By: Bethany Friedlander
PJ Library Manager

Welcome our PJ Library Family Connectors. This is no ordinary gathering. We live all over the state from Steamboat to Ft. Collins and all around Denver. It’s hard to meet in person very often, but when we do it’s sweet. This picture is of some of our many PJ Library JEWISHcolorado Family Connectors around our Colorado community making Jewish family life come alive for families with young children through gatherings, coffee dates, and playdates in the park.

What are Family Connectors? They are the glue that makes Colorado families stick. They are the welcomer, the good-wishers, the knock-on-your-door smiler, and the coffee connector. These parents connect with families in their neighborhoods, helping Colorado families raising Jewish children connect. They are at local parks having tot Shabbat, coffee houses talking with other parents about Jewish opportunities, farmers markets swapping recipes, and museums planning gatherings that ignite Jewish community, learning, and experiences through conversation, arts and crafts, and food.

These family connectors, as well as partnering organizations and PJ Library JEWISHcolorado, support the mission of PJ Library nationally. We know that something magical happens when parents sit down together to read with their children. PJ Library sends free Jewish children’s books to families across the world every month (and over 4000 to just the state of Colorado!). PJ Library shares Jewish stories that can help your family talk together about values and traditions that are important to you. You can learn more about PJ Library and sign up at www.pjlibrary.org

Join me here each month in the JEWISHcolorado newsletter as we meet each of our Family Connectors and what they are doing in their communities. In just one year we have expanded our family connector program to 11 parents in Colorado across 10 unique communities.

• Alana Myers: Thornton, Honeymoon Israel
• Carly Edwards: Lowry
• Elana Ladd: Ken Caryl/Littleton
• Daniella Priebatsch Place: Steamboat Springs, Har Mishpacha
• Ilyse Bekerman: Aurora, Bible Park neighborhood, Hebrew Education Alliance
• Jessica Tayts: Westminster/Broomfield
• Kyla Pfeif: Ft. Collins, Har Shalom
• Marissa Greene: Westminster/Broomfield
• Mary Ann Weiss: Platt Park
• Rachel Braver Markowitz: South East Aurora
• Leora Rosenbaum: Lakewood

Do you live near one? Don’t see one near you? Want to become one? Contact Bethany Friedlander at bfriedlander@jewishcolorado.org to connect with these Family Connectors or learn more about the Family Connector program at JEWISHcolorado.