| Established | October 7, 2024; 16 months ago (2024-10-07) |
|---|---|
| Location |
|
| Services | Opposition topro-Palestinian protests andantisemitism |
| Leader | Victoria Coates |
Publication | Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism (2024) |
Parent organization | The Heritage Foundation |
Project Esther is a project ofthe Heritage Foundation, a conservativethink tank based in Washington, D.C., that aims to suppresspro-Palestinian protests and what it classifies asantisemitism. The effort has received support from severalevangelical Christian organizations but no major Jewish ones.[1][2] According toThe New York Times,Slate,Haaretz,The Forward, andJewish Insider, Project Esther does not addressright-wing antisemitism.[1][2][3][4][5]
Project Esther has been criticized for incorporatingantisemitic tropes into its rhetoric.[6] It broadly labelscriticism of Israel as terrorism and calls for targeting universities, students, andAmerican progressive politics and politicians.[2]Politico described Project Esther as "a lesser-known blueprint from the same creators ofProject 2025."[7] In May 2025,The New York Times found that thesecond Trump administration had called for or acted upon more than half of Project Esther's proposals.[2]
The Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther in October 2024; it is named after the biblical figureEsther.[2][8] The plan was drafted byVictoria Coates, Robert Greenway, and Daniel Flesch following theOctober 7 attacks.[2] The project describes pro-Palestinian groups as part of a "Hamas Support Network",[9][10] and aims to dismantle the pro-Palestinian movement in the US, its support at schools and universities, progressive organizations, and in Congress by labeling them as "effectively a terrorist support network".[2][11] According toThe New York Times, the plan built on efforts from summer 2024 to create a national strategy to "convince the public to perceive the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States as part of a global 'Hamas Support Network' that 'poses a threat not simply toAmerican Jewry, but to America itself.'"[2]
The project reportedly struggled to find Jewish organizations with which to partner, while sidelining those that do partner with it.[1][12] Several Jewish andChristian Zionist organizations toldThe New York Times that they did not want to associate with the plan because its failure to focus on right-wing antisemitism was too partisan.[2]
As part of its plans, Project Esther said it would wait until a friendly presidential administration, after which "We will organize rapidly, take immediate action to 'stop the bleeding,' and achieve all objectives within two years." ANew York Times report found that many of thesecond Trump administration's actions called for and closely matched more than half of Project Esther's proposals. In an interview withThe Times, Project Esther's architects said that while there were "clear parallels" between its proposals and Trump administration actions, Heritage officials did not know whether the White House had used Project Esther as a guide.[2]
In January 2025, a report byThe Forward revealed a leakedpitch deck the Heritage Foundation sent to Project Esther donors that included a plan to identify and targetWikipedia editors the group said were "abusing their position" by publishing allegedly antisemitic content.[13][14] In May 2025,The New York Times described Project Esther's goal as "branding a broad range of critics of Israel as 'effectively a terrorist support network,' so that they could be deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized and otherwise excluded from what it considered 'open society.'" It highlighted attempts to remove curriculum viewed as "Hamas support" from schools and universities, remove "supporting faculty", purge social media of alleged antisemitic content, rescind institutions' public funding, and revoke visas for anddeport those who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy.[2]
Project Esther accuses "America's Jewish community" of "complacency". Its sole Jewish co-chair,Ellie Cohanim, has criticized other Jewish groups combating antisemitism.[2] Project Esther has sought to identify those who attend pro-Palestinian protests as engaging in "material support" for terrorism, and targeted groups such asJewish Voice for Peace andStudents for Justice in Palestine. Project Esther's pitch materials were first reported on byThe Forward, which highlighted its goals as reforming academia by defunding institutions, denying some pro-Palestinian groups access to campuses, and removing faculty. It also supportedlawfare through filing civil lawsuits and identifying foreign students for deportation, and planned to enlist local state and federal law enforcement to "generate uncomfortable conditions" to dissuade groups from protesting.[2]
The group has targeted eight "masterminds"—George Soros,Alex Soros,JB Pritzker,Angela Davis, Manolo de los Santos,Vijay Prashad,Neville Singham, andJodie Evans—who it believes are at the center ofprogressive politics. The Soros family is the subject of a number oflongstanding antisemitic conspiracy theories that match the language used by Project Esther.[5]The New York Times reported its pitch materials to potential donors include an illustration of a pyramid of "progressive elites" with Soros and Pritzker at the top. The presentation also targeted theTides Foundation and theRockefeller Brothers Fund as part of an antisemitism "ecosystem", along with "aligned" politiciansBernie Sanders andElizabeth Warren.[2]
