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Philadelphia’s American Jewish history museum extends free admission
(JTA) — The most prominent American Jewish history museum is extending a free admission program that began when it reopened following the pandemic.
The elimination of ticket fees through at least the end of 2023 reflects a vote of confidence in Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, which was fighting to survive three years ago. Confronting a construction debt of $30 million, it declared bankruptcy right as COVID-19 hit and shuttered cultural institutions worldwide.
The Smithsonian-affiliated museum, located near historical landmarks such as Independence Hall, received a large donation from shoe designer Stuart Weitzman the following year. That gift allowed it to buy back its building and provided it with an eight-figure endowment (and a new name). When it reopened in May 2022, a $500,000 grant from the Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation enabled the museum to provide free admission.
Now, a followup grant of $300,000 from the same foundation, plus a $200,000 donation from the Sofia and Mikhail Segal Foundation, will continue the policy.
The museum first experimented with free admission during the summer of 2019, and the museum found that the policy increased the number of visitors by 37%. A set of 500 exit interviews the museum conducted with visitors also found the vast majority of visitors that season were not Jewish. During the rest of the year, when admission was not free, the museum said that 75% of museum goers did identify as Jewish.
This year, the museum says its attendance numbers are rising, though they aren’t yet at pre-pandemic levels. In May and June 2023, more than 6,600 people visited the museum, as opposed to 3,700 from the museum’s reopening date of May 13 to the end of June in 2022. In May and June of 2019, the museum attracted 8,000 visitors.
Misha Galperin, the museum’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the free admission policy aims to combat prejudice. Galperin is on the board of governors of the Combat Antisemitism Movement and consulted on the White House strategy to combat antisemitism — which recommends education in museums as a tool to combat anti-Jewish bigotry.
“This is how we cultivate empathy and promote civil discourse,” he said. “We create tangible connections with stories of real Jews and this work provides an antidote to antisemitism.”
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
The post Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
The post Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
The post Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.