PJ Library’s Sephardic Stories Initiative (SSI) was launched in 2024 to inspire, motivate, and empower burgeoning authors of Sephardi and Mizrahi backgrounds to leverage their cultural histories and meaningfully add to the cannon of Jewish children’s literature.
When it comes to the work that Life & Legacy undertakes with Jewish organizations to promote current and after-lifetime giving to build endowments, an organization’s employees are just one part of the picture. Another key stakeholder in a strong culture of philanthropy is the volunteer.
PJ Library’s Sephardic Stories Initiative (SSI) was launched in 2024 to inspire, motivate, and empower burgeoning authors of Sephardi and Mizrahi backgrounds to leverage their cultural histories and meaningfully add to the cannon of Jewish children’s literature.
For four days, twelve writers from across the United States, Australia, and Israel gathered—eight in person in Boyds Mills, Pennsylvania, and four virtually—to learn, write, and connect around a shared goal: creating children's books that celebrate Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Ethiopian Jewish stories.
In April, PJ Library families received a special insert with their book mailing inviting them to tune in to PJ Library soundtracks.
As the weather warms up and the school year comes to end, PJ Library is kicking off summer in the city with several activities and festivities celebrating Jewish New York’s longstanding vibrancy.
JCamp 180, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, debuted its new logo last week via email to 100 overnight and nearly 40 day camps.
South Africa is the only country on the African continent with a PJ Library program. Its presence there is thanks to a partnership between King David School in Johannesburg, Herzlia School in Cape Town, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and generous donors.
A year ago, when PJ Library convened 175 partners, program professionals, and parent connectors in Springfield, Massachusetts, for the annual PJ Library International Conference, the program was on track to mail 244,448 books to children ages 0-12 across North America.
Winnie Sandler Grinspoon will be retiring from her active professional role as President of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and transitioning to chair of the Board of Trustees.
In 2019, PJ Library created a first-of-its-kind podcast, Have I Got a Story For You!, featuring contemporary retellings of classic Jewish stories.
The ECJC, in partnership with the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and global partners has convened its Summit for Jewish Leaders every three years since 2015.
Passover is the ultimate Jewish story – a tale of freedom, hope, and food – which makes it the perfect holiday to share with the entire family.
PJ Library and Streits, two beloved names in Jewish family traditions, have joined together for the past several years to feature PJ Library on – and inside – the Streit's Matzo box.
This investment earmarks $1.2 million over the next three years to support the creation of beautiful, meaningful, and beloved Jewish children's books by investing in publishers, authors, and illustrators.
On February first, PJ Publishing, PJ Library’s publishing imprint, released three brand new children’s books highlighting different aspects of Purim: Today I Am a Hamantasch (age 0) by Varda Livney, Purim Baskets (age 1) by Nancy Churnin, and Purim Possibilities (age 3) by Barbara Kimmel.
PJ Library families hosted 8,000 Get Togethers between early September and late December 2025.
In honor of the open nomination window, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation is running a series of Q&A’s with the 2025 winners, concluding with Michelle Koplan.
In honor of the open nomination window, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation is running a series of Q&A’s with the 2025 winners, continuing with Elana Frank.
JCamp 180, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, is excited to announce the 36 recipients of the Day Camp Matching Grant.
This past Sunday, over 2,000 families ventured to the Upper East Side for a day dedicated to the joy and excitement that Jewish children’s books inspire.
In honor of the open nomination window, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation is running a series of Q&A’s with the 2025 winners, continuing with Jon Falk.
This week, PJ Our Way, the continuation of PJ Library for middle grade readers aged 9-12, is marking a huge milestone: Two Million PJ Our Way books have been mailed since the program’s inception!
In honor of the open nomination window, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation is running a series of Q&A’s with the 2025 winners, continuing with Jeremy Burton.
In honor of the open nomination window, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation is running a series of Q&A’s with the 2025 winners, starting with Rabbi Ana Bonnheim
JCamp 180, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, equips over 100 Jewish nonprofit overnight camps and nearly 40 day camps across North America with knowledge, skills, and resources to help them develop long-term organizational excellence. That excellence is key to a camp’s ability to thrive and offer experiences that create lifelong Jewish connections.
