish awider array of Jewish stories
for our families.
So oftentimes we would noticethat there was a promising
manuscript that anotherpublisher didn't pick up for
whatever reason, and so PGAPublishing would make an offer
(41:16):
and publish it, and now, if thebook looks like it has potential
for us, we'll make an offerright away the PJ Publishing arm
and that's a huge change in howour own publishing arm has
worked, but we still loveworking with publishers.
We just wanted to be able tohave the capacity to move the
(41:37):
Jewish stories that we wanted tosee going to parents and to the
world, and so it gives us alittle bit more flexibility and
it's changed the way.
You know, we're able to workwith authors and illustrators.
Nicole Kelly (41:48):
As far as you know , choosing the books every month
and everything like.
Let's say, you know I have mydaughter.
We get books once a month.
If I signed up a second child,would I get the same books?
Would you say, okay, she'salready.
Great question, you know shealready has books.
How does that work?
Jessica McCormick (42:02):
Yeah, such, such a good question and I
couldn't.
I couldn't even begin.
I'll, I'll.
I'll tell you the sliver of itthat I understand, because the
logistics of it boggle my mind.
Our operations team is, I mean,the cream of the crop, seconds.
And then the idea is that youwould not get repeat books, or
at least not many.
We don't use books, I believeit's every four years, and so
(42:27):
that's not perfect timing, rightfor all families, but for the
majority of our families, evenif they have many children, they
won't receive a lot of repeatbooks.
Now, at the same time that wedon't recycle books more than
every four years, we're alsoconstantly adding new titles,
and so the likelihood then thatyou get a book over and over and
(42:48):
over again.
Now we do send a welcome bookto families.
Joseph had a little overcoat,and so some families wind up
with multiple copies of that.
I think, or maybe just I did,because I already had such a
large Jewish library before mykids started PJ.
But they work really hard andit's a very complicated
(43:09):
operation to try to get freshbooks to each child and each
family.
Nicole Kelly (43:15):
I love that because we have a book selection
committee Sorry go ahead.
I love that, you know,obviously depending on, like,
the difference between children,but you know the most part a
child gets, I think part of theexcitement is getting a book in
the mail so that the youngersibling still has that
experience.
You know they're not just likeokay, here's the leftover books
(43:35):
from your older sibling, so theyget their own books just like
their older sibling would.
Jessica McCormick (43:45):
With their name on it.
It comes with their name on iton the envelope.
It's very exciting.
You know my seven-year-old sohe's been getting pj library
books his whole life and itdoesn't become less exciting
when he comes home from schooland there's a pj envelope for
him.
He loses his mind.
And now, by the way, we have towork really hard because, um, I
work at pj now and I get all ofthe books each month and they
kept Akiva's subscription my sonis Akiva so that he could still
(44:08):
get his own and that's reallyspecial for him.
And so now it's very importantfor him to figure out, when all
of the envelopes come, which oneactually is his.
Nicole Kelly (44:20):
I love that.
I love this organization somuch.
I love it.
We talked about donatingdirectly to PJ Library.
What about if you wanted tohost an event?
How would you do?
How would you facilitate?
You know how would you go aboutmaking donations, hosting
events.
Is there a way to sign up onthe website?
Jessica McCormick (44:37):
Well, I would love to talk about pjlibraryorg
slash donate, Please.
Anybody can go there anytimeand help make this work possible
.
It's really important work, andwhen I say no Strings Attached,
I really mean that All theseresources just go to families
for free.
So I love that.
In terms of hosting events, Idon't know, I can't think of a
(45:02):
way that somebody would host anevent, but I never want to close
a door to something.
I think the best thing forparents to do is to get involved
with their local PJ library,you know, with the implementing
partner organization, tounderstand what events they're
doing.
Anybody can host a get together, which is incredible.
(45:23):
That's not meant to be.
That's not fundraising for PJ.
That's just meant to get youtogether with your friends, In
fact.
In fact, we will be happy toreimburse you for some of your
expenses to the tune of ahundred dollars, so that you can
gather in whatever way ismeaningful for you with other
Jewish families and help createcommunity on your terms.
