When we all got put into this situation in the springtime, my kids didn’t have any sort of devices or electronics they were used to at home, so they were unfamiliar with it. I felt like some people who might typically get challah at their children’s preschool in the beginning, or at the JCC on a Friday, weren’t having that opportunity, and I didn’t want them to not have some sort of Shabbat experience or challah experience because it wasn’t convenient for them, so I tried to make it really convenient.ĭo you have any advice for other working parents trying to balance all of their responsibilities during the pandemic? They send my husband the Venmo for the $4 for the challah, and then they come to our porch and pick up the challah. I assume they wash their hands after that, but everything is contactless in a sense. There were some weeks where there were little glitches, like the squirrels got into the box and we lost a few, so now we have a tub that’s designated so people have to open and close it. I put it on our Facebook page Thursday night or Friday morning, “Who wants challah from Pariser’s?” They will drop off the box. I just wanted to get out into the community and really help children have a love of reading and become lifelong learners to help them along their journey of education, rather than just stopping at one grade level. I just thought that comprehension and some reading skills were really lacking, and I think that it stems a lot from a motivation to read. I just really enjoyed working with everyone. I taught pre-K, and I also taught for the SATs in the evenings for Kaplan in Philly, and I worked with high schoolers. I taught for a few years, and I loved working with different ages, seeing the beginning and all the way up to the end. What made you interested in becoming a librarian?

Now, she organizes challah deliveries and contactless pick-ups. She asked members of her neighborhood Facebook group if they wanted challah as well, and she got lots of interest. It started right at the beginning of the pandemic, when she learned that Pariser’s Bakery delivered challah. In addition to being a working parent during the pandemic, Fink also helps her neighbors get challah for Shabbat. She lives in Mount Washington with her husband, Steve, who works for CBS and, and her kids, Ruby, 7, and Jaret, 6, who attend Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School. And she may still want to go back to school one day to pursue a doctorate.įink is the librarian at the Macks Center for Jewish Education and a member of Beth Tfiloh Congregation. Jessica Fink, 37, has a bachelor’s in elementary education from the University of Florida in Gainesville, a master’s in elementary education from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a master’s in library and information science from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Jessica Fink with her family (Steve Fink)

Jessica fink