Your Daily Phil: Q&A with Grinspoon Foundation’s Winnie Sandler Grinspoon
Good Friday morning.
Ed. note: The next edition of Your Daily Phil will appear in your inbox on Tuesday, Jan. 21, after Martin Luther King Jr. and Inauguration Day.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: Moishe House rebrands as Mem Global, establishing umbrella name for its young adult programming; JFN West Coast director: ‘People are coming together in a way we haven’t seen in a really long time’; and Shari Redstone praises CBS News’ hiring of Susan Zirinsky following concerns over editorial bias. Print the latest edition here.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s new Amber Award and interview the organization’s CEO, Winnie Sandler Grinspoon. We profile outgoing White House Jewish liaison Shelley Greenspan, and feature an opinion piece by Rachel Gildiner about gains in gender equity and the work still to be done. Also in this newsletter: Sid Efromovich, Jon Michelon and David Abrams.
Shabbat shalom!
What We’re Watching
The Israeli government has published a list of the 33 hostages that are due to be released in the first phase of the cease-fire agreement that has been brokered with Hamas, several of whom are due to be freed on Sunday. This is contingent upon the government approving the deal this weekend.
Repair the World is launching a series of learning and volunteer initiatives today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday in partnership with a variety of Jewish organizations across the United States.
Chabad is hosting nearly 700 Jewish young professionals from 100 cities and 30 countries this weekend in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, at its Young Professionals Encounter Summit. It will include what is being billed as “The World’s Largest Jewish Speed-Dating Event,” along with an International Solidarity Concert and a Solidarity Prayer Gathering.
What You Should Know
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation is in its final push to identify the first five Jewish professionals who will receive its new Grinspoon Amber Award at the next Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly this fall, the organization’s president told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
Launched at last year’s GA, the Amber Award — nominations for which are open through the end of this month — is meant to honor five “distinguished individuals” with a $10,000 monetary prize, as well as with two “peer recognition grants” — each worth $2,500 — that they can request for two friends or colleagues.
“This is right from Harold’s heart, and he wanted to recognize the people who are out in the field, who he’s inspired by every day, who help to make the work of the Jewish community possible,” Winnie Sandler Grinspoon told eJP yesterday, referring to PJ Library founder Harold Grinspoon. (Check out a more wide-ranging interview with Sandler Grinspoon below.)
In order to ensure that the award can be given annually for years to come, Harold Grinspoon made a “significant donation” to the foundation, Sandler Grinspoon said. “So this is an award that will continue to be an integral part of the Jewish community.”
The foundation kept the criteria for the award “very broad,” Sandler Grinspoon said, looking at the nominees’ commitment to Jewish values, how innovative they are, how well they collaborate with others, their integrity and courage, among other areas.
“We’re looking to see who is doing something amazing, transformative, who has taken something from [one place and elevated it] to a different place. It feels like a situation where we will know it when we see it,” she said.
The name, Amber, refers to the term used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, to translate the Hebrew word chashmal, meaning electricity in modern Hebrew. “This leaves us with a beautiful interplay between ancient symbolism and modern innovation: amber, a fossilized resin, represents the preservation of the past, while its association with electricity evokes the dynamic energy of the future,” the foundation said.
The winners will be announced at the JFNA General Assembly in November 2025. Sandler Grinspoon said that venue was chosen due to both the foundation’s close relationship with JFNA, as well as the fact that the GA is one of the largest North American Jewish conferences, meaning the recipients will be honored as publicly as possible.
“We want the opportunity for each of these award winners to be acknowledged on a main stage, and the GA provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate each of the winners and let them receive the recognition and applause and honor that we want them to receive,” she said.
Q&A
PJ Library parents are looking for resources to explain this fraught moment to their kids, Harold Grinspoon Foundation president says
Through its PJ Library initiative, providing free Jewish-themed books to children across the country, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation has a direct line to tens of thousands of young Jewish families. In the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel and rising global antisemitism, those families are looking for ways to speak to their young children about the current moment, the president of the foundation, Winnie Sandler Grinspoon, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross in a wide-ranging interview about the foundation’s work over the past year and its goals for the future.
