CJP is shining the spotlight on Jewish arts — and artists — for the fifth consecutive year with Arts and Culture Community Impact Grants.
Representing a diverse group of artists, this year’s projects include explorations of identity, healing, family history, the trauma of the Holocaust, the everyday beauty and complexity of enduring love, and mutual understanding.
“These exceptional artists are bringing sparks of light and energy with their projects,” said Sophie Krentzman, CJP’s associate vice president of Jewish communal life. “We created this program to provide local artists with additional resources to pursue their ideas that, in turn, enrich our community and Jewish culture. We’re so proud to help share this creativity and joy for the fifth consecutive year.”
A professional artist jury selects the grantees based on important criteria: each winner’s work embraces the diversity and complexity of Jewish identity, community, and tradition; sparks questions, fosters curiosity, or invites communal dialogue on a range of topics both within the Jewish community or across diverse communities; and creatively interprets or reinvents Jewish teachings, ritual, tradition, or Jewish life.
Since the program started in 2020, more than $370,000 has been awarded to innovative Jewish arts projects.
This year’s slate of grantees, each of whom will receive $7,500, will share their work in the coming year through community engagement — a presentation, showcase, or community event.
Mayta Cohen
Mayta Cohen will record and release “BerKalit A Cappella Vol. II” this spring, an album of Jewish liturgical a cappella music arranged by Cohen and sung by BerKalit, highlighting women’s creative contributions in a male-dominated space. Through a live-recorded community concert at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline — where the audience’s voices will be included on select pieces — it seeks to make Jewish music more accessible, inspiring participation and empowerment, especially for women.
Adah Hetko
Adah Hetko is working with an ensemble of Jewish musicians, Levyosn, to create a musical exploration of the holiday of Sukkot. The project, “My Sukkah,” will consist of an album focused on the ecological themes of the holiday and will include interactive live performances. Blending Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, and Eastern European folk traditions, the music aims to inspire reflection, communal singing, and deeper engagement with Jewish life.
Stav Marin
Stav Marin is creating “No Further Question,” a dance-theater piece exploring Jewish female heritage, intergenerational trauma, and resilience through movement. Centered on a conversation between the artist’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, and her young daughter, the piece weaves personal and historical narratives to examine memory, motherhood, and identity. Set in contemporary Jaffa after Oct. 7, it challenges cycles of victimization and envisions a better future through art. By blending diverse artistic traditions with Jewish heritage, the performance fosters empathy, connection, and dialogue across generations.
Daniel Rubin
Daniel Rubin is creating a contemporary dance pas de deux (dance for two), titled “Dance to the End of Love,” inspired by Leonard Cohen’s song. The dance explores love’s resilience across personal and historical contexts, contrasting raw human emotion with societal norms, beginning with whispers of Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust before unfolding into a duet of tension, connection, and transformation. The final piece will be filmed and submitted to dance film festivals worldwide.
Sam Slate
Sam Slate will produce, record, and release an electronic Jewish music album based on the Kabbalat Shabbat ritual, culminating in a live performance with Boston musicians. The album will blend original recordings and sampled material, creating a collaborative mosaic of Jewish melodies, texts, and musical influences. With eight to 12 tracks, each inspired by a different part of Kabbalat Shabbat, the goal is to bring Jewish music into new spaces — nightclubs, weddings, and meditation retreats — through electronic innovation. The project seeks to inspire movement, storytelling, and fresh engagement with Jewish music while celebrating the vibrant Boston Jewish musical community.
Neta Weiner
Neta Weiner is creating “Isma,” a musical performance born from a two-decade artistic and activist journey within Jewish and Palestinian communities. Featuring recordings from Israel, Berlin, and Boston, the songs — written in Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, and English — explore themes of equality, justice, and shared humanity. Inspired by collaborations with the Jewish-Palestinian arts collective “System Ali and the Emergency Tour” after Oct. 7, the project demonstrates how music can foster dialogue and connection, even in times of conflict. “Isma” invites audiences to envision a future beyond division, using art as a tool for understanding, collaboration, and hope.
Ina Zhukovsky Zilber
Ina Zhukovsky Zilber will create a multimedia project, “Return to Vilnius: Echoes of Lost and Found,” which explores Jewish identity through a personal and historical lens. Building on the “Lost and Found” exhibition at TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, it follows the artist’s first return to their birthplace, Vilnius, Lithuania, since 1990, to reconnect with ancestral roots and share this journey with their children. The project will transform collected objects and experiences into sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, and paintings, fostering dialogue on identity and history. By integrating visitor interviews and archival research, the exhibition and accompanying book will preserve Jewish heritage, spark cross-cultural conversations, and highlight art’s power to connect history with contemporary identity.
