Sifriyat Pijama B’America strengthens connections to Jewish values,
the Hebrew language, in local American communities

Israeli-American and Jewish-American families across the United States are participating in a new children’s program through which they are mailed monthly – for free – a quality Jewish children’s book in Hebrew.

Through Sifriyat Pijama B’America (SP-BA) young Jewish children, ages three to six, will be able to receive free storybooks in Hebrew. The program is designed to strengthen participants’ Hebrew language proficiency and connections with Jewish values and culture, as well as develop a channel through which young Jewish children can spend more quality time at bedtime with their families in a positive, educational manner.

Through the tradition of bedtime stories shared with family through short storybooks, the program aspires to establish Hebrew as the language of Jews living in the United States while bringing Israeli-Americans closer to Jewish life and education. The program hopes to foster a love for reading, an appreciation for Jewish values and culture, a strong Jewish identity, memorable quality time with family, a community of Hebrew readers and lifelong Jewish learners, within the larger Israeli-American community, and ultimately greater enrollment and involvement of Israeli-American families in American Jewish day schools.

SP-BA is a program of the Israeli-American Leadership Council, a nonprofit working to build an active Israeli-American community and to ensure the Jewish identity of the next generation, strengthen the State of Israel and provide a bridge to the Jewish-American community, in partnership with The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, which serves to educate young professionals and campus leaders to advocate for the State of Israel and the Jewish people today; The Harold Grinspoon Foundation, committed to charitable giving, primarily in the Jewish world; and the Avi-Chai Foundation, a private foundation committed to the perpetuation of the Jewish people, Judaism and the centrality of Israel to the Jewish people.

Families should visit sp-ba.org registration-events to find local events, which have already begun and extend through the end of June. Affiliated schools hosting registration events at one or more schools in the following cities or areas are: Bergen County, N.J., Boston, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Chicago, Essex County, N.J., Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Other cities with affiliated schools that have yet to plan registration events are: Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Long Island, Phoenix and San Francisco.