BOOKS FOR BALTIMORE - Post script

“A good book,” said John Milton “is the precious life-blood of a master spirit…”

Few sentiments resonate so well with Jews. Identified both within and beyond our Jewish world as “the people of the book,” it is an appellation that we wear with pride. Its consequence is continuity; its legacy is imagination.

Moreover, as Jews we appreciate and affirm our religious commitment to the mitzvah of tzedakah.

Thus, desiring to link these twin Jewish values – study and tzedakah – and in keeping with our convention theme of celebrating community, the Women’s League 2010 Biennial Convention Committee was eager to announce its special project for the upcoming convention in Baltimore, December 12-15.

Entitled “Books for Baltimore: Building a Community of Readers One Child at a Time,” Our goal was to donate an individual book to each of the 7000 third graders of the Baltimore City Public Schools. This was later expanded to include the pre-kindergarten children, as well.

The project, undertaken in careful consultation with the Baltimore schools’ reading specialists, was an ambitious one. But it is nevertheless easily attainable with the participation and support of you, our Women’s League members. And you didn't let us down. You gave in droves.

The twelve Scholastic Books titles, at the highly discounted price of $3 per book, were selected to reflect the appropriate reading levels and cultural interests of the students. In many instances this might be the only book the child owns because, unfortunately, in impoverished areas such as urban Baltimore, children’s books are a luxury item, last on the list of household priorities. This is a far cry from our own communities where our children and grandchildren own dozens, if not hundreds of books.

The books were presented to students and representatives from the Baltimore City Public Schools at the last plenary session of convention, on December 15.

We were sensitive to the fact we each are deluged by entreaties for financial support from various organizations and causes, often daily. But this request is different. The Books for Baltimore project is admirable, its goals are specific, finite and attainable.

In closing, we can focus on the words of Rabbi Israel Salanter, founder of the mussar movement in Vilna at the end of the 19^th century: “A person should be more concerned with spiritual than material matters, but another person’s material welfare is his/her own spiritual concern.”

You joined your sisters in Women’s League as we sought to build community, one reader at a time!

The following titles were chosen by reading specialists in the school system to be distributed: 

• Rosa Parks, Freedom Rider (Keith Brandt)
• I Have a Dream, the Story of Martin Luther King (Margaret Davidson)
• The Garden on Green Street (Meish Goldish)
• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters (John Steptoe)
• The Adventures of Spider, West African Folktales (Joyce Cooper Arkhurst)
• Tar Beach (Faith Ringgold)
• The Story of Ruby Bridges (Robert Coles)
• Uncle Jed’s Barbershop (Margaret King Mitchell)
• A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass (David Adler)
• Teammates (Peter Golenbock)
• More Than Anything Else (Marie Bradby)
• Recuerdo Mis Raices Yvivo Mis Tradicioones, Remembering my Roots and Leaving my Traditions (Latinas TransNacionales)