JAG: Is there anything in the current moment that is changing the way that the foundation is looking at things, in terms of rising antisemitism, the incoming Trump administration, the war in Israel?
WSG: I’ll answer that in a couple of different ways. One, we continue to do the work that we do in Israel. Israel is actually our largest PJ Library market… We have increased resources to that partnership in Israel that we run in partnership with the [Israeli] Ministry of Education. We’ve asked the ministry what they need and are filling additional needs… For example, the ministry asked us to help supply emotional support dolls to classrooms for young kids who are experiencing the trauma of these past few months, these past recent months, and we are distributing 3,000, but they’re called hug dolls, emotional support dolls to classrooms…
In North America, in our last survey that I told you about, we also asked parents for the first time whether they are talking to their children about antisemitism and about the Middle East and do they feel prepared for those conversations and would they like additional resources for those conversations? And the answer we got back loud and clear was they would like more resources. They would like help in those areas. And so we’re developing an initiative focused on supporting families with young children to talk to their children about antisemitism and about what’s happening in Israel.
EXIT INTERVIEW
White House liaison Shelley Greenspan on how the (kosher) sausage gets made
In Shelley Greenspan’s early meetings with Jewish communal leaders after she assumed the role of White House liaison to the Jewish community in the summer of 2022, she heard the same request over and over again from groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Federations of North America: that President Joe Biden should draft a national strategy to fight antisemitism. The request was a lobbying priority for Jewish groups but was not yet on the radar of the White House officials who would need to actually craft that document. Greenspan resolved to make it happen, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.
And then came Oct. 7: Even though the Jewish community was already living in a time of sky-high antisemitism when the antisemitism national strategy was released in May 2023, it would in hindsight be seen as a relatively quiet period — at least compared to what came several months later, when the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza sparked a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate worldwide. Greenspan, who was five months pregnant at the time of the terror attacks, got right to work.“We just went into crisis mode, and you had to put off your own personal grief for the time being to make sure we can actually be there for the community,” said Greenspan.
DREAM AUDACIOUSLY, STRIVE TENACIOUSLY
The power of hope in the fight for gender equity
“In 2018, which feels like a lifetime ago, I penned a bold vision for 5779 (the year according to the Hebrew calendar),” writes Rachel Gildiner, executive director of SRE Network, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “‘Let’s make this the Year of the Jewish Woman,’ I wrote… ‘Let us look back on 5779 as a year that launched a period of unparalleled advances for women in the Jewish community — in terms of policy, office behaviors, allyship, advancement, equity and leadership.’”
Progress is slow, but it’s happening: “[T]he Jewish communal workplace is still not what we believe it can be. Gender inequity persists. Women’s work continues to be undervalued. Women’s voices too often go unheard. Women are still underrepresented in leadership roles at major Jewish organizations… It’s easy to feel discouraged by all that hasn’t changed, to throw in the towel on our dreams and declare that systemic change is too slow and too hard. But if we were to give up, we’d miss the very point of hope: the belief that things can and will improve — but only if we keep going… Based on Leading Edge data, more women are leading Jewish organizations than they were in 2017. We’ve seen female voices rise as keynote speakers at major Jewish conferences. New Jewish women’s organizations have formed, while older ones continue to grow and evolve. The wage gap, while still present, is shrinking, and incredible partnerships are being formed between women and allies alike. Every step forward is a victory.”
