Foundation for Jewish Culture board votes to close

JTA — The board of directors of the New York-based Foundation for Jewish Culture reportedly has voted to close its operations next year.

The 53-year-old foundation, a resource and advocacy group for Jewish culture and the arts in the United States, will announce the closing this week, according to the New York Jewish Week.

Foundation President and CEO Elise Bernhardt told the Jewish Week that over the next year she and her staff will work to find organizations willing to take over some of the foundation’s successful programs.

The foundation recently announced its new year of programming, including fellowships in Jerusalem and Los Angeles.

Past beneficiaries include writers Gary Shteyngart and Nathan Englander, among others.

The foundation currently has four staff members in New York and one in Los Angeles. One staff member was let go and others who left the foundation were not replaced.

The foundation’s projected budget for this year was about $2 million, which it cannot meet, according to the Jewish Week.

The foundation has suffered from cuts to its budget from benefactor organizations, including the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Federation/Agency Alliance, whose funding of the foundation has decreased from about $700,000 a year to about $150,000, according to the Jewish Week.