Winnie Sandler Grinspoon

Giving The People Of The Book Children’s Books By The Thousands
It’s not every 80-something philanthropist who puts his daughter-in-law in charge of the multimillion dollar foundation that bears his name. But then, Harold Grinspoon is not your average philanthropist. And Winnie Sandler Grinspoon is not your average daughter-in-law.
The elder Grinspoon — 88 years old, and still going strong — founded the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in 1991 to support Jewish causes, especially education, in his native Massachusetts and beyond. The foundation’s most well-known program is PJ Library, which since 2005 has delivered free books and resources to Jewish children in order to enhance literacy and create a culture of Jewish learning in young families.
Sandler Grinspoon, 54, was practicing law when she married into the family, but after gradually assuming increasing duties at the foundation, she was named president in 2014. PJ Library now reaches more than 175,000 households in North America and, through PJ Alliance, is supported by 13 major funders across the nation.
In June, Sandler Grinspoon released an extensive review of PJ Library’s activities and effectiveness, showing that intermarried families and those wanting to become more involved in Jewish life are the ones who especially value the books and resources. Overseeing programs from Australia to Guatemala and Singapore to Russia, Sandler Grinspoon is literally spreading Jewish literacy across the globe, one book at a time.
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!
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.