Just in time for Hanukkah, PJ Library is making several of its books, holiday guides, and family-friendly gifts available for purchase in a new online store!
When PJ Library began in Brazil in 2020, there were approximately five Jewish titles for kids available for sale across the entire country. And these books were difficult to get ahold of.
Every November, as snow begins to fall, the Latvian resort town of Jūrmala, located along the chilly Baltic Sea, transforms into a warm hub of Jewish life and learning. On one Friday morning after school, Jewish families pack up excited children and head to the three-day Gibush Conference, known in Latvia as “the main Jewish event of the year.”
Earlier today at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) named its inaugural five winners of the Grinspoon Amber Awards.
Earlier this week, the PJ Library UK team brought together 33 Jewish educators — including nursery school teachers, synagogue educators, and communal professionals — for a day of learning and inspiration at the second Community Engagement Conference.
As a Life & Legacy Community Consultant of 10 years, Tammy Dollin knows the questions, hesitations, and fears that arise around asking people to consider leaving legacy gifts. After all, it’s taking two already challenging conversational topics — death and money — and combining them.
Today, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) has announced that the Life & Legacy program has surpassed $2 billion in legacy commitments. This program, a collaborative effort across 70+ communities, is paving the way for a vibrant Jewish future across North America.
Last week’s JCamp 180 annual conference welcomed more than 400 camp directors, development professionals, board members, and lay-leaders to Western Massachusetts for three days of networking, learning, strategizing and, of course, campfire-style singing.
Around the table there were colorful stories of Bukharan cooking, Iraqi Passover customs, Turkish coffee rituals, Libyan family lore, and other tales woven from a rich treasure trove of Sephardic historical memory.
A few weeks ago, Kids Listen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to high-quality children’s audio, announced the launch of Big Emotions: Kids Listen Mashups About Feelings, a limited podcast series.
Each August for the past four years, PJ Library has invited 20 emerging Jewish storybook authors to the rolling hills of rural Pennsylvania for PJ Library’s Picture Book Summer Camp (PBSC).
What will your organization look like, ten, twenty, fifty years from now? There’s no sure-fire way to predict the future, but building an endowment is the best way to secure it.
Hoffman is joining the HGF’s nine-person board, which includes the Foundation’s founder and namesake, Harold Grinspoon, and oversees the Foundation’s investments to support the pillars of a strong Jewish future.
This past week, 220 representatives from Jewish communities across the U.S. and Canada came together in Springfield, Massachusetts for the 2025 Life & Legacy Leadership Conference.
This past week, 175+ PJ Library partners from communities across North America came together with PJ Library staff in Springfield, MA for three days of learning and networking at the organization’s International Conference, which has been held annually since 2009.
PJ Library, in partnership with Penguin Random House’s Crown Books for Young Readers, is excited to announce the release of “Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder,” a heartwarming Passover children's book by award-winning author Richard Michelson and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator E.B. Lewis.
It’s a remarkable feat to write a book, especially one that speaks to the values and vibrancy of the Jewish community. Since 2020, The Harold Grinspoon Foundation has recognized the significant achievements of new authors selected for the PJ Library and PJ Our Way line-ups, and now, the Author Incentive Award will be known as the Grinspoon Jewish Story Awards.
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) proudly announced the launch of the Grinspoon Amber Awards at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) 2024 General Assembly gathering in Washington DC.
This March, PJ Library Presents, the award-winning podcast network for kids, has crossed the one million download milestone. As one of the largest free book programs in the world, PJ Library launched the network three years ago as another way to help parents bring Jewish stories, celebrations, and traditions into family life.
PJ Library, the free, global Jewish storybook program created by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, is teaming up with Streit’s Matzos to bring kid-friendly resources and activities to more Jewish families in the U.S. and Canada this Passover.
Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) and JCamp 180, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF), are partnering to host a joint Jewish Camp Summit December 8-11, 2024.
2023 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Excellence in Teaching Awards for educators in Western Massachusetts. The award, given by the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation (HGCF) in partnership with the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, seeks to motivate teachers at all stages of their careers to aspire to excellence.
JCamp 180, a core program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF), will support more than 100 nonprofit Jewish overnight camps over the next five years with the $25 million Forward Together matching grant.
