Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Long a trusted resource for Jewish families in more than 35 countries around the world who receive their free books each month, PJ Library offers fresh reading, audio stories, and tasty treats for families celebrating Passover this year, April 15 to 23.

In the United States alone, more than 280,000 children are receiving new books this month, each providing a carefully curated selection of age-appropriate reading related to Passover. New this year, families will also receive a colorful illustrated “Matzah Mania” fold-out which includes recipes for homemade matzah, matzah trail mix, and matzah pizza lasagna, along with ideas for serving a seder grazing board. The keepsake fold-out also includes culturally inclusive information about seder traditions, and the “Four Questions” of the Passover seder which are printed in English and Hebrew.

Families across the country will also find PJ Library co-branded Yehuda Matzos boxes on their supermarket shelves. Each package will include information about how families may sign up to receive free books for children from birth through age 8. And, for kids ages 9 and up, PJ Our Way allows kids to select and review books on their own each month.

In April, two new Passover-themed episodes of the PJ Library Presents podcast network will launch. These new podcasts bring Jewish traditions, culture, holidays, and values to life through engaging audio storytelling. On April 4, “Kiddo Learns about Passover” will be the latest Afternoons with Mimi audio story; and “Humpty Dumpty and the Passover Feast” will be the newest tale in the Beyond the Bookcase series. Families may listen to the 2022 NAPPA Award-winning podcasts on all major streaming sources, and more information is at: https://pjlibraryorg/podcast.

PJ Library has become one of the leading sources for family friendly Haggadahs across the United States and beyond with its colorful and kid-friendly illustrated In Every Generation: A PJ Library Family Haggadah. Since 2018, the organization has shipped over 675,000 individual Haggadahs to more than 110,000 PJ Library families – for FREE (for non-subscribers, the printed Haggadah are also available via Amazon). More than 45,000 of those families have indicated that this is their first Haggadah. PJ Library also offers a digital version which can be downloaded in five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and French. This Haggadah is filled with songs, blessings, and explanations and is available as a free printable PDF from https://pjlibrary.org/haggadah.

This year, PJ Library is updating their Passover hub with new book lists and dozens of fresh ideas and resources for families, including stories and songs, games, activity, and recipes, and printables. 

“PJ Library books help families around the world celebrate Jewish holidays, traditions, and values,” explains Alex Zablotsky, Managing Director of PJ Library. “We’ve created supporting materials and resources including the Haggadah and podcast to help families celebrate Passover and other holidays in an inclusive, family friendly way.”

Here is the central Passover Hub: https://pjlibrary.org/passover

Here is where the Passover-themed April episodes of PJ Library Presents podcasts will be posted: https://pjlibrary.org/podcast

PJ Library families received the family Haggadah last year; it’s also available as a PDF from here: https://pjlibrary.org/haggadah

Anyone may purchase a printed copy from the PJ Library Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/pjlibrary.