So I think there are differentways to gather with other PJ
(45:44):
families and I would hate tospeak on behalf of our
advancement team.
They might love to havesomebody you know help us raise
money in creative ways butpjlibraryorg slash donate is
where I'd love people to checkout.
Nicole Kelly (45:58):
Yes, remember that website.
Send them money.
Jessica McCormick (46:01):
Thank you, they're doing great work.
Thank you for asking, by theway.
Nicole Kelly (46:05):
Yeah, I mean charity and philanthropy is such
a part of Judaism and what mypersonal beliefs in general.
You know my mother, you knowfrom a young age, instilled in
us that you don't throw thingsaway, you donate them there's.
You know you don't throw thingsaway, you donate them there's.
You know you're giving awayclothes.
There's an organization thatgives clothes to women who need
(46:27):
outfits for job interviews orgirls for prom, and she was very
active in organizations.
So it's very important to me toalways find ways to get back to
the community and that's such ahuge cornerstone of my
daughter's school's, you know,mo is that from a very early age
they encourage them to getinvolved with the community and
help others.
So I'm always looking for waysto do that and encourage other
people.
Maybe I'll look into hosting anevent.
(46:47):
I'm involved with a couple ofyoung parents like not parents
who are young, but parents ofyoung children, and we're always
looking for things to do.
So maybe I'll reach out to a PGlibrary representative and
figure that out.
Jessica McCormick (47:00):
Yeah, we would love it and you don't even
have to do that.
You can sign up for assubscribers can sign up to host
a get-together online.
It's pretty easy and there arelots of tools and ideas and
that's also no strings attached.
Listen, I'm so glad you askedabout donations, but also just
pjlibraryorg.
I mean, become a subscriber,you know that's, that's the.
That's the main thing we want.
We want to be getting storiesinto people's homes to help them
(47:23):
build their own Jewish life.
Nicole Kelly (47:24):
Not to mention all the online resources which I
really have not utilized.
I will admit I feel like that'ssomething I need to look a
little more into and play musicand look at the the online
content that you guys have.
Jessica McCormick (47:37):
There's, it's , it's.
It's extremely deep.
Our digital content team isremarkable and it's extremely
deep.
Our digital content team isremarkable.
You can find so many resourcesfor every holiday, every value,
every tradition.
There are so many details onthe books and how you can use
the books in your own life.
And then our podcast.
I just can't say enough.
We have a couple of differentpodcasts and they're so
(47:57):
wonderful to listen to it.
Really, I suppose some kidsmight listen to podcasts on
their own my seven-year-old isjust starting to do that but
mostly it facilitates familytime for us.
We'll listen to a podcasttogether in a car or when we're
traveling and then we talk aboutit, and the podcasts are just
this remarkable additive productthat we have.
(48:18):
So definitely check those outif you haven't.
Nicole Kelly (48:21):
I'm obviously a big believer in podcasts, though
my husband and I really onlykind of jumped on the podcast
train maybe like a year agobecause we don't have cars and I
like to read on the train, sohe's much more podcast heavy
than I am.
But the idea of listening to apodcast my daughter while we're
like playing or doing something,I think I like that.
I like that as opposed to likea TV being on or something like
(48:44):
that.
Jessica McCormick (48:46):
It's quite lovely and, you know, one of the
things we know that parentstell us is, yes, the PJ Library
products help them with theirJewish life, but they also just
help them with family time.
Right, just quality family timesitting on the couch or having
a kid in your lap.
It's called PJ library.
It stands for, you know, pajamalibrary.
It's.
It's the idea that you knowyou're cozy and spending this
(49:07):
family time together and andthat's a benefit completely in
addition to or separate from theJewish benefit we're just
facilitating quality family time, and the podcast can also do
that.
Nicole Kelly (49:20):
So talking about, you know, working with authors
and new books.
I feel like my husband and Ihave a million ideas for
children's books, notnecessarily Jewish.
But let's say there's somebodywho is a new or unknown author.
How would they go aboutsubmitting?
Do they pitch an idea?
Do they have to have a storywritten?
