Cleveland, OH
Abrupt funding freeze leaves Ohio manufacturing programs with uncertain future
CLEVELAND — On Friday, Ohio’s Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, known as MAGNET, learned that its public funding had been frozen, effective immediately.
“I was initially shocked. Immediately after it, it was action mode: how do we get to all the people that understand how important it is and what’s at stake?” said Ethan Karp, President and CEO of MAGNET.
“We help small and medium manufacturers, as a nonprofit, grow,” Karp explained.
The Cleveland-based nonprofit has assisted local manufacturers for over 40 years. This includes helping them implement new technology to stay competitive, providing workforce training to help fill positions in manufacturing, and helping companies create prototypes.
“That’s a start-up who has an idea on the back of their napkin that makes changing air filters easier,” Karp said. “This space we would actually prototype for those companies.”
They get state and federal funding through Ohio’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program, or MEP program, which funds six similar organizations throughout the state that aim to assist local manufacturers.
The funding freeze was announced in a letter from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency that funds Ohio’s Department of Development. The Ohio Department of Development is the department that runs the MEP program.
In the letter, the NIST cites an ongoing audit as the reason for the freeze.
“Preliminary findings in connection with an active financial assistance audit being performed by the DOC Office of Inspector General (OIG) which identifies various instances of material noncompliance by the Recipient and/or its Subrecipients, several of which were confirmed by the Recipient or the applicable Subrecipient.” – Letter from NIST to Ohio’s Department of Development announces funding freeze
The audit of Ohio’s MEP program started over a year ago, and the results aren’t set to be published until Spring 2026.
The letter specifically cites three MEP programs for misreporting income. MAGNET is not one of the programs mentioned specifically in the letter.
One program that is mentioned is the Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT). In the letter announcing the freeze, CIFT states:
“CIFT did not report 2.3 million in unreported program income on the earlier five-year award. CIFT has acknowledged at least 1.8 million is unreported program income.”
CIFT President and CEO Rebecca Singer denies any wrongdoing and says the discrepancy is because of unclear guidelines about what a program should report as income.
“CIFT has fully cooperated with the audit and the statements are misleading and inaccurate,” Singer said in a statement. “Any issues that occurred were administrative in nature and we are prepared to address them once a drafted report is provided. There is consistency in the findings among the organizations further demonstrating lack of clarity and understanding on administrative reporting. Several OIG audits of other state programs have noted under-reporting of program income but they have been given the opportunity to counter findings.”
Singer said that the typical process of an audit has not been followed, and CIFT did not see a draft of the audit and respond, which she said is the standard process for a financial audit.
According to Singer, because of the freeze CIFT lost $1.6 million in public funding and, as a result, they are suspending operations on Monday, Dec. 15. Singer said 13 employees will be affected as well as 22 businesses that rely on CIFT’s mini food processing kitchen, which allows them to make their products to sell at retail outlets.
With the freeze of federal funds, the state of Ohio has also frozen its portion of funding to the MEP program.
In a statement, Mason Waldvogel, the Deputy Chief of Media Relations for Ohio’s Department of Development, explains that the state funding is tied to federal funding.
“The majority of state funding provided to Ohio MEP partner organizations consists of matching dollars, which cannot be spent without corresponding federal funds. Therefore, the Department of Development has suspended the program at the state level.”
The freeze affects roughly $14 million in funds to Ohio manufacturing nonprofits over the next year, with MAGNET receiving $5.9 million of those funds.
Karp said MAGNET has been complying with the audit and is frustrated the freeze was started before there had been communication with the MEP programs about the findings.
“If there is an issue, then you need to tell somebody there is an issue and give somebody a chance to fix it. In this case, there’s nothing for us to fix because we don’t know what, or if, there are findings and a report. That lack of transparency, that lack of process makes no sense,” Karp said.
Karp said the funding cut-off will change how MAGNET functions, prompting decisions to be made about potential lay-offs of their staff of roughly 75 people.
“We’re going to have to structurally make huge changes at MAGNET to continue at a much smaller scale,” Karp said.
According to Karp, approximately 35% of their budget comes from state and federal funding. The rest is from a private industry that pays for MAGNET’s services. However, Karp said they can only provide many of those services because of their public funding.
“Helping people understand that the investment that the state and federal governments have been making for 40 years, this is a 40-year partnership — shouldn’t be turned off at a moment’s notice, depriving all these people and companies of necessary support.”
This funding freeze could impact the manufacturing sector in Ohio.
“We’re saying we want to restore manufacturing? Well this is not how you restore manufacturing. This is not how you bring jobs back from overseas; we are actually going to be cutting Ohio jobs as a result of this decision,” said Jack Schron, President of Jergens Incorporated, a Cleveland-based manufacturer.
Schron sits on MAGENT’s board and has used its resources to test out Jergens products.
Micheal Canty, president and CEO of Alloy Precision Technologies, said the freeze will impact small and medium-size companies the most.
“I think it will be devastating to manufacturing,” Canty said. “If MAGNET and all the MEP’s are gone, then a lot of those projects to develop and promote smart manufacturing and manufacturing in general go away.”
Karp said the irony is that MAGNET’s goals align with the current administration’s efforts to make U. S manufacturing more competitive.
“I desperately want tariffs to help companies. Every single day I am out there talking about how we need to compete against international sources and how our companies need to be the most technologically advanced in the world. It is the same thing the Trump administration says, and we are totally aligned. So it is ironic that this is happening to us now,” Karp said.
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By Anash.org reporter
Rabbi Yehuda Leib (Leibel) Alevsky, longtime shliach to Cleveland, Ohio, who directed the local Chabad institutions for decades, passed away on Monday, 3 Iyar.