Worthy Reads
Between Grief and Joy: In Time, Rachel Goldberg-Polin explains why she and her husband, Jon Polin, have continued to fight for the release of the remaining 98 hostages after their son’s murder in Hamas captivity. “People seemed confused that Jon and I are relieved and happy that so many of our hostage community, with whom we feel like family, will finally be reunited with their loved ones. This does not mean we are not in agonizing mourning and oozing with grief for our beloved Hersh, who we buried 135 days ago. It means we can hold two truths; we can even hold more. Humans are fascinating creatures. We can experience a multitude of diverse feelings simultaneously. So we can experience suffering while still having the capacity to laugh, we can be longing for someone and capable of celebration, we can be weeping and resilient, we can be yearning and hopeful. What is essential to us at this moment is that we make sure this phase of the deal is the beginning of the end, and not the end. Getting out 33 cherished human beings is critical. BUT, there are still going to be 65 hostages left in captivity. This remains a microcosm of failure of all of humanity.” [Time]
Heir Support: In Inside Philanthropy, Sid Efromovich explains to Mike Scutari how the Generation Pledge — a giving community he co-founded for the ultra-wealthy — guides new and future big-time heirs. “About five years ago, Efromovich and his team developed a ‘polycapital framework’ to help pledgers recognize and deploy five distinct forms of capital for impact — economic capital, which includes philanthropy, investment and or business ventures; social capital, which includes private networks and public platforms; political capital that can be leveraged to influence policy; career capital, which is how one shapes their career; and symbolic capital, which involves how one uses their name or reputation. By working at the intersection of global priorities, personal values and polycapital, Generation Pledge advisors aim to help inheritors discover what Efromovich called their ‘impact purpose.’… When philanthropy advisory services do focus on younger affluent individuals, they tend to focus on those who made their own money or already inherited wealth. ‘Inheritors who have not yet come into their inheritance often lack access to the same resources, even though they are future wealth holders,’ Efromovich said. This advisory blind spot misses a critical window of opportunity for future heirs who have yet to be burdened by managing the family business or overseeing an estate.” [InsidePhilanthropy]
We Need Forums for Exchange: Opportunities for changemakers to connect and share ideas will produce more enduring change than trying to abstract and scale up successful programs into one-size-fits all solutions, writes Gautam John in the India Development Review. “In philanthropy, it is easy to think in terms of programmes and singular solutions. The logic is clean, almost comforting: Define a problem, design a solution, and measure its impact. For years, we donors have funded initiatives that followed this model across education, health, sanitation and other areas. But time and again, we encountered the same limitation — no single intervention could meaningfully shift outcomes in a complex, interconnected system. When intermediaries step in to codify and distribute learnings, they often capture a single version of the work at a particular moment in its evolution. But the work itself continues to change, informed by new challenges, insights, and relationships. These static frameworks, though widely distributed, fail to reflect the dynamic nature of the work and risk reinforcing outdated approaches. What we need isn’t a better intermediary or a sharper snapshot. We need spaces and venues where people with common values can find each other, forge deep personal connections, exchange ideas, co-learn in real time, and co-create enduring solutions. For social change to occur, it is relationships that must serve as the scaffolding for growth. This relational foundation is not a secondary feature; it is the essence of meaningful, adaptive change.” [IndiaDevelopmentReview]
Word on the Street
M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education announced its latest cohort of more than 80 fellows from around the world for the coming year, who will participate in one of four programs: the Senior Educators Cohort; Mabat Israel for Israeli educators; Jewish Pedagogies of Peoplehood Research Fellowship, focused on cultivating Jewish peoplehood; and the inaugural Jewish Pedagogies of T’fillah Research Fellowship, focused on prayer…
Belaaz reported that meetings between President-elect Donald Trump and leading Haredi rabbis, including Satmar Rabbi Ahron Teitelbaum and Gerer Rosh Yeshiva Hagaon Rabbi Shaul Alter, could take place the third week in February…
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed actor-director Mel Gibson, who has a history of antisemitism, as “Special Ambassador to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” along with fellow conservative celebrities Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. Trump gave few details about the role but suggested the “ambassadors” would promote his ideas in entertainment and advise him on the industry…
