Institute of Museum and Library Services Expands Award Amounts to Museums and Libraries Combatting Anti-Semitism

Four institutions will receive funding for projects countering hate

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) joins the public In solemn commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In alignment with Holocaust Remembrance Day's goal of ensuring that the six million Jewish victims as well as other victims are never forgotten, IMLS funded four projects which further Holocaust education and historical memory in Fiscal Year 2025.

Eliminating anti-Semitism is one of the Trump Administration's most significant social priorities. In 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14188, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism. In 2019, President Trump also enacted EO 13899, Combating Anti-Semitism. Motivated by these orders, IMLS has placed an thematic emphasis on high quality projects which combat anti-Semitism and promote Holocaust education.

The awarded projects will receive a total of $2,746,932 in federal funding, last for one to three years, and accomplish milestones like preserving the archives of Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, presenting previously untold stories of the Holocaust, and developing interactive exhibits.

Each project was submitted as an application to one of IMLS's 11 discretionary grant programs. Applications were then assessed by panels of museum and library professionals who considered their adherence to program requirements as well as their potential efficacy.

Final award decisions were made by IMLS Acting Director Keith Sonderling, who stated:

"IMLS is meeting its highest calling not only by strengthening our museums and libraries, but by supporting projects which advance civil discourse and historical memory while challenging racial and religious biases of all types. We hope to support further projects which fight anti-Semitism and educate the American public about the horrors of the Holocaust for years to come, so that the world will never forget.

All IMLS award recipients can be found here. The four awarded projects combatting anti-Semitism are detailed below:

• Florida Holocaust Museum - The Florida Holocaust Museum will design and construct a new state-of-the-art exhibition to include their most impactful items on display, a Danish rescue boat, the archives of Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, and a letter signed by Albert Einstein. This project will further The Florida Holocaust Museum's strategic plan goal of enhancing access and audience reach by incorporating technology and interactive components to a re-designed core exhibit. The museum will also work to reach and engage new audiences, including college students and educators from all academic levels.
  
  
• Holocaust Documentation and Education Center - The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center (HDEC) will launch a wide-ranging Holocaust education outreach program for educators and students in South Florida. The project will utilize the new HDEC Interactive Learning Center resources, which include interactive holographic interviews based on the oral history collection and interactive smart table displays, as well as presentations in the new Multi-Purpose Orientation Theater, additional exhibitions, and expanded searchable database of digital collections. The project goal is to increase student knowledge and understanding of the universal lessons of the Holocaust. HDEC will hire a full-time exhibit coordinator and an educational outreach coordinator to organize activities, build capacity overall to reach K-12 educators, and focus on development of new programming for K-8 audiences. This project will provide students and teachers of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties with age-appropriate programming sharing stories of resilience and hope.
  
  
• Zekelman Holocaust Center - The Zekelman Holocaust Center will undertake a project to digitize and make accessible their archive collection. Over three years, project staff intend to assess the material, digitize photographs and personal artifacts for public access, conduct 3D scanning of objects, and integrate these untold stories into all aspects of education at the museum. The intended goals of the project are: to bring the information held within these archives to the forefront of Holocaust education; to pilot and implement improved digitization of the center's collections; and to deepen educational impact through improved digital accessibility.
  
  
• Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center - The Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center, in partnership with the Cincinnati Museum Center, will host and produce community-centered programming for two exhibitions: "Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away" and "Holding Hope: Stories of Survival During the Holocaust." The Auschwitz exhibition will include survivor-led tours, forums, storytelling events, and workshops, while "Holding Hope" will deepen community engagement with local survivor stories. Project staff will also produce a catalogue to further share survivor stories from the Cincinnati area. This project will reach a broad audience across Ohio and the Midwest, and benefit Cincinnati's community of students, educators, families, and civic groups, by providing engaging educational resources with local significance and relevance.

In making these grants, Sonderling said:
We can never forget the horrors of the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism is not a distant threat-- it continues to be a present and urgent challenge. Museums and libraries are uniquely positioned to fight anti-Semitism in numerous ways but especially by educating the public about the gravity of the Holocaust.

According to the FBI, Jews make up just 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, yet they are the victims of 63 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes. Cultural institutions have a responsibility to confront this hatred head-on through education, dialogue, and preservation of truth.

Grant Applications for Fiscal Year 2026 are now available.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Institute of Museum & Library Services