The Foundation for Jewish Culture currently administers grant programs that fund documentary filmmakers, writers, playwrights, scholars and performing artists. Since 1960, the Foundation has awarded over $2.2 million to 600 scholars and 170 artists. Many of our scholars have become leaders of Jewish studies programs on campuses across the country. Our grantees have created 77 documentary films and 81 plays, and continue to leave their imprint on communities across North America. This year, audiences in major American cities, including San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as in international cities such as Vienna, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo, Warsaw, and Jerusalem, viewed documentary films supported by the Foundation. Works by our grantees in literature, scholarship and playwriting reached New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Toronto, and Jerusalem, among others.

We are currently developing programs to support composers, poets, and visual artists.

CURRENT PROGRAMS

FILM

The Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film supports postproduction of original documentaries that explore the Jewish experience. Grants range from $15,000 to $50,000 and are awarded to up to six filmmakers annually. This Fund was established in 1996 with a lead grant from the Righteous Persons Foundation and sustained with major support from the Charles H. Revson Foundation. Funded films include Orthodox Stance, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, Trembling Before G-d, My Architect, Encounter Point and The Rape of Europa and have been nominated for Academy Awards, received Emmy and Peabody Awards, and been featured at major film festivals worldwide including Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca.

LITERATURE

The Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers highlights debut fiction by contemporary writers exploring Jewish themes, and offers a prize and writer’s residency. Past recipients include Scott Nadelson, Gary Shteyngart, Nathan Englander and Lara Vapnyar.

The Gantz Zahler Grant for Jewish Nonfiction Publishing is awarded biannually to a nonfiction book project.

THEATRE

New Jewish Theatre Projects supports between four and six nonprofit theater companies with grants of up to $5,000 for the commissioning of new plays, musicals, or multimedia works of Jewish significance. This program provides funds for play or performance development, which can include commissioning fees, playwright’s residency expenses and research and workshop expenses. Since its inception in 1994, new plays have been produced by the Long Wharf Theatre, InterAct Theater Company, Theater for the New City, Manhattan Theatre Club and Theater J, among others.

DANCE

The Pearl Zeltzer Fund for Jewish Choreography, an award that supports original dance work that explores the Jewish experience, is currently supporting the New Dance from Israel initiative. These generous funds are provided by George M. Zeltzer, in memory of his wife, Pearl.

SCHOLARSHIP

The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Fund for Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships in Jewish Studies supports the completion of a dissertation, typically in the fifth year of study. Preference is given to individuals preparing for academic careers in Jewish studies, although occasional grants are awarded to students in other fields of the humanities or social sciences who demonstrate a career commitment to Jewish scholarship. In 2008, the Foundation will grant five fellowships, ranging of $16,000.

The Sidney and Hadassah Musher Subvention Prize is awarded biannually for an outstanding first book in Jewish Studies.

The new Jewish Studies Expansion Project (JSEP) launches this fall. This pilot program capitalizes on the documented impact of university Jewish studies programs as a gateway into Jewish life during the college years and provides university students with enhanced opportunities for Jewish learning. Funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, JSEP will place recent PhDs in six universities in fall 2008, to teach Jewish studies courses and stimulate engagement in the Jewish community. The universities are: American University, Washington, D.C.; Northeastern University, Boston, MA; Ohio University, Athens, OH; Towson University, Towson, MD; Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; and University of Delaware, Newark, DE.

PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS

Also launched in 2007 is the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, an innovative strategic partnership between Avoda Arts, the Foundation for Jewish Culture, and JDub Records, and made possible with major funding from UJA-Federation of New York. The Six Points Fellowship currently supports artists in the New York area who are developing new projects that explore a Jewish theme.

In 2007, in collaboration with the cultural attaché of the Consulate General of Israel in New York, the Foundation launched New Dance from Israel, an initiative to bring eight contemporary dance companies from Israel to the United States for an unprecedented North American tour.