The Secure Communities Network urged Trump to deport non-citizens who have rallied in support of Hamas and Hezbollah…
Adamah is hosting a series of 10 retreats for Jewish communal professionals across the U.S. aimed at supporting Jewish communal professionals funded by the Maimonides Fund, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, the Crown Family Philanthropies, the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation, and the Jim Joseph Foundation…
Jon Michelon will replace Lori Ann Komisar as president of the American board of the Israel ParaSport Center…
Yossi Garr, the former head of the Conservative movement’s Nativ program, has been named the next educational director at AIPAC…
Jackie Frankel Yaakov is leaving her position as the director of leadership gifts of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies to take on the new role of manager of international resource development at the National Library of Israel…
Volunteer Israeli firefighters arrived in Los Angeles yesterday to assist with the response to wildfires in the city…
Jonathan Metzer has been appointed as chair of the trustee board of the René Cassin Jewish human rights charity…
Hong Kong-based businessman and CLP Holdings Chair Michael Kadoorie is looking to raise $50 million to fund plans to boost the city’s public image and tourism sector…
A Sydney, Australia, home previously owned by Alex Ryvchin, the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti…
The chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, chastised Pope Francis over the pontiff’s increasingly inflammatory rhetoric about Israel…
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency profiles the work of Jewish attorney David Abrams, whose calculated strategy uses the law as a tool to target those who criticize Israel including against the self-proclaimed anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace and the progressive Americans For Peace Now, both of which have had to reach financial settlements over allegations of fraud…
Steve Rogers, CEO of Kaplen Jewish Community Center on the Palisades in Tenafly, N.J., died…
Journalist and news producer Richard M. Cohen died on Dec. 24 at 76 after a lifelong struggle with multiple sclerosis…
Pic of the Day
Rabbi Tamas Vero blows a shofar today as part of a memorial event marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest Ghetto.
Birthdays
Film and stage actor best known for his roles on “The West Wing” and “The Big Bang Theory,” Joshua Malina…
FRIDAY: Retired major general in the Israeli Air Force, he helped start the first Israeli venture capital fund, Dan Tolkowsky… Former two-term member of Congress from Iowa, he is the father-in-law of Chelsea Clinton, Edward Mezvinsky… Host of television’s tabloid talk show “Maury,” originally known as the “Maury Povich Show,” Maury Povich… Former reporter, columnist and editor covering religion, education and New York City neighborhoods for The New York Times, he is the author of four books, Joseph Berger… Retired president of the Supreme Court of Israel, now teaching at University of Haifa Law School, Asher Dan Grunis… Actor who has appeared in over one hundred different television series and commercials, Todd Susman… Australia’s chief scientist until 2020, he is an engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and former chancellor of Monash University, Alan Finkel… Economist, professor, New York Times best-selling author and social entrepreneur, he has written thirteen books and is the founder of six companies, Paul Zane Pilzer… President and co-founder of Bluelight Strategies, Steve Rabinowitz… Journalist-in-residence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Joanne Kenen… Chair of zoology at the University of Wyoming, she was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 U.S. Senate election in Wyoming, Merav Ben-David… Majority owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and dozens of other companies, Dan Gilbert… Professor of Law at Harvard University, Jesse M. Fried… Film director, television director, screenwriter and film producer, Bartholomew “Bart” Freundlich… Founder and CEO at New York City-based Rosewood Realty Group, Aaron Jungreis… President of the Israel Democracy Institute, he was a member of the Knesset for the Kadima party until 2013, Yohanan Plesner… Executive director at SRE Network, Rachel Gildiner… D.C.-based partner at PR firm FGS Global, Jeremy Pelofsky… Professional dancer who has competed in 17 seasons of “Dancing with the Stars,” Maksim Chmerkovskiy… Film and television actor, Scott Mechlowicz… Director of foundation relations at J Street, Becca Freedman… Impact finance counsel in the NYC office of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Perry Isaac Teicher… Film and television actor, Max Adler… Retired player for MLB’s San Diego Padres, he also played for Team Israel in 2013 and 2017, now an on-air radio and television host, Cody Decker… Winner of the $1 million prize as the sole survivor on Season 26 of “Survivor,” he has since become a writer for three television shows, John Martin Cochran… Business administrator at the City of Hoboken, Jason Freeman… Senior vice president of communications at Better Medicare Alliance, Rebecca Berg Buck… Social media lead for VPOTUS-candidate Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, Alyssa Franke…
