The Lee Library is pleased to welcome Galina Vromen, founding director of the largest book-gifting program in Arabic in the world, Lantern Library, (Maktabat al-Fanoos in Arabic), based in Israel and operated through a partnership of the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, known for its PJ Library program in America.

Ms. Vromen, head of the foundation’s office in Israel, will explain how Maktabat al-Fanoos, which has distributed more than 2 million books in Arabic to children ages 3-6, is part of the foundation’s commitment to strengthening Israeli society by instilling a love of books and parent-child conversations about values from an early age in both the country’s Jewish majority and among its Arab minority. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insight into the fascinating cultural considerations that go into selecting books suitable for a highly diverse population and distributed to 100% of children in Arabic language public preschools in Israel -- from traditional to modern families; from Moslems to Druze and Christians.