By Lisa Pollack
Noted columnist and author, Anna Quindlen, said “I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”
Books are someone’s dreams, and you live many lives while reading them. Great novels are a conversion experience because we come away from them changed. The road to knowledge begins with the turn of a page.
Throughout the pandemic, the children faced multiple obstacles, restrictions, stress, isolation and other issues. With the schools and public libraries closed, Neve Hanna faced challenges on how to school the children. American Friends took action by helping to fund and build a library, a space of refuge and escape, where the children could discover new worlds through books, and the joy of reading, studying, and learning.
In the span of two years, with the love and support of our board of directors, family, friends and donors, we raised the essential funds to build a library and fill it with over 1,000 new books. The campaign has been an important endeavor in improving the well being and future of the children.
This year, we hired Librarian, Judith Preger-Reshef, who has been cataloging the books, and preparing to work with the children. Judith’s main focus is to inspire the children to love reading. She will supervise and educate the children and offer programs such as ‘author of the month’ and ‘storytelling.’ One guest author will be Baruch Inbar, a former child of Neve Hanna, who went on to become a successful artist, designer, animator and visual storyteller of children’s books. Baruch gifted copies of his books to the Library. What a source of pride for Neve Hanna, and a positive influence for young children and teenagers.
But, our work is not complete. We need to raise more funds to purchase additional books, tablets, and computers and professionally train teens to assist and become librarians.
When you join our campaign, you’ll help us do so much more. It all begins with one book and YOU.
Go to www.afnevehanna.org/library and learn more about this wonderful library and how you can help be a part of it.
American Friends of Neve Hanna 