As nonprofit Jewish summer camps continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing uncertainty, leading Jewish funders are committing to nearly $11 million in matching funds for Jewish camps, with the hope that their effort continues to further recovery and inspires additional giving in 2021.
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation is excited to present the 2021-2022 cohort of PJ Library New York Engagement Grant recipients. The investment in nine partners will help us continue to GROW BOLDLY in New York City, Long Island and Westchester by identifying and engaging families new to PJ Library who are not yet actively participating in Jewish life in their local community.
Keren Grinspoon Israel (KGI) announced today that it has selected Andrea Arbel as its new executive director, following Galina Vromen’s retirement after 18 years with KGI and the U.S.-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF).
The Library of Congress has announced that Keren Grinspoon Israel (KGI, the Grinspoon Israel Foundation) has been selected as a 2020 Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program Best Practice Honoree.
At an essential time for local farmers, a group of community philanthropic leaders and businesses have come together to fund the Local Farmer Awards for the sixth year in a row.
86 students from 14 local colleges and universities recently received awards for their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit (This represents 55 unique businesses and business concepts.)
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation today announced $10 million in new emergency grant funding to support the non-profit Jewish summer overnight camps that participate in the foundation’s JCamp 180® program.
If ever there was a time to serve our communities, it is now. I write to share an update on some of the immediate steps we are taking at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in light of COVID-19.
Celebrating its 5th year, the Local Farmer Awards are funded by a group of philanthropic leaders and businesses, the Local Farm Awards recently gave $142,500 in amounts up to $2500 to 62 farmers in Western Massachusetts and Eastern New York for materials and equipment to make infrastructure improvements.
The third and last spring banquet honoring a total of 113 teachers in Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties was held on May 10th at the Log Cabin in Holyoke.
In front of a crowd of 450 guests including college presidents, faculty, entrepreneurs, and students, three students were selected as the winners of the 15th annual Live Elevator Pitch Competition last night at Grinspoon Entrepreneurship Initiative Annual Banquet.
This month, the Local Farmer Awards, funded by a group of philanthropic leaders and businesses, gave $135,000 in awards to 59 farmers operating in Western Massachusetts to fund infrastructure improvements on their farms.
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation honored western Massachusetts farmers for the third year running Wednesday night. Forty-nine local farms each received $2,500 grants to support local agriculture.
Source: WWLP
The 13th annual Grinspoon, Garvey & Young Entrepreneurship Conference was held on Friday, November 3 at the MassMutual Center and was by all accounts a great success.
Now in its 3rd year, the Local Farmer Awards program is helping farmers welcome the growing season with funds to make infrastructure improvements to expand their businesses.
Six local community banks will sponsor a live elevator pitch competition at the fourteenth annual Awards Banquet for the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation's Collegiate Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Recognizing that farming is essential to our community, Local Farmer Award partners, the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation and Big Y awarded 47 local farmers from the Berkshires to the Pioneer Valley $2,500 to make physical infrastructure improvements to their farms.
Six local community banks will sponsor a live elevator pitch competition at the thirteenth annual Awards Banquet for the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation's Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Jonathan LaFrance, an MBA student from Bay Path University took first place at last night's business competition pitching Sergeant Shower, a biodegradable 2-sided single-use all-in-one shampoo and body wash cloth mitt.
Over a hundred well-wishers attended the Educators' Gala at Temple Beth El in Springfield on May 28, at which four outstanding teachers in our region received Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
Today the Giving Pledge announced the addition of ten new individuals and families to the pledge since May 2014, bringing the current total of signatories to 137.
Laura Whiteley, a Holyoke Community College took first place at last night's business competition pitching a small wallet with the ability to protect itself with thumb print recognition and tracking capabilities.
Winifred Sandler Grinspoon has been appointed President of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, a non-profit organization that support programs that enhance the vibrancy of Jewish life, primarily in North America and Israel.
Findings from the largest known study of North American families raising Jewish children pose a provocative question: Could DIY Judaism be the answer to concerns about declining Jewish identity and engagement?
The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative will mark its 15th year with an evening of exhibits, contests and celebration at the Log Cabin in Holyoke on April 25, 2018