JewJu Box

Our items are geared mainly to those who are setting up a new or temporary Jewish home, people who are not near a Jewish centre, or those away from home. The items in our boxes and bags are safe anywhere and university residence compliant. For example, we use LED candles so there are no open flames to worry about, and our Mezuzot come with options for removable hanging. The items we sell are contemporary in style and can be displayed with pride. However, they are also compact and come in a reusable box or bag, so they can be easily stored to make space until they are needed. While we offer curated sets, items can be bought individually, or you can make your own custom box.

We are two sisters born, raised, and active in Canadian Reform Jewish communities. When we were looking for Jewish sets to send to our children when they went off to University, or simply to buy online, we were surprised to find that Jewish gift boxes were mainly about food, and individual travel items were very expensive. We envisioned gifts that parents and grandparents could give to their students as they headed off to college, and JewJu Box was born. From there, we broadened our focus to anyone who would need to set up a Jewish home outside of a major Jewish centre.

As committed Reform Jews, our products all have a decidedly liberal feel. We use gender-neutral God language. When we couldn’t find an inclusive, compact, accessible Haggadah, we developed our own.
We include the appropriate blessings in all our packages, and they are all in Hebrew, English, and transliteration, so anyone can feel comfortable in saying them. We have developed some exclusive items to support Jewish life anywhere. Our Basic Box includes our very own recipe to make challah in a toaster oven, while our Seder Box includes instructions to make your own matzah, for those who can’t find it in local stores. We offer a guide for students in Canadian universities to enable them to connect Jewishly wherever they are. We include the appropriate blessings in Hebrew, English, and transliteration, so they are accessible to anyone.

Currently, we offer three curated boxes and one curated bag:

The Simply Shabbat Bag includes the basic for observing Shabbat away from home. Because it is light, compact, and includes flameless candles, it is very portable, and is great for camping, hotel stays, and time spent in a hospital or convalescent home.
It includes:
A small kiddush cup
Lightweight tea light candle holders and LED candles
A simple Challah cover
A kippah
Laminated Shabbat blessings in English, Hebrew, and transliterated

The Basic Box includes the basics for establishing a Jewish home:
Tea light style Shabbat candle holders and LED candles,
A Kiddush cup,
Our unique removable Mezuzah,
Our unique Tzedakah box,
Our very own toaster oven Challah recipe,
A listing of the traditional and liberal dates for Jewish holidays, along with a fridge magnet
Blessings for Shabbat, and hanging a Mezuzah, (in Hebrew, English, and transliterated)

The Seder Box includes the basics for hosting a Passover Seder:
A linen Matzah set, designed and created by a local textile artist:
Folding matzah box for the table
A three-section matzah holder,
Afikoman holder
A kiddush cup which can be used as Elijah’s cup
Small bowls to turn a dinner plate into a Seder plate
Tea light style candle holders and LED candles
Our very own, exclusive inclusive, egalitarian Haggadah
Recipes for charoset and to make Matzah at home
The Seder Box itself is large enough to store a box of matzah.

The ChanuBox includes the basics for celebrating Chanukah:
A choice of a compact electric Chanukiah, or one which uses birthday candles, (so they can be easily replaced no matter where you live),
A set of four postcard-style Chanukah cards, created by a local designer,
A dreidel,
Plastic gelt (toy coins) and instructions for playing the traditional dreidel game,
The Chanukah blessings, (in Hebrew, English, and transliterated)
Something extra for fun

We also have a couple of curated bags specifically for Chanukah: A baking set with recipes, spatula, and cookie cutters; A play set with a rolling pin, very simple playdough recipe, and playdough cutters, a games night with plastic gelt, dreidel-shaped reusable ice cubes, four dreidels with instructions for the traditional game, and playing cards with Jewish themes.

While our focus is on allowing adults to live Jewishly wherever they are, we also have some sets that are intended as add-ons for children and families for both Pesach and Chanukah.

We carry additional items which can be added to our curated or custom boxes, including a rayon Challah cover made in Israel, a simple Reform or Conservative bencher (prayerbook), and our exclusive J-Cards – Playing cards using Hebrew characters for numbers, and suits and face cards drawn from Jewish tradition. These were designed by a third sister and are only available in Canada through JewJu Box.

We are particularly proud of the resources we have developed. We offer a guide to connecting Jewishly, which is geared to University students, but useful anywhere in Canada. We created simple small-batch recipes that are suitable for the toaster oven and simple enought for even the beginning cook. We offer a

Our blog features articles about three areas of Jewish life that we are fascinated with: the Canadian Jewish world, communities which are relatively remote from Jewish centres, and little-known aspects of the Jewish holidays.

While we are small, we try to do some good in our corner of the world. On the question of our ecological and ethical choices, we devoted a blog to the question, “Is JewJu Box a Green Choice?” In summary, we found that the answer is a qualified “yes”, in that our boxes are eminently reusable, and were repurposed, our products are meant to be kept and used for a long time, our use of LED candles avoids chemicals and a quick trip to the landfill, and we reuse packing material rather than buying new, and we choose recycled or FSC certified paper wherever possible.

We donate boxes and individual items to Jewish charities to include in their draws and auctions. We support small, local, and mainly woman-led businesses; we partner with Toronto East Judaica for some events, and as mentioned above, our Chanukah greeting cards, matzah set, and J-Cards are all produced by small businesses, which we also profile on our website. The photographs used on our website were taken by a small photographer based in Thornhill, Ontario.