Judith’s Reading Room is a 501(c)3 organization founded in 2010 to enrich lives and societies by proactively encouraging freedom through literacy.
First-ever Library in Sri Lanka
May 6, 2025 — A chance encounter on a flight from New York to San Francisco in 2017 found Cathy Leiber, President, Judith’s Reading Room of Pennsylvania and Professor Tissa Wijeratne, Senior Neurologist and Chair, Migraine Foundation of Australia seated next to each other. Within minutes they discovered that they shared a passion for literacy, coming at it from wildly different perspectives. The five-hour flight was filled with discussions of brain health, literacy, education and the role that reading plays in lifting people out of poverty. Their conversation resulted eight years later in a shared commitment to establish a library in Dr. Tissa’s home country, Sri Lanka. This epitomizes how a Judith’s Reading Room library materializes “out of thin air.”
Judith’s Reading Room Responds to Lost Boxes
April 15, 2025 — Judith’s Reading Room promised retired RN Joyce Edwards that she would receive 151 brand new children’s books from the eastern Pennsylvania nonprofit to create a first-ever library at her new day care center in Holcomb, Mississippi serving 67 children. Three months later, one box of books is still “missing” in Memphis, TN.
Curated Collection of YA and Graphic Novels
April 4, 2025 —Judith’s Reading Room, the global literacy nonprofit organization founded in 2010 in the memory of Judith F. Krug, a distinguished American librarian and cousin to the organization’s founders, announced its latest donation of young adult (YA) and Graphic Novels to ‘Harkins House,’ a nationally recognized model program and short-term temporary residential shelter located in Hillsboro, Oregon near Portland.
To Date: 111 libraries, 25 countries, over 134,046 donated books valued at $1.443,799!
The Freedom Through Literacy Award celebrates a decade of honoring incredible champions of literacy. To date, the award has disbursed $58,600 to winners hailing from 18 countries: Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Greece, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, South Africa, the U.S.A. and Zimbabwe. Winners from the U.S.A. come from 11 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.