Do they have to have an artist?
How would they go about doingthat?
(49:41):
Where would they submit?
What would you guys request?
So if you could let me know howto do that, Sure, Maybe I'll
get you a book.
Jessica McCormick (49:49):
So first of all, you should write all those
children's books.
Look, we work with all types ofdifferent authors and anyone
can submit a manuscript by goingto the how we Choose Books
section of our website.
So any author Now that submit amanuscript by going to the how
we choose books section of ourwebsite.
So any author Now that is amanuscript that's complete.
(50:10):
It does not need to haveillustrations, but that's like a
complete manuscript, not anidea.
Of course, we also buy frompublishers, right, and so there
are many authors who might sellbooks based on pitches, but
those are typically authors thatare agented, you know, and and
are and already working in thatprofessional capacity.
But, yeah, we encourage, if youhave a manuscript, go to go on
our website, click on how wechoose books and submit it to us
(50:31):
.
We love reading new work.
I actually that's not really mydepartment, so I would say my
colleagues love reading new workand I just benefit just benefit
from it when it comes down thepipe a little further.
Nicole Kelly (50:43):
I think we all benefit from it.
So if you've got an idea, headover to PJ Library and shoot
your shot, I guess.
One thing I noticed on thewebsite that is very unique is
you have something called theFirst Time Camp Awards.
Can you talk to me a little bitabout what that is and how that
got started?
Jessica McCormick (51:01):
Sure, well, as you know, because we've been
already talking about it, jewishcamp is very sacred and
important to Harold, and youknow he has the J Camp 180
program.
So PJ Library wants to help oursubscribers attend Jewish
Overnight Camp for the firsttime, and so we offer awards to
qualifying families.
We administer camp awardsthrough the One Happy Camper
(51:22):
platform, so there are a numberof different organizations that
offer similar incentives, and sodo we, and so to be eligible to
receive an award from PJLibrary, a camper has to be all
of a following you have to be acurrent or former PJ Library
subscriber or the sibling of onein a PJ Library subscription
family.
You have to be looking toattend a nonprofit Jewish
(51:44):
overnight camp in the UnitedStates or Canada, and we have
the list of qualifying camps.
You can find it on the OneHappy Camper website.
You have to be attendingovernight camp for the first
time.
We're just thinking about thisin my family because my big kids
went to camp for a long time,but my seven-year-old is going
next year for the first time.
It's very exciting.
You have to start talking aboutit way early in the year, right
(52:04):
so that they're ready to go.
So first-time campers childrenwho've never attended a Jewish
overnight camp for 12 or moreconsecutive days.
Right, there are some specificshere, but I would love to share
them with your listeners.
Campers who attended like a oneweek taste of camp kind of
program in the previous year areactually still eligible to
apply because we want them to gofor a longer experience.
(52:26):
So you have to be going for 12or more consecutive days and you
have to be a resident of US orCanada.
So there are a few more thingsthat families could look at, a
few more rules, but that'spjlibraryorg slash camp and we.
It's really a feel-good programto offer incentives to our
(52:47):
subscribers so that they canhave this other Jewish
experience.
Nicole Kelly (52:50):
I think that's so special.
I went to camp an overnightcamp when I was 14.
I didn't have the opportunityto do so when I was younger, but
it was a really greatexperience and something I'm
hoping to do for my daughter,and I think it's really
beautiful that the organizationand Harold, you know, through
his foundation facilitates that.
So, before we jump into ourshort form questions, is there
(53:13):
anything else you want to talkabout?
You know, your personal story,or PJ Library in general, or
Harold, or anything like that orPJ Library in general, or
Herald or anything like that.
Jessica McCormick (53:25):
You asked a lot of really good questions.
This was a deep interview.
I think I just want people toknow about it and sometimes in
the circles I run in because Iwork for PJ Library, it feels
like everybody knows about it.
But of course that's not trueand I want so many people to
know that these resources areavailable to them, that it
really is a free resource, thatit's just a gift of the Harold
(53:49):
Greenspoon Foundation and ourincredible alliance donors and
you know individual donors thatit's a gift and that it's books
and it's so much more.
