Making Community Connections

Zipporah Hruby has worked at four jobs, lived in three states, and attended two universities. But there has been one constant throughout all of her experiences: a strong connection to Judaism.

As the family engagement director at Shalom Orlando, Zipporah gets to connect others to Judaism as well, most often through books from PJ Library – a program that mails free Jewish children’s books to families every month. PJ Library is part of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, a nonprofit that partners with Jewish organizations to fund PJ Library within local communities and build family programming around the books.

Zipporah can often be seen reading to students at The Roth Family JCC’s Richard S. Adler Early Childhood Learning Center. Even the babies passing by in their buggies in the hall will point to her and say “book.”

“I love that they associate me with books and PJ,” says Zipporah, who lives in Baldwin Park and started at her position in October 2022. “Everything I do has some sort of PJ lens to it.”

Booking It Around Orlando

Currently, around 1,275 local families are served by PJ Library, with nearly 1,700 children in the Orlando area receiving books each month. Zipporah helps organize regular events and programs, such as storytimes at Barnes & Noble and public libraries or the PJ Library Grandparents Series she started last year. That intergenerational program encourages grandparents and their grandchildren to celebrate Jewish traditions together by making memories as well as keepsakes like wooden mezuzahs.

“Getting Jewish people together to be Jewish – that’s the fun thing about my job,” says Zipporah.

Zipporah Hruby introduces Maddox Gold to a PJ Library book.

Another popular program is attending the Orlando Philharmonic Symphony Storytime. This annual series held at The Plaza Live includes narration and illustrations of classic children’s tales alongside live music.

“Every year, Ed and Marian Bromberg donate money to PJ specifically to go to the Orlando Philharmonic Symphony Storytime. They subsidize tickets to be only $2 per person. This year we had around 150 tickets sold just from PJ Library. Last year it was 100. Maybe next year, if the numbers are as high, we might be able to get a private PJ-only performance,” says Zipporah.

Finding more ways to strengthen PJ Library’s partnerships with local organizations – both Jewish and not – is a major focus for Zipporah this year.

“When you’re out in public, not everyone is going to be Jewish. Like at Barnes & Noble, non-Jewish families come by, and for those new families, that’s how I introduce PJ,” says Zipporah. “There are free Jewish books for families, but the books I read here are not always Jewish specific. They’re human-values specific, which is every religion. That makes them extra special. There are holiday storytimes, but it’s really cool to have everyone involved or even Jewish people who haven’t heard of PJ have that world opened up to them.”

(Left) Zipporah with Harold Grinspoon, founder of PJ Library. (Right) Zipporah leads a storytime session at a local bookstore.

Tailor-made Programming

PJ Library books clearly resonate with kids and their families, and Zipporah enjoys making those personal connections and tailoring the programs to the specific needs of the local community.

“What I love about my job is I get to listen to the families and then give them programming they ask for and really meet them where they’re at, which I think is really important and necessary,” says Zipporah

One way Zipporah has been able to expand her reach is through PJ Library Parent Connectors who engage families and lead programming in specific cities. Last year, Zipporah wrote and received a $15,000 grant from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation to fund two Parent Connectors: Brie Fox in Oviedo and Renata Katz in Winter Garden.

“These two moms know their cities up and down, and now they have Facebook pages kept up to date with events they’re doing,” says Zipporah. “Both are incredibly passionate about what they’re doing and have made such an incredible difference in our PJ world. They found families I wouldn’t have been able to find. I’m so proud of the work they are doing and continue to do. My dream is that we would have a connector in each city.”

Those interested in joining either Parent Connector Facebook group can do so at Facebook.com/groups/OviedoPJParentConnector and Facebook.com/groups/WinterGardenPJParentConnector.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Zipporah says managing the PJ Parent Connectors has allowed her to grow professionally, although connecting the Jewish community is a skill that runs across her résumé and perhaps even in her blood.

Zipporah’s mother Erica has worked in Orlando with the Jewish Federation, BBYO, and Central Florida Hillel, and she currently serves as The Jewish Education Project’s senior manager of national teen education & engagement. Zipporah’s sister Lila works for the Jewish Federations of North America’s Changemakers program. Before assuming her role with Shalom Orlando, Zipporah, a graduate of Jewish Academy of Orlando, worked as the Congregation of Reform Judaism’s youth director and then as assistant director of admissions for Stetson University, where she simultaneously worked as their Hillel program coordinator. She was also very involved with Orlando’s first Moishe House, a nonprofit creating Jewish community for young adults.

“My mom being in Jewish education and being in and working in Jewish life, that’s what I knew and grew up with,” says Zipporah. “It kind of just perfectly fell into place for my sister and me…We’ve followed in my mom’s footsteps. It shows the strong Jewish values our parents raised us with. We can share resources even though we work with different populations. We’re all really doing engagement, and it’s great to have my mom and sister as thought partners.”

Jewish connection runs deep in the Hruby family circle but has also come full circle for Zipporah.

“I now work with families and generations I knew from JAO,” she says. “It’s really cool to see what I’m doing is making a difference.”

This story was originally published in print in Summer 2024.