Trump’s cuts are for everyone – even Jewish projects

JVL Introduction

So Trump (via the Musk led “Department of Government Efficiency [sic]) has cut and cut and cut; it has fired workers from many services including 80% of the staff of the  National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) which provides grants to organisations but many grants from government organisations have been stopped well before the end of the grant period, without notice.  (There could be interesting court cases for breach of contract but, on the other hand, grants may be considered a gift and, therefore, can be withrawn, but I digress).

Another of Trump’s loud claims is that he is determined to root out antisemitism and some may, therefore, have expected that organisations committed to Jewish culture and history would be protected. However as this article shows, this is not the case:  “….the Klezmer Institute — along with hundreds of other NEH projects — all received the same form letter terminating their grants, saying that their projects did not assist in “the furtherance of the President’s agenda” and that the funds would be redistributed to work that was more aligned with Trump’s goals.”

This shows two clear things; firstly that the so called concern with dealing with antisemitism is really about condemnation of criticism of Israel – and American interests in the region.  Trump’s “fight against antisemitism” is unconnected to Jewish life, culture, faith or history.  Secondly, it shows the importance of sticking together, of recognising that an attack on one community is an attack on all.  The ending of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programmes is leading to serious – and dangerous – absurdities, eg where a library for navy personnel was stripped of 381 books including Maya Angelou’s autobiography and a book about memorialising the Holocaust and yet copies of Mein Kampf remained on the shelves. see here. That there is an increasingly organised fightback is positive and essential.

LL

This article was originally published by The Forward on Sat 12 Apr 2025. Read the original here.