The Jews are truly blessed.  Last September, the National Endowment for the Humanities, a government funded honeypot, awarded the Jewish nonprofit Tikvah $10.4 million to inform Americans how wonderful the People of the Book are.  It was the largest gift in NEH history.

For those of you involved with our Institute over the years, you may recall that we applied for a NEH grant back in 1990 for Project Italia, a film series on the history of the Italic people.  This application was inspired by the 9-part series on PBS titled Civilization and the Jews, mostly funded by the NEH.  Our application and script summary were reviewed by a NEH panel and found “too positive.”  Perhaps we didn’t include enough Mafia or Fascism in the series.  In short, our project was rejected…nice try.

We ended up making a fraction of the series—all made with our own money:  a 6-minute promo narrated by Tony LoBianco; a 20-minute video on Roman Law in America narrated by Geraldine Ferraro, and a 20-minute video on 20th Century Immigration. (You can watch these videos on our website www.italic.org under “Galleria Italica”)

The huge grant to Tikvah has roots in the recent charges of anti-Semitism on college campuses and street demonstrations prompted by the war in Gaza.  It is no secret that the Trump Administration is determined to defend and promote the Jewish people and Israel in every way.  Granted, Trump has supported Columbus Day and promises to erect a statue of the Discoverer on White House grounds, but in terms of government largesse we are on our own.

So, what will Tikvah do with $10.4 million?  Essentially, they will inculcate American students with the notion that Western Civilization is a Jewish construct.  Basically, Tikvah and a vast number of Jewish scholars and leaders have managed to transform their ancestors into a Classical people—standing beside the Greeks and Romans, but on much higher moral ground.  Writes Tikvah’s CEO Eric Cohen, “…Jewish ideas are central to the American character.”  He further asserts, “The Hebraic spirit is central to the American spirit: as a city of the hill, a light unto the nations, a covenantal land of hope.” [Wall Street Journal 9/24/25]

As for the American experience, while it is true that the Old Testament accompanied New World settlers and gave comfort to slaves, it was however Italic genius that fueled the minds of America’s scholars and Founders of the Republic.  (This was covered in a blog last week by my colleague Rosario Iaconis.)  And do we have to mention the Italian explorers who led the way to this New World?  What navigators did the Jews produce, Noah and Jonah?

It takes quite some gall (or chutzpah!) to claim both Western Civilization and the American experiment when your ancestral beliefs included stoning adulteresses and symbolic human sacrifice (young Isaac and Jesus).  Will $10.4 million go toward teaching high school students how the Jewish people only blossomed after leaving Judea by learning from the Greeks and Italians?

The Tikvah leaders are going all out in elevating Jewish history.  They urge Jews to stop obsessing over the Holocaust and focus instead on these strategic goals:

• The creation of a Jewish civilization curriculum for middle and high school students
• Intensive seminars on Jewish civilization
• Development of university courses in the Jewish humanities, to be offered in partnership with new Western Civilization BA programs
• A fellowship program for early-career journalists who seek to write about anti-Semitism and advance knowledge of Jewish history and culture

If this is the newspeak of history, I’m in the wrong business trying to convince Italian Americans that they are a Classical people.  I’d have better luck with a Jewish audience!  As if to confirm this upside-down world, the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) has just announced its next honoree will be Sebastian Maniscalco, a standup comic.

Are such the role-models of a Classical people? –JLM