Pack Light

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Pack Light

A line of activist tote bags honouring Jewish change-makers, featuring designs by local Jewish artists & containing powerful tools to effect social change.

Pack Light (named for the traditional call for Jews to be a "light unto the nations") honours Jewish change-makers through the creation of tote bags bearing their images and containing useful materials that advance their causes. To create a design for each bag, we facilitate the collaboration of a local Jewish artist and a representative of the subject's social mission. These totes are a proactive

and attractive way of celebrating Jewish icons who made a difference, and ensuring their positive efforts are continued today. We want people, Jews and non-Jews alike, to carry around this bag proudly - to wear something that will be a symbol of the North American Jewish experience, the lessons it may teach, the inspirations it may provide. We envision these bags sparking conversations and meaningful dialogue about what it is to be Jewish, and what it is to be a citizen of a larger global community.

“We all have baggage. Shlep yours with pride.”

✡✡✡

IG: packlightbags

Our founders:
Haley Yael Firkser
Zoë Freedman
Michael Yashinsky

The organizations that brought us together:
Yiddish Book Center's "Tent"
A Bit Off the Top

03/01/2022

Look what it is! A zoom talk by Ariela Freedman, writer of the newly published novel, LÉA.

Everyone is welcome and admission is free.

To REGISTER and get the Zoom info, please click on this link:
https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLScuezlaIY2mhl.../viewform

In the lead-up to INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, join us NEXT THURSDAY, March 3 at 12:30 pm for a Zoom talk by author ARIELA FREEDMAN about her new novel LÉA.

LÉA is based on the life of famed Quebec activist Léa Roback (1903-2000).

Excerpt from the website of the book's publisher, Linda Leith Publishing - Linda Leith Éditions:

"Meet Léa, polyglot, labour activist, farbrente feminist. Born to a large Jewish family and raised in a French Catholic town, Léa moves fluidly between languages and cultures. Her search for meaning and her instinct for justice place her at the centre of the great changes of the 20th century.
..this novel brings to life a heroine emboldened by political struggles that resonate to this day."

Everyone is welcome and admission is free.

To REGISTER and get the Zoom info, please click on this link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuezlaIY2mhl3-LaxcO1r86ggtkgeXFFRRnL39-fGhElBLcQ/viewform

05/18/2018

Psssssst! We hope you haven't forgotten about us! We'll be raffling off two of our Léa Roback bags next Thursday, May 24th at the 5 à 9 au McCord – Montréal L'Chaim!

We'll be there along with our pals from the Musée du Montréal juif - Museum of Jewish Montreal celebrating Jewish food, art, and comedy. Head over to their event page and snag a ticket before they're gone!

(Also, our bags are currently on sale at the Musée McCord Museum boutique as part of their must-see Shalom Montreal exhibit!)

03/25/2018

You thought we ghosted you... but we're still alive and well and scheming in cyberspace!

Stay tuned for our next steps. In the meantime: Zoeleh, Feyge and Mikhl wish you a freylekhn peysekh! 🤗

LOL (lots of love),
Pack Light

03/09/2017

Borrowing the bright idea of our friends at the Musée du Montréal juif - Museum of Jewish Montreal and honoring the great humanitarian and labor rights activist Léa Roback on this International Women's Day! Check out the MJM's terrific page on Léa here: http://imjm.ca/location/2054. And as always, consider carrying a tribute to Léa around with you by buying a Léa Ro-bag at shlepwithpride.com

08/10/2016

Sami Keats, outside the Yiddish Book Center's gift shop, where she sells the Léa Roback tote. And look, she proudly shleps the bag herself! Here she shows off her inscription of the bag with Roback's name—so that whenever she meets someone who admires it, she can remember the name and educate that person about Roback's life and deeds. Thanks for packing light and shining it for all of us, Sami!

06/17/2016

If you're in the Montreal area, be sure to check out Musée du Montréal juif - Museum of Jewish Montreal on Saint Laurent - they're selling our bags (and pickles, too!)

https://www.facebook.com/museedumontrealjuif/posts/1137734062913460:0

06/16/2016

A huge mazal tov to our friends at the Musée du Montréal juif - Museum of Jewish Montreal on the opening of their new space!

Check out all the great work they do at www.imjm.ca

(If you pay very close attention, you may even see a Pack Light bag make an appearance in the segment)

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/past-and-present-intersect-at-new-museum-of-jewish-montreal-1.2947916?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

A new museum about Montreal’s Jewish culture goes far beyond focusing on the past – also looking to create a cultural space for today and tomorrow.

04/15/2016

Our friends at The Wandering Chew (yes – the same people who catered our event alongside Chez Boris) were on Global Montreal this morning, talking Passover food from around the world!

Watch The wandering chew Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

03/31/2016

For today's , a little "then & now" from our very first mockup for our pitch at Tent Fashion in August 2014, and from our launch party last October. Thank you to everyone who has helped make our corny tagline a reality.

03/08/2016

Today we're celebrating Léa and the tremendous amount of time and energy she devoted to women's rights and empowerment.

www.shlepwithpride.com

01/30/2016

Proud Pack Light shlepper Amelia had this to say of her tote: "Packing stuff for school with Lea Roback! Such a sturdy and useful tote bag!"

And Lea sits next to a dress form! We think the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, with whom Lea organized a strike of 5,000 Montreal women in 1937, would think it all rather FITTING.

Thanks, Amelia! Continue to shlep with pride.

01/23/2016

Hey you! Yes, you.

We want to see your photos with Léa! Send 'em our way so we can share them.

Here's one of Pack Light's Co-Founders, Haley, shlepping Cuddlez to another land.

12/24/2015

Pack Light bags may now be found in a real brick-and-mortar store! The Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. has the Léa Roback bag in stock, and visitors have been responding with feverish enthusiasm this holiday season. We got a kick out of Léa appearing just below the ל ("lamed," the first letter of her name) in the bookstore's mural of the Yiddish alphabet. Thanks, YBC!

10/30/2015

Pack Light is honored for our launch to be written up in a beautiful article by Janice Arnold of the Canadian Jewish News this week! In it, comments given by Rivka Augenfeld of the Fondation Léa Roback Bourses d'études at the launch are printed:
"I think that if she were here, Léa would be beaming with that wonderful, infectious smile she had—she would be so happy that you are inspired by her."

10/14/2015

Thank you to Yuan for sharing this photo of the Léa Roback tote making its way around town!

Here she is, chilling in a park.

You can have your own tote in a park: shlepwithpride.com

10/08/2015

Our website is live! Check out shlepwithpride.com to order your very own Léa Roback tote bag.

10/04/2015

Thank you all so much for coming out last night! We are so thrilled to finally be able to share this project with you.
And remember - shlep your bag with pride.

Address

Montreal, QC

Website

http://www.shlepwithpride.com/

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