The library in Alon strengthens community bonds

Libraries are community hubs, connecting people to information and to other people.?In the small isolated communities of Judea and Samaria, the local library offers a home away from home – a place to learn, explore, and connect with others. When you help a community in Judea and Samaria with surveillance cameras, you save lives,?but there is more than one way to save a life.?For the shy child, or simply the quiet type, a library is a safe haven.

Gilad, of Alon in Samaria, has always loved visiting the library.?As a preschooler, he would come with his mother and older brothers, and later, he began coming on his own, spending most afternoons reading in one of the cozy library corners. He was practically a permanent fixture at the Alon library.

While he did not seem to have many friends,?the library provided him with a safe and enjoyable source of entertainment. Eventually, it became his source of strength. On one occasion, the Alon librarian noticed a child approaching Gilad for help locating a book. Beaming with pride, Gilad not only pointed out the book’s location but also engaged the boy in conversation about the book's merits and recommended other books in the same genre.

After years at the tiny library, Gilad knew its shelves inside and out.?The librarian, seizing on a golden opportunity for Gilad to shine, began referring children to Gilad for help locating books?and recommendations and later hired him, as a teenager, to work at the library part-time.?The time he spent at the Alon library empowered Gilad to engage in conversations and develop community bonds.

In Alon, which added 150 new families over the past several years - doubling its population -?the library is bursting at the seams. It is no longer large enough to serve everyone. While libraries play an essential role in communities everywhere, in Alon and other isolated pioneering communities, they are the heart and soul of the community. More than an educational and cultural resource,?the library of Alon is a vital resource for strengthening community bonds?and camaraderie that help the most isolated communities face the challenges of terrorism.

With your help, the people of Alon will expand their library building to offer more bookshelves and books, more seating, and more space for community events.?You can help provide the people of Alon and many others living in the most isolated communities of Judea and Samaria with the resources they so desperately need?to ensure a rich and meaningful life for everyone in the Biblical Heartland.

Build a bigger library in Alon!