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, starting with Rabbi Ana Bonnheim.
Rabbi Ana Bonnheim is founding executive director of the Jewish Learning Collaborative, which matches leaders in the Jewish community with independent Jewish educators for customized one-on-one Jewish learning. Rabbi Ana built JLC because the leaders of our community are entrusted to build a vibrant Jewish future — and Jewish thought and wisdom should guide their decision-making.
“The work that I do now is about enabling professionals, volunteers, and those of us who care about the Jewish future, to use Jewish learning alongside our secular learning,” shared Rabbi Ana. “I also structured JLC to employ as many Jewish educators as possible who need flexible work, all for the purpose of creating more learning, more interest, and for it to feel personal. I think it’s implied in that mission statement that we need layered, diverse, vibrant Jewish life – that includes culture, learning, and living – and it's going to look different for different people, and that's the beauty of it.”
What was your reaction when you found out that you were an Amber Awards winner?
I was totally shocked when I found out.
I apply for a lot of grants. I put the organization out there. We do a lot of work trying to promote awareness for the initiative, and anyone who's in this world knows you don't get most of the funding that you apply for. So honestly, I had completely forgotten about the application. But suddenly, it was erev Yom Kippur and the email popped up in my inbox. I had to read it three times, I was just so surprised! And excited, and touched, shocked.
I also felt so appreciated and gratified. To have others in the Jewish community—and specifically Winnie and Harold and the Amber Awards selection committee—see the work that we’re doing to bring Jewish learning to Jewish leaders feels like the best vote of confidence.
As a Rabbi, what draws you to working in the Jewish world?
We are living in one of the most exciting times to work in the Jewish world, because there's a flourishing of creativity and energy and interest in Jewish life. So, it means that no matter how your interests evolve, or how you grow as a person, there's going to be amazing options for you to plug into a relevant area of Jewish life.
Jewish tradition has been a language for my life. I believe that it can help us today and in the future as Jews. Working in the Jewish world allows me to live that language and to bring it to life for others every day.
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?
At the Jewish Learning collaborative, we work with over 150 Jewish educators around the world who are the teachers. Initially, when I started the JLC, we weren't sure if we would be able to find enough great teachers. Rabbi Jessy Dressin—who I want to honor with one of the peer recognition Awards—was a person who stepped forward not only as a teacher herself, but also as someone who helped us to build the network and find some of those first teachers who then shared the initiative with their own networks. Rabbi Jessy brings authenticity and warmth to all the teaching that she does.
The second person I'm excited to honor is Aliza Plotkin, who works at the Detroit Federation. Jewish Learning Collaborative partners with Jewish organizations all over North America and the world who want to offer deep Jewish learning as an investment in their staff and volunteers. Aliza had the idea of offering the initiative to professionals all over the Detroit community. We had never worked with a community this way, and it was her vision of what this could be and what this partnership might look like that was so exciting to us.
What is an accomplishment that you're truly proud of?
I'll share one personal accomplishment and one professional.
Personally, I'm really proud of my family. I mean, it’s funny to think of family as an accomplishment, but I’m really proud of the partnership I have with my husband Asher. We have two awesome kids, and I can’t think of anything better than going on a trip with them or having dinner with them. Before I had kids, I remember saying that I just wanted a family who I wanted to have dinner with. And I feel really lucky that I get to live in that reality.
On the professional side . . . I'm proud that I've gotten to work with amazing partners to bring the Jewish Learning Collaborative to life. What began as an idea and a vision and something we were doing on a prototypal level within what was then Moishe House, now Mem Global, had the opportunity to become something special thanks to a bunch of visionary people. I’m proud to have led it into something that’s enabled over 17, 000 hours of Jewish learning for people in their lives, not just in the classroom.
So often, we think of Jewish life as things we go to or attend, and I'm really proud that I have found a way to make Jewish learning deeply personal and authentic to, so far, over 900 people who have opted in. And we're just getting started.
Know an outstanding Jewish communal professional? Learn more about the 2026 nomination criteria and nominate an outstanding Jewish communal professional here.