He was 86 years old.
Born on 1 Sivan 5699 in Chernigov, Ukraine, to Reb Chaim Boruch and Mrs. Sima Chaya Alevsky, his father was drafted into the Russian army to fight the Nazis when he was two years old, never to return. He was raised by his mother and his maternal grandfather, Reb Gavriel Kagan, a tomim from Lubavitch.
After the war, the family joined the mass escape from Russia under false Polish passports. After time in a displaced persons camp in Germany and then in France, the Frierdiker Rebbe directed his family to move to Eretz Yisrael. He enrolled in Tomchei Tmimim in Lod, where he studied in the zal under the mashpia, Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman.
In 5718, after receiving the Rebbe’s permission to travel to New York, he arrived on his nineteenth birthday, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, and enrolled in Tomchei Tmimim at 770. He quickly distinguished himself and was among the first bochurim chosen for the Shivas Knei Hamenorah (“Kanim”) – a group of fourteen select students, seven in Chassidus and seven in nigleh, designated to deliver shiurim and pilpulim before the entire yeshiva.
Beginning in 5722 and until her passing in 5725, he merited to serve Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe’s mother, assisting her in numerous ways and spending many hours in her presence.
That same year, he became the first official employee of Tzach, the Lubavitch Youth Organization, under Rabbi Dovid Raskin. He ran the organization for a decade, taking responsibility for hakhalas kehillos, tahalucha, Shabbosim in outlying communities, shiurim, and the printing of the first four volumes of Likkutei Sichos. He also spearheaded the global Keren Hashishim campaign in honor of the Rebbe’s 60th birthday.
During those same years, he developed a close working relationship with Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Eizik Chodakov, the Rebbe’s secretary and chief of staff, whose yahrzeit also falls on 3 Iyar. In an interview with Anash.org, Rabbi Alevsky recalled how Rabbi Chodakov would summon him late at night during yechidus evenings and offer suggestions for Tzach’s activities. He initially did not always act on them – until he once found that the Rebbe himself referenced those same suggestions during a yechidus, making clear to him their true source.
As the neighborhood of Crown Heights began to change, he also acted as a liaison for Tzach to city officials, securing grants and property to stabilize the community.
He merited rare closeness with the Rebbe, and on several occasions, he was called upon to drive the Rebbe to the Ohel. Recognizing the need for the Rebbe to have communication from the Ohel to 770, he arranged for a car phone to be installed in the Rebbe’s vehicle—a luxury that cost $900 at the time—which the Rebbe utilized to send out hora’os. He also arranged for the permanent “No Parking” zone in front of 770 so the Rebbe’s car would always have clear access.
He married his wife, Devorah, daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Schneur Zalman Kazen, one of the Rebbe’s pioneering shluchim, in Cleveland on Chai Elul 5722. At the yechidus before the wedding, the Rebbe told the young couple: “Az ir vet machen lichtig arum eich, vet der Aibershter machen lichtig bai eich” – when you spread light around you, the Aibershter will illuminate your own space as well.
At the same time of their Chasuna, the Rebbe held a surprise farbrengen in 770, announcing the upcoming “Shnas Hakan” (150 years since the Alter Rebbe’s passing). The Rebbe had Rabbi Hodakov phone the wedding hall so the Chosson could repeat the Rebbe’s words to the assembled guests.
In 5727 (1967), during a yechidus for his 28th birthday, he asked the Rebbe if his mother and sister should leave Eretz Yisroel due to the looming threat of the Six-Day War. The Rebbe responded prophetically that there was no need to worry, as the war would be over in ten days.
In 5732 (1972), he began his shlichus in Cleveland, joining his father-in-law in expanding Chabad activities in the city.
Over the following decades, he led the community and oversaw immense growth. He built a replica of 770 in Cleveland to serve as the headquarters for the Chabad activities there.
He organized groups of mekuravim who would travel together by bus to receive the Rebbe’s brochos by Sunday dollars.
During the events of Shemini Atzeres 5738 (1977), Rabbi Alevsky was instrumental in the efforts for the Rebbe’s health, helping to urgently bring a doctor to 770.
When the bank threatened to foreclose on the Chabad building in 5744, he flew to the Rebbe and submitted a detailed report on the situation. The Rebbe responded, “Azkir al hatziyun,” and within days the full amount was raised in what he described as an open miracle.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Devorah Alevsky, and their children: Sarah Freedman – Bahia Blanca, Argentina; Chani Glitzenstein – Maaleh Efraim, Eretz Yisroel; Kaila Sasonkin – Akron, Ohio; Rabbi Chaim Boruch Alevsky – Cleveland, Ohio; Miriam Greenberg – Solon, Ohio; Dinie Greenberg – Shanghai, China; Estie Marozov – Pepper Pike, Ohio; Rochie Sudak – London, UK; Rivky Friedman – Brooklyn, New York; and Rabbi Mendy Alevsky – Cleveland, Ohio.
The levaya will take place today in Ohio at 4:30 p.m. at the Waxman Chabad Center, followed by kevura at Anshe Sfard Cemetery.
Boruch dayan hoemes.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Three people were seriously injured after a car crash on I-90 at Eddy Road early Sunday morning, according to Cleveland EMS.
EMS told 19 News that paramedics responded to the I-90 West and Eddy Road for a car crash.
Paramedics took a man in his 60s in serious condition to Metro Health, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s, both in serious condition, to University Hospital.
19 News has reached out to Cleveland Police for more details about the crash.
This is a developing story. Return to 19 News for more details.
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