Folksbiene Yiddish Theater gets $5K in funds yanked due to earmarks in community organizations

Zalmen Mlotek is the director of the Folksbiene, the last Yiddish company to still play to huge audiences in Manhattan's lower East Side

















The Yiddish Theatre is losing its pork, you should pardon the expression.

The venerable Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre Inc. tops a list of 52 groups that have had their City Council-sponsored pork-barrel items suddenly yanked back.

Over the past few weeks, $756,000 in earmarks to small community organizations has been drastically slashed - largely due to technical errors or a sudden change of heart by a sponsoring lawmaker.

Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens) said he was forced to pull back $20,000 to five nonprofits due to a "clerical" error.

The cuts included $5,000 designated to the Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre Inc. and $2,500 to the Bayside Historical Society - though both groups are still getting more than $10,000 each.

"They are all still getting money ... this is just a shift in the amount," Weprin said.

The Folksbiene, founded in 1915, is the last of some 15 Yiddish companies that played to huge audiences on the lower East Side in the early 20th century.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Washington Heights) led the way with 45 individual reductions for a total of $50,500. The money was all redistributed to other nonprofits in an effort to spread the wealth, he said.

"I'm looking to support as many local groups as possible," he said.

Rodriguez's list of cuts includes $3,000 from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and $6,000 from the scandal-scarred social service agency Alianza Dominicana.

Both groups will still be pocketing thousands of city dollars.