Tikvah Fund
Politically Conservative Jewish-American organization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tikvah Fund (Hebrew: קרן תקווה) is an American politically conservative[1][2][3][4] nonprofit charitable foundation whose stated mission is to promote Jewish thought and ideas.[5]
- New York City, New York, United States
 | |
| Established | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Headquarters | 165 East 56th Street |
| Location |
|
Chairman | Elliott Abrams |
Key people | Zalman Bernstein |
| Website | tikvah |
Activities
As of 2011, the Tikvah Fund held assets worth more than $162 million.[6] That year, it provided a four-year $12.5 million grant to the Shalem Center to form an American-style liberal arts university in Israel, now Shalem College. The fund had supported the Shalem Center for the previous decade as well.[7]
The Tikvah Fund has funded several publications, including Commentary, Mosaic and its predecessor Jewish Ideas Daily, the Jewish Review of Books,[4] and Mida.[8] Shalem Center also sponsored neo-conservative magazine Azure and the Fund was behind academic journals Hebraic Political Studies and Toronto Journal of Jewish Thought.[6]
The Fund also organizes the Jewish Leadership Conference, a politically conservative Jewish conference.[9] Invitees in 2022 included Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State under Donald Trump, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, and Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis.[1] Picketers attended to oppose DeSantis' speech.[10]
It runs a fellowship programme named after Charles Krauthammer which is awarded to aspiring writers, journalists, scholars, and policy analysts'.[11]
In September 2025, despite mass cancellations of other grants related to Jewish studies by DOGE, Tikvah fund was awarded $10.5 million by the National Endowment for the Humanities "to combat antisemitism". It was the largest single grant in NEH history.[12] In March 2026, a federal judge ruled in a lawsuit by the ACLS, AHA, and MLA that the grant cancellations were unconstitutional.[13] In the process of the lawsuit, it was found that acting NEH chair Michael McDonald proactively solicited Tikvah for the grant application. The application was voted down by the NEH's outside scholarly council, but McDonald intervened against standard procedure to directly approve the grant.[14]
Leadership
Roger Hertog (director of Alliance Capital Management) was chairman of the Tikvah Fund in 2011.[7] Neal Kozodoy was senior director as of 2010.[15] As of 2022, Eric Cohen was chief executive and Elliot Abrams was chairman.[1][3]