March 7, 2025

It has now been two months since the wildfires devastated such wide swaths of our Los Angeles community. I am so proud of how our community came together, checking on one another and helping to ensure those BCC members who were affected were taken care of, emotionally and through donations of clothing, furniture, and more.

Just a few days after the fires began, I was listening to one of our community members talk about the experience of losing their home in the Eaton Fire, and one thing he mentioned was the loss of their Jewish books: prayer books, history books, Torah commentaries, and more.  I quickly decided that I would begin to replenish this lost Jewish library and house it in my office until it was ready to be picked up and taken to its new home.  But then it dawned on me – how many others have similarly lost their Jewish libraries across Los Angeles? Thus, the BCC Jewish Library Project was born.

So many amazing individuals and organizations have stepped up to help those affected by the fires.  This is something our community can do – build as many starter Jewish libraries as we can.

As people begin to rebuild and/or find new places to call home in the coming months and years, they can come by BCC and grab their Jewish Library collection and not have to start from scratch on their own.  We can collect books that individuals or communities want to give away or don’t need any longer and also collect donations to purchase books.  A preferred book list will be forthcoming for those who have books to donate.

We will create a “Jewish Library starter kit” that will have the basics and people can take with them as a set and also have categories of books (ie. Jewish fiction, Jewish philosophy, queer Jewish books, etc.) that folks can browse and choose what they’d like to add.

The Social Action committee and the BCC Board are on board, and I am eager to dive in and get started.  If you are interested in participating in this project and working with me to make it happen, I would be honored and grateful!

There are a few ways to get involved:

First, we need a small steering committee who will work together to hammer out the details and infrastructure of the project.

Second, we will need folks who want to look through book donations, organize book categories, and create the starter kits.

Third, we will need folks to staff the BCC Jewish Library Project Pick up – when the project really comes to fruition!

Please be in touch with me: jillian@bcc-la.org if you’re interested in participating!

Thank you.  I think we can make a difference together.