SATURDAY: Israeli insurance and banking executive, he served as a member of the Knesset from 1978 until 1981, Shlomo Eliahu… Retired executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition of Greater Washington, Judy Novenstein… Publisher of a weekly community newspaper in Boston, David Jacobs… Executive editor at The 74 Media, JoAnne Wasserman… Microbiologist and professor of biology at Wichita State University, Mark A. Schneegurt… Commissioner of the Social Security Administration during most of 2024, he was governor of Maryland for eight years after serving as mayor of Baltimore for the prior eight years, Martin O’Malley… Executive chairman of Aspen Square Management, an operator of apartment units in 12 states, Jeremy Pava… Executive director of Ohr Yisroel, Rabbi Yitz Greenman… Journalist and author of two New York Times bestsellers on personal finance, Beth Kobliner… Stand-up comedian, actor and writer, he is best known as the host of an eponymous Comedy Central program, Dave Attell… Senior rabbi of Golders Green United Synagogue in London for 20 years until 2023, Rabbi Dr. Harvey Belovski… President of the World Mizrachi movement, dean of the Jerusalem College of Technology (Machon Lev), he is also the rabbi of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon… NYC real estate entrepreneur, Andrew Heiberger… VP of government and airport affairs at JetBlue, Jeffrey Goodell… Former MLB All-Star and Gold Glove catcher, now a real estate investor, Mike Lieberthal… Vice president for communications and government affairs at Princeton University, Gadi Dechter… Samara Yudof Jones… Actor and screenwriter, best known for his role in the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” Jason Jordan Segel… Baltimore-born basketball player, dubbed by Sports Illustrated as the “Jewish Jordan” in a 1999 feature, Tamir Goodman… Israeli-born comedian and actor, best known for his web series “Jake and Amir” (with Jake Hurwitz), Amir Shmuel Blumenfeld… Chief development officer at Cleveland-based The Centers, Stacey Rubenfeld… British actor, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd… Former deputy political director of the Midwest region of AIPAC, Talia Alter Gevaryahu… Cellist and music professor, he has performed as a soloist with more than 30 symphonies, Julian Schwarz… Singer, songwriter, actress and dancer with more than with 9.2 million followers on TikTok, Montana Tucker… All-Star pitcher, last month he signed an eight–year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees, Max Fried… Linda Rubin…
SUNDAY: Surfer as a child, she is the real-life inspiration for the fictional character Gidget in a book written by her father, Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman… Retired after 40 years of service as a news reporter and White House correspondent for ABC News, Ann Compton… Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz since 1966, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach… CEO of Charleston, S.C.-based InterTech Group, a family-owned chemicals manufacturer, Anita Zucker… Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Amy Laura Wax… Former speaker of the Knesset following a stint as chairman of the Jewish Agency, Avraham Burg… President and CEO of PayPal until 2023, he is the lead director on the board of Verizon, Daniel H. Schulman… Stoughton, Mass., resident, Hillery Bauman… Jay Susman… Los Angeles-based attorney and founder of the blog “American Trial Attorneys in Defense of Israel,” Baruch C. Cohen… Retired speaker of the U.K.’s House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, his family name was originally Berkowitz, John Simon Bercow… U.K. ambassador to Mexico until last year, Jon Benjamin… Governor of Illinois since 2019, Jay Robert “J.B.” Pritzker… Chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, Jonathan Karl… Israeli-American social entrepreneur, she is the co-founder and former CEO of Circ MedTech, Tzameret Fuerst… Former lecturer at the University of Maryland’s Center for Jewish Studies and senior adviser to Enter: The Jewish Peoplehood Alliance, Scott Lasensky… United Arab Emirates’ minister of state and ambassador to the U.S., Yousef Al Otaiba… Journalist, entrepreneur, and social activist, Jessica Abo… DC-based managing director of policy and political affairs at AJC: Global Jewish Advocacy, Julie Fishman Rayman… VP at the National Women’s Law Center, Melissa Boteach… Isaac (Ike) Wolf… Assistant director of policy and government affairs at AIPAC, Alex Bronzo… Gastroenterologist in Boston and a former ice dancing champion, Loren Galler Rabinowitz, M.D…. Actor since early childhood, he has already appeared in over 25 films and most recently a main character in Amazon’s “Hunters,” Logan Lerman… Midwest regional deputy director at AIPAC, Emily Berman Pevnick…
