The Washington, D.C. office of the American Jewish Committee undertook a month-long effort during Jewish American Heritage Month to spread knowledge about Judaism and Jewish people. This occurred through book and window displays at 24 DMV-area libraries — along with two book events with Jewish authors — in a ramp-up of AJC’s work to fight rising antisemitism and provide more recognition for the month.
This library campaign was the second one by AJC. This year it expanded to more libraries across the DMV through months of concentrated outreach by AJC members and volunteers, providing a toolkit and booklist for the libraries to use during May.
The campaign idea came from the thought that while the organization was doing lots of antisemitism training, it should also highlight and spread awareness of the positive impacts of Jews throughout American history. The libraries were a perfect place to start.
“[Libraries are] one of the few places I think in America now where you can be exposed to new and different things. Because most of us really are looking for specific news stories, but here you can be open to learning,” said Sue Stolov, the AJC Regional Task Force on Antisemitism chair.
Stolov worked closely with multiple people, including Carol Brody and Laura Masurovsky of the AJC Regional Task Force on Antisemitism and JAHM Committee, and Linda Rosenzweig, the chair of the AJC Regional JAHM Committee, to secure commitments from the libraries to be involved in JAHM and compile a booklist, articles and a poster template for a display.
Stolov added that there was an educational component in putting the program together, which included library staff members, as some were not aware that it was JAHM or what it represented.
“Some libraries, all they wanted to do would be to display books about the Holocaust or about antisemitism. And that’s not what Jewish American Heritage Month is about. It’s about Jewish American heritage,” Stolov said. “In a toolkit, we also included a list of 150 Jewish Americans who have contributed to life in the United States.”
The event fits with the plan to broaden appreciation for JAHM, a key component of the U.S. National Strategy for Countering Antisemitism released by the White House in May 2023 — a plan that AJC has made a mission to implement.
“We, of course, had been concerned about rising antisemitism in the area. And we were looking for a boots-on-the-ground opportunity to make a difference,” Stolov said. “Jewish American Heritage Month itself is mentioned 17 times in the national strategy.”
Stolov said data shows that education is an effective tool to combat antisemitism, citing a yearly survey AJC in which they ask Jews and non-Jews about antisemitism.
Stolov said the data shows that knowing a Jewish person increases a person’s inclination to understand the danger posed by antisemitism, and they can extrapolate that to include knowing about Jewish people — knowledge that can be gained through reading books like the ones available through the program.
The program provided additional insights with author events featuring Erica Perl and Michael Sokolove.
Masurovsky and Brody attended the talk by Perl and said that it was fascinating in ways they didn’t imagine, including learning that Perl’s grandfather wrote “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“Her talk was incredible and spoke to adults and grandparents and everybody. It was about kind of creativity in general and organizing your thoughts to write, and about growing up Jewish and where she grew up and how that impacted her,” Masurovsky said.
Even as the month wrapped up with Sokolove’s event on May 30, AJC’s antisemitism awareness work isn’t complete, although there were encouraging signs.
“It wasn’t just the Jewish people that were embracing it, but all the librarians were very kind. So, as we branch out next year, and as we have kind of a baseline from last year and this year, it will get bigger in time,” Brody said.
AJC Regional Director Alan Ronkin said that informing people is key to making sure that Jewish culture is properly recognized and understood — and that celebrating Jewish culture can foster an important and lasting sense of Jewish pride in the community.
“It’s critically important that people understand the contributions of the Jewish community,” Ronkin said. “It puts us on the map, if you will, in ways that I think people were surprised about. I think people sometimes think of Jewish culture is just the bagels and latkes. And we’re just so much more than that, not only in diversity but also in-depth and
in scope.”