Emigre council recognizing his work, along with that of financier and New York Assemblyman, with Russian-speaking Jewish community.
For his commitment to the Russian-speaking Jewish community, Longmeadow Jewish philanthropist Harold Grinspoon will be honored by the Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on March 29 at 6 p.m. For his commitment to the Russian-speaking Jewish community, Longmeadow Jewish philanthropist Harold Grinspoon will be honored by the Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on March 29 at 6 p.m.
The event, entitled “Building the Future,” marks the council’s 10th anniversary. Others being honored include financier Feliks Frenkel and New York State Assemblyman Alec Brook Krasny.
Grinspoon, 82, is a real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist who established the West Springfield-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation in 1993 to promote Jewish life among young people, adults and families in Western Massachusetts, North America and Israel. Since its founding, the foundation has dispersed more than $110 million dollars to the Jewish world globally in programs, grants and operations.
He is the visionary behind the PJ Library program, which partners with 165 Jewish communities in North America to send free Jewish children’s books close to 100,000 children each month. He has been awarded the Jewish Book Council Impact Award for his creation of the library and its outreach to the next generation.
Grinspoon’s passion for Jewish overnight camping led him to create the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy, a program of the foundation, which has catalyzed 85 Jewish overnight camps to raise well over $70 million dollars with matching grants and consultation.
He has served on numerous boards including as a founding partner in the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education and on the boards of Birthright Israel and the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
For over two decades, Harold Grinspoon and his wife and philanthropic partner, Diane Troderman, who was recently featured as one of the women in The Republican’s salute to International Women’s Day, have been active philanthropists in the Russian Jewish community both in the former Soviet Union through organizations such as Project Kesher, the Jewish Community Development Fund, Hillel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and in the resettlement of Jews in their own community.
Pioneers in the creation of a micro-finance program for women in Russia, the couple believes that the Russian Jewish community would one day bring its great intellect and cultural acumen to influence the changing landscape of the American Jewish community, and in doing so, both would be strengthened.
Grinspoon, Troderman, and the foundation are partnering to bring the PJ Library to thousands of families in the Russian Jewish community in North America and Sifriyat Pijama to children in Israel.
Troderman and Grinspoon also established the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation that has funded educational awards, including the funding of annual area awards for excellence in teaching, and other projects as far away as Cambodia.
The Jewish emigre council is a central coordinating body in the Russian Jewish community of New York that was formed in 2001 to facilitate the integration process of Russian-speaking Jews into the mainstream Jewish community and the greater American society. The council supports its 33 member organizations, and advocate for the community’s needs.
For information on the event visit http://cojeco.org/
For information on the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, visit http://www.hgf.org/