PJ Library joins Mitzvah Day 2018!

Mitzvah Day is the UK’s largest day of social action, involving over 40,000 people annually around the world, to do good deeds for others. This year, on November 18th, groups of Jews and non-Jews from schools and nurseries to cheders and synagogues, will get involved by doing a range of projects, which can be different for every community.

PJ Library truly values helping children and families around the world! So we are proud to be supporting Mitzvah Day by encouraging our partners and everyone we are connected to, to team up to help others.

The following projects are ideal for your children to take part in, and can be incredibly valuable in teaching them the joy and importance of doing Mitzvot.

Host a Book Swap

Host your own community book swap! Use Mitzvah Day as a great chance to trade books your children have loved and outgrown. This is a terrific way to give and receive new books.

How to set up a book swap in your community:

  1. Set up a book swap table and invite your friends and family to come along with a few pre-loved books.
  2. Invite children to look around the swap-table and choose a book they like.
  3. They can take the book and leave behind their gently used books for someone else to discover.
  4. All the books left at the end of the day, donate to charity.

Card Making for Save a Child’s Heart

Amongst other activities, SACH provides life-saving cardiac surgery and other procedures to children at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, Israel.

The Project: Card Making! Children can make cards from anywhere in the world, to send to the children in hospital. The recipients particularly love cards made with stencils, so that they can colour them in themselves!

Click here for more information.

Leket Bag-making Project

Leket Israel, the National Food Bank, is Israel’s leading food rescue organization delivering surplus food to those truly in need.

The Project: This is a great project for Older children! They can decorate tote-bags (or create bags repurposed from recycled t-shirts) to be used by Israeli teenagers when rescuing fresh produce from private backyards and gardens in Israel, that otherwise would go to waste.

Click here for more information.

Mary’s Meals Backpack Project

Mary’s Meals is a Scottish charity that is now international, which primarily provides meals for children in need. To add to this, they created The Backpack Project, devised to benefit children around the world.

The Project: Fill backpacks with clothes, stationary and toiletries that Mary’s Meals can provide to children all over the world. This is a fantastic way to teach children the value of sharing and giving to others!

Click here for more information.

If you can take part in any of these projects, or if you have a local initiative that you would like to support then please do get involved any time around Mitzvah Day- November 18th. You can even bring together your family and friends and run your project alongside them.

There will be many people around the world joining in with you at the same time, so please join PJ Library in this international movement to help others!

About Dan Rickman

Dan Rickman

Dan Rickman is the executive director of Mitzvah Day, the UK’s biggest faith-based day of social action. Prior to joining Mitzvah Day, Dan worked for Magen David Adom, Langdon and Jeneration. Away from work he enjoys watching Manchester United and spending time with his family.