It's these holiday guides andthese gifts and these
resources's books, and it's somuch more.
It's these holiday guides andthese gifts and these resources
and the podcast and all of thecontent online and the get
together program where we helpyou, you know, create your own
(54:11):
hyperlocal community on yourterms.
I just want people to knowabout it.
Nicole Kelly (54:16):
I hopefully this, this podcast, will reach reach a
few new subscribers.
That's my hope and one of thereasons I wanted to talk to you
guys, because I really do lovethe organization.
I am an avid reader.
I'm trying to instill that withmy daughter.
It's working so far becauseshe'll carry books around with
her, even though she can't readyet.
She takes books to school withher.
She was running around the parkwith a Dr Seuss book two weeks
(54:39):
ago.
I'm such a fan of encouragingliteracy and that's really what
this organization is, along withthe Jewish aspect, so it's like
the perfect thing for my family.
I love it so much.
Jessica McCormick (54:52):
I love that story about your daughter
because she's already.
She's not even decoding, yetshe's already doing that thing
that I think many readers do,which is I take a book
everywhere and 80% of the time Inever crack it, but I don't go
to a doctor's appointment.
Nicole Kelly (55:06):
I don't go to a baseball game.
Jessica McCormick (55:08):
I don't go anywhere without it and like is
my shoulder probably a littlewonky from carrying books around
my whole life Totally.
But it's worth it and I lovethat your little child is
already a book toter.
Nicole Kelly (55:19):
She takes after her mom.
I used to get in trouble forreading at the dinner table,
Like we go to a restaurant andI'd read a book.
I just yeah, it's what I do.
It's what I do.
So this next section is shortform questions in the style of
the actor studio.
They don't need to be longexplanations if you don't want
to.
What is your favorite Yiddishword?
Jessica McCormick (55:39):
For sure, shtickle.
It means like a little bit.
It was a word I already lovedand then one, but it has a
really funny moment in one of mybig kids' favorite songs.
I have a little challah fromwhen they were little, and so
for sure shtickle.
Nicole Kelly (55:53):
What is your favorite Jewish holiday?
Jessica McCormick (55:57):
Pesach for sure Passover.
And when I moved to LA, even asa college student, I told my
family I want you to come visitme, for Pesach, that's what I
would like to host.
And so, even in this tiny,these tiny apartments in my
early years in LA, my familywould come from all over and
there were some years when I waslike this is crazy making, why
have I done this?
(56:17):
But I love Pesach.
It's a home-based holiday andeverything about it, and
particularly the smells and thestorytelling Just love it.
Nicole Kelly (56:29):
If you were to have a bat mitzvah today, what
would the theme of your party be?
Jessica McCormick (56:35):
So I do not mean to sound snooty here, but
I'm going to say that my twooldest kids they had their b'nai
mitzvah together.
They're very close in age andsometimes people will say to me
what was their theme, and I'llsay Torah.
And that was sort of the themeof mine too.
I was bat mitzvahed at aconservative synagogue in Israel
(56:56):
and the theme was sort of Torah.
And so that's not to sneeze atthese amazing parties which I've
enjoyed my whole life, but whenI think of becoming a child of
the commandments, I actuallyjust think of Torah.
Nicole Kelly (57:12):
What profession other than your own would you
want to attempt?
Jessica McCormick (57:17):
Okay, I don't know that I would actually want
to attempt this because I lackgrace and all musical ability.
But a Broadway star, obviouslythat's the dream, that's what I
want to be.
I was in New York last week andI was able to see two shows and
I think I just likedisassociate sometimes and I
think I'm up there on stage, youknow, kicking well, that was
(57:42):
what I moved to New York for,and I ended up doing a lot of
other stuff, so I definitely canrelate to that all right.
Nicole Kelly (57:45):
Well, thank you so much for joining me, jessica.
So if you're interested insigning up for PJ Library and
any of their programs, head totheir website and you can get
some free books in the mail andsome great resources.
This is Ben Sheber in the Cityand some great resources.
This has been Sheber in theCity and I am Nicole Kelly Bye.
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