History of the Foundation

Learn about the growth of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation's work and commitment to its mission from Western Massachusetts to North America and the rest of the world.



Since 1991, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, along with our generous partners and funders, have invested more than $645 million in programs that make Jewish life and Jewish community more vibrant and connected. Today the Foundation supports an assortment of innovative programs, grants, and award opportunities – with the newest initiative always just a spark of inspiration away.

1991

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF)

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) is established to enhance Jewish and community life in Western Massachusetts and around the world.

2004

JCamp 180

JCamp 180 is created to support non-profit Jewish overnight and day camps with grants and mentoring to strengthen the camps and inspire philanthropic support. (JCamp 180 was originally called the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy and renamed in 2012).

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2005

PJ Library

PJ Library is created as a free program sending Jewish-themed books and music to 200 families in Western Massachusetts. It continues to expand to communities across North American and inspires joyful Jewish experiences by sending storybooks and activities monthly to families with children ages 0-12 and offering ways to connect with community.

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2008

JCamp 180 Conference

JCamp 180 hosts its first conference for camps in the JCamp 180 program. From 2008 on, JCamp 180 hosts the conference annually as its signature professional development and learning offering.

2009

PJ Library Expands Internationally

PJ Library's program expands outside the U.S. for the first time, providing books to young readers in Canada.

2009

Keren Grinspoon Israel

Keren Grinspoon Israel (KGI) is founded to increase the number of quality books in Israeli children’s homes and instill a love of reading in their hearts.

2009

Sifriyat Pijama

Sifriyat Pijama ("Pajama Library” in Hebrew), the Israel-based version of PJ Library, is created by Keren Grinspoon Israel as a classroom-based reading readiness program that distributes high-quality children's books emphasizing shared Jewish/Israeli heritage and values to classrooms in Israel.

2009

PJ Library International Conference

PJ Library hosts its first-ever gathering of local professionals for learning and networking to bring back to their hometowns. It has since grown into an annual international conference for professionals and parent connectors across North America.

2010

Voices & Visions

Voices & Visions is created as poster series that utilizes power of art to interpret the words of great Jewish thinkers. Four poster series are created and offered as gifts to organizations to beautify their spaces, spark conversations, and create new programming.

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2010

Life & Legacy

Life & Legacy is created to help Jewish day schools, synagogues, social service organizations, and other Jewish entities promote legacy giving and endowment-building through consulting, training, peer-to-peer learning, and grants.

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2013

PJ Library Expands to More Countries and Languages

PJ Library moves into Mexico and begins distributing books in Spanish.

2014

Maktabat al-Fanoos

Maktabat al-Fanoos (“Lantern Library” in Arabic) is established by Keren Grinspoon Israel to help Israeli Arab children develop literacy skills and a love of reading through the gift of Arabic language books.

2014

PJ Our Way

PJ Our Way, the next chapter of PJ Library, is created to provide tweens aged 9-12 the gift of exceptional Jewish middle-grade books and graphic novels through an experience where kids get to choose their own book every month.

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2015

Life & Legacy Annual Conference

Life & Legacy hosts its first ever conference to support organizations to create sustainable legacy giving programs in their local Jewish communities.

2018

In Every Generation: A PJ Library Family Haggadah

The first edition of PJ Library's Haggadah, In Every Generation: A PJ Library Family Haggadah, debuts at Passover seders (ritual meals). It is followed by editions in six languages, enlarged print, and braille.

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2020

Life & Legacy marks $1B Legacy Commitment Milestone

By 2020, just eight years after the Harold Grinspoon Foundation launches Life & Legacy, sixty-three Jewish communities across the US and Canada have secured more than $1 billion in legacy commitments.

2020

JCamp 180 Implements All Together Now Matching Grant

To meet the needs of camps during the COVID-19 pandemic, JCamp 180 shifts from solely capital improvement grants to providing emergency unrestricted matching funds. The All Together Now grant pumped $10M into the overnight camps to inspire unprecedented philanthropic support that ensured overnight Jewish camps had the funds needed to keep their camps operational as they closed for summer 2020.

2021

PJ Library Expands to 30+ Countries and 7 Languages

PJ Library furthers its global reach to more than 30 countries and celebrates the publication of books in seven languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.

2021

JCamp 180 Launches the Day Camp Grant

JCamp 180 extends its support to Day Camps, investing more than $500,000 into nearly 30 days camps in the US to fund physical improvement projects.

2021

Life & Legacy Offer PLUS Program

Life & Legacy expands from 4-year to 8-year program, continuing to offer grants, training and consulting to over 50 Jewish communities throughout North America.

2022

PJ Library Reaches 50M Books Distributed

PJ Library's gift of free monthly storybooks reaches a milestone: 50M books distributed worldwide to date!

2022

PJ Library Pilots Get Together Microgrants

HGF begins financially incentivizing peer-led, meaningful, Jewish micro-communities through the PJ Library Get Together initiative. The program expands nationally across the US and Canada in 2024.

2023

JCamp 180 Launches Forward Together Grant

JCamp 180 launches the Forward Together grant, infusing $25 million over five years to provide unrestricted support to more than 100 overnight camps along with support for capital investments and physical improvements.

2024

PJ Library Expands to 40+ Countries

Following a successful launch in Argentina, PJ Library reaches children and their families in more than 40 countries worldwide. See the full list.

2024

JCamp 180 Endowment Accelerator

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation announces a new grant to support permanent endowment-building for Jewish overnight summer camps affiliated with JCamp 180. The $4M, four-year commitment leverages at least an additional $12M in total for the field, seeding cash endowment funds.

2024

Amber Awards

The Amber Awards is created to recognize outstanding professionals in the Jewish communal field.

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