Chanukah with a latke-loving alligator - The Jewish Chronicle

When Abigail Jones goes in to talk about Chanukah in her children’s school in a Somerset village on Friday, she will be accompanied by an alligator with a love of latkes.

Larry’s Latkes, a story about a reptilian latke-seller looking for a new flavour for the festive potato cakes, is one of the books in the ever-growing PJ Library, which sends out monthly Jewish-themed books to children across the world.

PJ has proved a vital educational resource in particular for Abigail and her children Imogen, Eleanor and Tristan, the only Jews in the village of Yatton.

“It makes all the difference, we can be part of the community without living in a geographically Jewish area,” said Mrs Jones. “It feels like a lifeline.”

But the books are also useful aids when it comes to being an ambassador for Judaism in non-Jewish schools.

This year PJ has launched a parents’ pack for Chanukah, which offers ideas on festive activities that can they can do both with their own children and when speaking in class.

As part of RE, children in general schools “may learn about what the Torah or what a synagogue is but they don’t learn about the culture — such as hiding the matzah in Pesach,” Mrs Jones said.

PJ materials help to offer them an accessible approach to Judaism.

Not only is she now living far away from the Jewish suburbs, but she also grew up in another village, in Felpham, West Sussex.

Besides ignorance of Judaism, she also encountered casual antisemitism as a child. “People would chuck money on the floor and say, ‘You’re a Jew, why don’t you pick it up?’”

Her experiences left her with a residual wariness as an adult. When she posted messages about Jewish festivals on a local Facebook group in Somerset, she still found herself thinking, “What if someone doesn’t like it”.

In fact, she’s only received positive responses. And when Rosh Hashanah was mentioned in school assembly, her eldest, Imogen, told her, “My friends said it’s great to be Jewish because it makes you special and different”.

Mrs Jones said, “It is lovely that she has such a positive attitude towards being Jewish at such a young age”.

Her husband Edward, who is not Jewish, is supportive of her efforts to foster her children’s Jewish identity, for example making challah with them. When she took the children to an event at Bristol’s Orthodox synagogue over half-term, she was “anxious as I didn’t know what to expect. Everybody was so welcoming and they invited us to their Chanukah party.”

PJ Library, which has been able to expand its work with support from the Genesis Philanthropy Group, reports more than 60 parents signing up to the pack in the first 24 hours since launching it. And as a result of the initiative, PJ will be sending a performer into one school to do shadow puppetry.

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