According toMondoweiss, Project Esther is intended not to combat antisemitism, but to combat political activism, particularly by the left.[15] According toThe New York Times,Slate,Haaretz,The Forward, andJewish Insider, Project Esther does not address right-wing antisemitism.[1][2][3][4][5] According toSlate, Project Esther does not acknowledge or address right-wing antisemitism orwhite supremacy.[3] According toThe Forward, "Project Esther focuses exclusively on left-wing critics of Israel, ignoring the antisemitism problems from white supremacists and other far-right groups."[5]Haaretz has also reported that Project Esther does not address right-wing antisemitism.[4] When asked byJewish Insider to explain why the effort did not include right-wing antisemitism,James Carafano, the head of Heritage's antisemitism operations, said "white supremacists are not my problem because white supremacists are not part of being conservative".[1][5] According toThe New York Times, Project Esther head Victoria Coates "acknowledged that antisemitism was also a problem on the right", adding that the progressive groups the Project targets threaten American society, not just Israel.[2]
The Times of Israel has called Project Esther's aim a "government crackdown on anti-Israel groups once Donald Trump returns to the White House".[16] According toReligion Dispatches andThe New York Times, Project Esther is closely tied toChristian Zionism and theNew Apostolic Reformation.[2][17]The New York Times reported that several evangelical Christian groups involved in Project Esther had aligned themselves with conservatives in Israel who believe the Bible gives Israel the right to controloccupied Palestinian territories, and that some also believe supporting Israel will hasten theend times or advance Christianity's global influence.[2]
Inside Philanthropy wrote, "The Project Esther document is repetitive and the prose is overwrought, but given the Heritage Foundation's potential influence in a second Trump administration, it's worth taking seriously."[18] Project Esther has received support primarily fromevangelical Christian organizations.[19] Supporting organizations include theFamily Research Council,Faith and Freedom Coalition,Coalition for Jewish Values, and the National Committee for Religious Freedom.[1]
Critics argue that Project Esther sometimes engages inweaponization of antisemitism. For example,The New York Times reported that Project Esther has been criticized for "exploiting real concerns about antisemitism" to advance "radically reshaping higher education and crushing progressive movements more generally".[2]Jonathan Jacoby, the national director of theNexus Project, criticized Esther for making antisemitism "no longer about ideology or politics; it's about terrorism and threats to American national security."[2]
Project Esther has been criticized for incorporatingantisemitic tropes into its rhetoric,[5][6] and for not addressing right-wing antisemitism.[1][2][3][4][5] The journalistMichelle Goldberg has criticized Esther for accusing progressive Jews ofantisemitism.[20] According toBaptist News Global, "Project Esther's own rhetoric about battling powerful Jewish 'masterminds' reinforces centuries-old conspiracy theories about Jews who have too much power and influence."[6]
An open letter from three dozen former members of Jewish groups and formerAnti-Defamation League national chair Robert Sugarman criticized Project Esther, saying, "a range of actors are using a purported concern about Jewish safety as a cudgel to weaken higher education, due process, checks and balances, freedom of speech and the press" and calling on Jewish leaders and institutions "to resist the exploitation of Jewish fears and publicly join with other organizations that are battling to preserve the guardrails of democracy."[2] Executive director Stefanie Fox ofJewish Voice for Peace criticized Project Esther and Trump as "pulling straight from the authoritarian playbook, using tools of repression first against those organizing for Palestinian rights", and "in so doing, sharpening those tools for use against anyone and everyone who challenges his fascist agenda."[2] Fox said that Project Esther has "absolutely nothing to do with Jewish safety, and it is intended solely to destroy the Palestinian liberation movement using tools that can then be used against all communities and movements and democracy itself."[21][full citation needed]
Schuyler Mitchell wrote onTruthout that Project Esther is particularly interested in finding ways to interfere with left-leaning activism, in part through the use of theRICO Act, and that its methods resemble those ofMcCarthyism.[22]Jacobin has said Project Esther is part of ared scare against the pro-Palestinian movement and the political left.[23]
Project Esther exclusively focuses on antisemitism on the left, ignoring antisemitic harassment and violence from the right.
