When Michelle Morris met several young families through Jewish Baby University (JBU), the group maintained social connections even after their babies were born.
Coincidentally, one of Morris’s monthly PJ Library books arrived with information from the National PJ Library organization describing a new opportunity—“Get Together Microgrants.” Through this program, she could host a gathering and receive a $100 gift card from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation to reimburse her for expenses.
“It was kismet!” Morris says. “I had been thinking I wanted to do this nice gathering of friends we made at JBU, and suddenly there was funding that made it that much more palatable.”
Morris family
That’s how 10 adults and 5 babies under the age of one ended up at Morris’s Denver home recently for a soup party to mark the transition from fall to cold weather season.
Across town in Edgewater, Amy Tedoff is a veteran of Get Together Microgrants.
“I like to do lots of Jewish things, especially for my kids, but sometimes I need a little push to host other families,” Tedoff says. “That $100 grant is an incentive and makes it easy for me to take the first step, so why leave it on the table?”
Tedoff has used the grants several times—for a Sukkot party where she decorated the pergola in their backyard, a Rosh Hashanah party with apples and honey and challah, and a Purim party where the families made hamantaschen.
Tedoff family
PJ Library is a program locally run by JEWISHcolorado. Jco splits the cost of each of the 5,000 subscriptions statewide with the Grinspoon Foundation, making the program free for parents and families. Get Together Microgrants have been a huge success—just check out the numbers. Since the grants became available in Colorado in August, there have been 134 gatherings, attended by 466 families, spanning 41 zip codes throughout Colorado.
Why do a Get Together?
Harold Grinspoon, the creator of PJ Library, had long been inspired by the power of the Havurah movement, with its emphasis on intimate, peer-led Jewish communities for shared learning, personal meaning, and connections that are often outside traditional synagogues.
Determined to make sure that PJ Library families were incentivized to gather in the comfort of their own homes with other Jewish families, he launched the Get Together Microgrants program in Massachusetts in 2013. Through the years, the program spread to more communities across the country.
In fall of 2025, the program became available to every PJ Library subscriber in North America with funds available in time for the High Holidays.
“Families are wrestling with what it means to be Jewish these days,” says Jenn Abrams, JEWISHcolorado’s PJ Library Coordinator. “This is such a simple idea—get your friends together, here’s $100, and the sky’s the limit!”
People are using the grants to create micro-communities in their own backyards or living rooms—whether that be during the holiday season for apple tastings or sukkahs or throughout the year for Shabbat dinners, Havdalah pizza parties, and Hanukkah celebrations.
“These are often events people are already celebrating,” Abrams says. “But this grant encourages young families who might not have other family in the immediate area to get together with their ‘adopted family.’”
Abrams tells the story of one mother interested in the Get Together Microgrant who called Abrams to see if there were any other Jewish families in Reunion, a master-planned community in Commerce City.
“Sure enough, when I found her name in the PJ Library database, I found families living a couple of miles from her,” Abrams says. “Now she will reach out to families in that area. That is what is special about this program, especially in a big, diverse state like Colorado.
The Get Together rules are simple. PJ Library and PJ Our Way subscribers can receive $100 gift cards for hosting a minimum of two other Jewish families and a maximum of 10 families for up to three gatherings. The grant cannot be used for a gathering of a single, extended family.
Why not do a Get Together?
Michelle Morris laughs when she remembers the soup party, where everyone brought a favorite soup and a baby to her home. The soups helped feed everyone, but Morris quickly figured out that 10 adults, sampling five different soups for a friendly competition, were going to need lots of plasticware. Cue the Get Together Microgrant, which also helped pay for extra food and decorations. The grant “removes a barrier” to planning an event, Morris says, and she will likely do it again.
Additionally, she is recommending the grants to her PJ Library friend circle.
“I am just really appreciative that the Jewish community supports young families doing things together,” she says. “There are just so many things you can do to stay connected with other families in the same age group, and to have this Get Together grant was really special.”
In an odd way, Amy Tedoff believes the Get Together model takes the pressure off a host.
“Personally, if I were just hosting myself, I would overthink things,” she says. “For some reason, when I am hosting a PJ Library Get Together, I put less pressure on myself.”
Tedoff says that the Get Togethers have motivated her to mix up her friend groups and invite other Jewish families who know her but might not know each other. Above all else, she says, “this has really helped us do Jewish things together, which is nice.”
The Get Together grants will be extended into 2026 and each subscribing family can host up to five gatherings. At JEWISHcolorado, Jenn Abrams tracks the Get Together numbers every month with a bit of astonishment. She sees a trend—families seeking opportunities to engage and live Jewishly.
“People just want to feel connected to other Jews religiously and culturally, and they want their children to be around other Jewish children so they can learn Jewish values together,” she says. “Gathering families to order pizza may not sound very Jewish, but it’s often more than they have been doing!”
Families with questions or interest in a Get Together Microgrant can contact Jenn Abrams at jabrams@jewishcolorado.org.