BOOKS FOR BALTIMORE

“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 is 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 is to donate an individual book to each of the 7000 third graders of the Baltimore City Public Schools.

The project, undertaken in careful consultation with the Baltimore schools’ reading specialists, is an ambitious one. But it is nevertheless easily attainable with the participation and support of you, our Women’s League members.

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

We are 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.”

Instructions for collection of money and suggestions for inter-generational programs to support this initiative are on the following pages.

Join your sisters in Women’s League as we seek to build community, one reader at a time!

The following titles have been 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)

 

Starting to Build:

1. The cost for each book is $3.00. Sisterhood members can donate as many books as they want by writing a check payable to the sisterhood. (For example, a donation of chai, $18.00, will buy 6 books.)
2. From time to time, the treasurer should send a check for the amount collected to date to Women’s League (475 Riverside Drive, Suite 820, New York, NY 10115, Attn:  Convention 2010 Book Project). This will enable Women’s League to order the books in large enough quantities to benefit from the publisher’s discount price.
3. This process can be repeated throughout the year. Final orders must be received by Women’s League no later than October 25, 2010.

 

Involving Your Community:

• At every opportunity, publicize Books for Baltimore in your synagogue and sisterhood newsletters, at meetings, and on display posters.
• As a bar/bat mitzvah tzedakah/mitzvah project in your synagogue, speak with the rabbi and/or cantor about having each bar and bat mitzvah contribute $39, the purchase of 13 books.
• Birthday Books for Baltimore: Establish a program with your synagogue Hebrew School in which students contribute a book on their own birthdays as a “give-back” to the community. It is an effective and easy way to teach about tzedakah, in a way that is very personal and accessible to children.
• Encourage USYers and Hebrew school students to fundraise for this project. 
• As a sisterhood project, sponsor a synagogue used book sale with the proceeds allocated to Books for Baltimore. Unsold books can be donated to local charities, shelters and other social agencies.

 

Building the Book Stack:

• Encourage 100% participation in the project by sisterhood members.  $3 per member is an easy sell.
• Create a graphic, perhaps a growing stack of books, to keep track of your goal that can be displayed publicly in the synagogue.
• Sisterhoods with the largest percentage of member participation will be invited to take part in the presentation of the books at convention.