The Grinspoon Amber Awards, established in 2024, recognize and celebrate five individuals annually who have made outstanding contributions to Jewish communal life. Recently at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation recognized the award’s inaugural winners: Rabbi Ana Bonnheim, Jeremy Burton, Jonathan Falk, Elana Frank, and Michelle Koplan.
Now, as of January 1, 2026, nominations are open for the 2026 Grinspoon Amber Awards. The nomination window will remain open until February 28, 2026.
Each 2026 Grinspoon Amber Awards recipient will receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to “pay it forward” by selecting two individuals doing impactful work in Jewish life to receive Peer Recognition Grants of $2,500 each. This distinctive feature of the award is intended to foster a ripple effect of gratitude, mentorship, and shared celebration across the Jewish communal field.
Learn more about the 2026 nomination criteria and nominate an outstanding Jewish communal professional here.
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.
Michelle Koplan has served as the Chief Executive Officer of BB360 (formerly known as B’nai B’rith Camp) since 1999. She has been instrumental in developing BB360 into a robust year-round agency, serving children, teens, adults, and families. Michelle is responsible for the overall administration and management of the agency, including programs, fundraising, and business operations. Her expertise includes visioning and growth, planning and evaluation, policy development and administration, personnel and fiscal management, board governance, and public relations.
“When I began my career, I pledged to build a vibrant Jewish community through the Jewish value of inclusivity, hachnasat orchim, 'welcoming the stranger,’ at the helm," shared Michelle. “The value of hachnasat orchim is woven into the very fabric of our agency and exemplifies our core beliefs that every child can participate, every child can make a friend, every child can succeed—every child belongs. Today, our overnight camp is recognized locally and nationally as a model of inclusive best practices. As we have grown, this philosophy is imbued through all of our programs and services, for children and adults.”
You were nominated for the inaugural cohort of the Grinspoon Amber Awards. What was your reaction when you found out you had been nominated, and were invited to apply?
I had a heart transplant this past year, followed by a prolonged, many-months-long stay in the hospital. I found out I had been nominated when I returned home in the late spring. I was overwhelmed and filled with gratitude to be considered and nominated by my colleagues and lay leadership, especially after such a challenging year.
One component of this award is the Peer Recognition Grant. You were able to select two individuals to whom you could “pay it forward” with gifts of $2,500 each. Can you share about the people you're choosing and why?
The first is Michelle Caplan, Assistant Executive Director, Congregation Neveh Shalom. She has dedicated her life to Jewish communal service. As a Spertus Institute graduate, Michelle’s Jewish education, plus her natural ability to network and connect communities are her strengths. Michelle is an outstanding Jewish communal professional and deserves true recognition for her amazing work and dedication to building a vibrant Jewish community.
The second is Josh Kashinsky, Executive Director of Congregation Beth Israel. He is the Congregation's backbone. Josh started his career in the JCC world and came to the role as the Executive of CBI nearly a decade ago. He navigated the synagogue through the challenges of the COVID pandemic, led the capital campaign to build ‘The Jennie,’ an early childhood center, and is in the process of leading the congregation through a significant transition of long-time tenured clergy into a new era of clergy. Josh is welcoming and inclusive and open to all points of view, which has allowed for growth in membership and programming.
What is an accomplishment that you're proudest of?
I have so much to be proud of. I have had the opportunity, alongside my staff and lay leadership, to create an agency that serves the Jewish community in ways that are more than just an overnight camp. My work towards developing an agency as a model of best inclusive practices led me to become a contributing author of the Standards for Inclusive Recreation Programs and Best Practices for Inclusive Camps. We have now grown what was once just BB Camp to our rebranded agency, BB360, to include PJ Library Oregon, BBYO, Adult and Family Camps, Engagement Programs, Overnight Camp, and Day Camps.
In the early 2000s, we started our inclusion program, long before inclusion was trending. In 2006, we opened our first Day Camp on our overnight campus as a way to give back to the local community. Our camp is located in one of the most impoverished counties in the state, and we knew the kids needed more. We have since served over 6000 local children.
In 2017, we opened BB Day Camp Portland, and in the following year, we opened several BB Day Camps in other cities across the State, meeting Jewish children where they were with the idea that all Jewish children should have the Jewish camp experience, regardless of where they live, their financial resources, or ability to find Jewish community.
When COVID struck in 2020, my passion, experience, and chutzpah (confidence) allowed me to work closely with the Governor’s Office and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to write the protocols necessary to open Oregon’s summer camps with COVID mitigating protocols. At the same time, in June of 2020, we began feeding Lincoln County School District children who typically come to school for the lunch program.
Later that summer, wildfires hit the State, just nearly missing Camp. Sadly, our neighbors were not as lucky, and the need to feed folks increased tenfold. We worked with the American Red Cross, FEMA, and the State of Oregon to ensure that people were provided three free meals a day, which we prepared and delivered to shelters, lasting well over a year. During the crisis, we fed 362,000 free meals to food-insecure children, their families, and wildfire survivors. We saved the community, and in turn, the funding from the State to ensure folks were fed allowed us to remain open and sustainable through the biggest crisis any of us has ever seen. We continue to feed 10,000+ free meals to food-insecure children and families throughout the summer months.
During the initial months of the pandemic, I began to talk to every possible stakeholder, donor, and state legislator that I knew. With a few friends of camping, we brought together a group of people representing the American Camp Association, the Christian Camp and Conference Association, the Oregon Alliance of YMCAs, Oregon ASK, and the Oregon Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs. This alliance became the Alliance of Oregon Camps, representing a network of 170 Oregon Camps. Our efforts with the legislators late that winter brought me to the Ways and Means Committee, which voted to provide $10M to Oregon’s Camps. In January 2021, I worked with legislators to receive an additional $1M. Our work made a lasting impact on so many. The State continues to fund summer learning, including camps, to this day.
And, on top of it all, we tackled a large capital campaign and rebuilt our entire campus as the only fully ADA-accessible Camp in the State, and one of very few on the west coast. A significant accomplishment indeed.
Know an outstanding Jewish communal professional? Learn more about the 2026 nomination criteria and nominate an outstanding Jewish communal professional here.