Tycoon Harold Grinspoon Vows To Give Away Half His Wealth
Image by Harold Grinspoon Foundation
Harold Grinspoon, a real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist, signed the Giving Pledge to donate more than half his fortune to charitable causes.
Grinspoon, whose nonprofit foundation funds a range of Jewish causes and organizations, joined the pledge started in 2010 by billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates. In 2011, he told The New York Times that he was worth “over $500 million.”
“The sense of mission and accomplishment that I get through my philanthropy energizes me every day,” Grinspoon, 85, said in a statement released Tuesday by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. “I am honored to join the Giving Pledge and encourage others to join as well.”
In addition to funding half the PJ Library’s budget, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation donates to the Jewish Federations of North America, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, the Birthright Israel Foundation and several other Jewish organizations.
Grinspoon brings the number of Giving Pledge signers to 137, including billionaire Jews such as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison.
“In the 21st century, I believe that for Judaism to continue to have an impact on families and society, Jewish living and learning must be actively cultivated,” Grinspoon said in his statement. “That is why I am committing nearly all my assets to my Foundation to pursue this goal.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Washington, D.C., Jewish federation will distribute $180,000 to laid-off federal workers
-
Fast Forward House approves bill requiring campuses to report more foreign funding
-
Fast Forward Cornell’s new Jewish president says he is ‘very comfortable with where Cornell is currently’
-
Fast Forward Digital breadcrumbs lead to the team behind Jewish Onliner, the AI-powered website that got a Yale scholar suspended
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Opinion Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Washington, D.C., Jewish federation will distribute $180,000 to laid-off federal workers
-
Fast Forward House approves bill requiring campuses to report more foreign funding
-
Books So much to say about Israeli violence, so little to say about violence against Jews
-
Opinion Think every Palestinian in Gaza is Hamas? This week’s protests prove you’re wrong
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.