‘Largest NEH Grant in History’ Awarded to Jewish Org to Counter ‘Pathology of Antisemitism,’ Teach Talmud

 

 

Chris Menahan

InformationLiberation

Sep. 19, 2025

 

 

The Trump administration, through the National Endowment for the Humanities, is giving the largest grant in the agency’s history — over $10 million — to the Jewish-American neoconservative Tikvah Fund to counter “the pathology of anti-Semitism” and teach the Talmud.

 

The Tikvah Fund is an Israel First group dedicated to advancing “Jewish excellence” that is run by CEO Eric Cohen and famed neoconservative Elliott Abrams.

 

 

The group made headlines last month for contributing “nearly 400,000 shekels (around $110,000)” to translate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s book into Hebrew and not reporting it as a political donation, Haaretz reported last month.

 

“Even though the memoir was used in the Likud campaign and some of the revenues presumably went to Netanyahu as the author, the 400,000 shekels was not reported as a political donation,” Haaretz noted.

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“In its 60-year history, NEH had rarely given more than a few hundred thousand dollars to any single project,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. “On Monday, the NEH announced an even larger, $10.4 million grant for a nationwide ‘Jewish Civilization Project’ aimed at combating antisemitism.”

 

“Among the prominent alumni of Tikvah’s programs is Jacob Reses, chief of staff to Vice President J.D. Vance,” JTA added.

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=65039

Elliott Abrams (born January 24, 1948) is an American politician and lawyer who has served in foreign policy positions for presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Abrams is considered to be a neoconservative.[2] He was a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.[3] He served as the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela from 2019 to 2021 and as the U.S. Special Representative for Iran from 2020 to 2021.

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Elliott Abrams was born into a Jewish family[9]

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During investigation of the Iran-Contra Affair, Lawrence Walsh, the Independent Counsel tasked with investigating the case, prepared multiple felony counts against Abrams.[34] In 1991, Abrams admitted that he knew more than he acknowledged in his congressional testimony, cooperated with Walsh and entered into a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress.[39] For failing to cooperate, he would have faced felony charges of perjury over his congressional testimony.[40] He was sentenced to a $50 fine, probation for two years, and 100 hours of community service. Abrams was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush in December 1992.[41]

 

In 1997, Abrams was publicly sanctioned by the District of Columbia Bar for giving false testimony to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. Although several of the court’s judges recommended disbarment, the court ultimately declined to disbar Abrams over questions related to the effect of Abrams’ presidential pardon for his prior criminal conduct.[42]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Abrams