Last Sunday Gilboa madrichimot (counselors) joined PJ Library at the Skirball Cultural Center for an amazing morning of discussion, social justice experiential education and learning about the history of the women's rights movement through the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
PJ Library aims to create accessible Jewish content and programming for families. This program was part of PJ in LA's Build a Better World series. When we first met with the PJ Library LA folks, we felt this would be a perfect partnership because of our shared vision of inclusive Jewish community and empowering our community to "build a better world." Together, we built a set of exciting activities that allowed children and families to reflect upon what they were learning about RBG, and practice a few ways to take action and create change
Families were invited to come check out the exhibit, hear a reading of the PJ Library book, I Dissent (a children's book about the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and participate in a variety of hands-on activities.
Many kids had their first voting experience and learned how voting is one way to have their opinions heard. We created picket signs to make statements about the issues we care about most. Together we learned what a representative is, how to find out who our representatives are, and why we should tell them what we think. We wrote postcards to different representatives, thanking them for work they've done and asking them to stand up for the issues we care about.
We loved seeing how different parts of the Jewish community came together during this event, and how PJ Library helps connect Jewish families coming from diverse backgrounds and Jewish practices. We're excited to see what comes next and how we will continue to work together to create inclusive Jewish community.