These Jewish arts organizations have been defunded by the Trump administration

(New York Jewish Week) — At least two New York-based Jewish arts organizations have had their federal funding rescinded by the Trump administration.

The Jewish Plays Project, an organization that holds an annual contest to develop new Jewish theater projects, and Yugntruf — a Yiddish youth educational group, whose book publisher, Kinder-Loshen, is publishing a bilingual Yiddish-English book about the Bialystok Ghetto — were both awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts in January.

Late Friday night, both groups were alerted to their grant revocation via email, amid a slew of rescissions targeting NEA grantees.

“This is funding that is directly coming out of the pocket of artists,” David Winitsky, founder and executive artistic director at the Jewish Plays Project, told the New York Jewish Week.

The National Endowment for the Arts is the largest funder of arts and arts education in the country, with a $207 million budget that was set in 2024. But along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, which supports research in the humanities, it has long been a target for conservatives who believe the government should not support arts endeavors, particularly ones that they say advance progressive values. The Trump administration, which has taken a slash-and-burn approach to spending and sought to cut off many recipients of federal funding for ideological reasons, on Friday proposed eliminating the National Endowment of the Arts entirely.

“The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President,” an email from the NEA to at least some grant recipients sent Friday night after the budget proposal. “Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.”

The rescissions are leaving Jewish groups and others with uncertainty about how they will cover their expenses. Some have already budgeted for or even spent the latest grants, anticipating receiving the awards they had been promised.

Winitsky said he saw the cuts as a direct attack on groups that might undercut the administration.

“This is enormously concerning,” he said. “It may feel like a small amount of money — $207 million for the United States government is a tiny amount of money, and it is one of many chaotic policies that are being rolled out right now. But it is well proven over human history that when powerful people try to control the message of arts and culture, what they are trying to do is control people.”

The Jewish Plays Project was initially awarded $20,000 from the NEA, which, in addition to other grants and donations, covers things like artist fees and pay for actors, directors and stage managers, for people working on several plays across the country. All of that federal grant money is now gone, said Winitsky, who is hoping local governments can help fill the gap.

“It remains to be seen whether we get funding from New York City and New York State,” Winitsky said. “I don’t think it will affect this year, but will those organizations either offer direct funding or step in, or maybe even have to supplement their own budgets, from the state or local level to supplement federal funding that’s gone? We don’t know yet.”

Other New York Jewish organizations and institutions that receive NEA funding include the Jewish Museum, which was set to receive $50,000 to fund its current exhibit, “Queen Esther in the Age of Rembrandt.” Reached Monday afternoon, a representative from the Jewish Museum could not confirm whether the grant had been revoked.

The rescissions come as the Trump administration advances an agenda focused in part on what it says are efforts to fight antisemitism. The NEA email received by grantees said the administration would continue to support “projects that elevate the Nation’s HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities.”

Anything else would be cut off, the email said, adding that grantees could appeal within seven days “if [they] believe [their] project meets one of the agency’s new priorities.”

Winitsky said he thinks the Jewish Plays Project will appeal the decision. But he said the new funding priorities set forth in the email were confusing and “don’t really add up to a cohesive strategy at all,” and he emphasized that his initiative would not be swayed in its mission.

“If somebody asks us to change what we are doing to meet somebody else’s priorities or somebody else’s vision, we’re not going to do that,” Winitsky said.

For Yugntruf, the initial $10,000 grant marked the first government funding received for its work. The grant was intended to support the publication of “Hanka: The Ghetto Queen Sings at Night,” a bilingual English-Yiddish edition of Jacob Pat’s children’s book “Haneke,” the true story of a teenager imprisoned in the Bialystok Ghetto during the Holocaust who became the youngest member of the city’s underground resistance movement.

The grant was meant to go to various freelancers in support of production costs for the book’s layout and design, archival research, a cartographer and editing. Jacob Pat’s great-granddaughter, Anita Galler, is the English translator.

“It’ll be harder, but we’ll publish it,” said Jordan Kutzik, Yugntruf’s chair. “We’ll make up the money. We’re in a better position than a lot of other organizations who’ve had this funding cut.”

Kutzik said he did not see the NEA grants as “targeting any particular demographic” but said they did not make sense to him.

“It’s odd to see them saying a Yiddish-English children’s book about the Holocaust doesn’t reflect the American artistic culture,” he said. “The Holocaust is part of the American story, because a million Americans are descendants of Holocaust survivors. The author we’re publishing was a refugee from the Holocaust who wrote this book for an American audience.”

Additionally, funding for the City Parks Foundation, which operates SummerStage, the annual public summer festival held in Central Park that features a lineup of Yiddish music, was rescinded. This year’s “New York Sings Yiddish” show, scheduled for June 30, includes performances from conductor and artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Zalmen Mlotek and Frank London’s Klezmer All Stars. The City Parks Foundation did not respond to a request for comment about the potential impact on the concert series.

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