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PROJECT ESTHER WILL NOT PROTECT JEWS  
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Dove Kent
November 19, 2024
Forward
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_ The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will
do the opposite. _

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, developed both
Project 2025 and Project Esther, which is meant to address
antisemitism in the United States by cracking down on a so-called
“Hamas Support Network” of anti-Zionist organizations , Andrew
Harnik/Getty Images

 

If you are concerned about Project 2025, the conservative Heritage
Foundation [[link removed]]’s sweeping, illiberal agenda
for a second Trump administration, then you need to take a hard look
at Project Esther
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its manual for combating antisemitism.

Project Esther proposes a public-private plan for dismantling any
domestic group that supports Palestinian rights — which they call
the “Hamas Support Network.” The plan’s first targets are
pro-Palestinian organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine,
American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. But
that’s just the start.

Project Esther has its sights on what it describes as a much broader
“coalition of leftist, progressive organizations such as Open
Society Foundations, Tides Foundation and numerous others.” It calls
for using tools including anti-terrorism and anti-racketeering
criminal prosecution; deportations; public firings; removal of
tax-exempt status; blocking of funding; and campaigns to sow discord
within movements to “disrupt and degrade” these organizations.

This plan against antisemitism has virtually no Jewish authors
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as is evident from interviews with the Heritage Foundation
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the plan’s use of uncommon phrases like “Reformed Judaism,” and
its erroneous references to Jewish text. (Its first sentence
incorrectly locates the Book of Esther in the Torah).

The writers chastise American Jews for not aligning with their views
of antisemitism, or agreeing with their proposals for its solution,
calling Jews “complacent” and our positions “inexplicable.” A
leader on the Heritage Foundation’s antisemitism task force claimed
in an interview
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that if Jewish organizations “were doing their job and they were
being effective, we wouldn’t have the problem that we have.”

Project Esther has nothing to say about any of the explicitly
antisemitic hate groups
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aligned with the far right. Ditto for one of the core drivers of
antisemitic violence in the United States: conspiracy theories
regularly promoted by figures within President-elect Donald Trump’s
incoming administration, Trump’s friends like Elon Musk and Tucker
Carlson, and Trump himself.

No, its sole target is pro-Palestinian organizations, which it accuses
of being not just “anti-Israel” but “antisemitic and
anti-American.” The plan further claims that any organization
working against “capitalism” is also aligned with “America’s
overseas enemies” and should be a target. The opportunities for
guilt by association are endless, and ultimately reveal the authors’
true McCarthyist intentions
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dismantling any domestic organizing they deem “anti-American”
under the guise of fighting “threats to Jewish safety.” Project
Esther demonstrates that the right no longer needs any semblance of
meaningful Jewish involvement or care for Jewish well-being to advance
and expand their campaign.

It’s worth noting that some of the proposals put forward by Project
Esther reflect policies that members of Congress have tried to advance
under the Biden administration in small but meaningful ways, in large
part due to the efforts of congressional Republicans. Since Oct. 7,
Palestinians, anti-war activists, and progressive groups and funders
in the U.S. have experienced unprecedented levels of harassment and
repression, often under the cover of fighting antisemitism.
Republicans have tried to chill First Amendment rights, under the
misleading banner of protecting Jews, by submitting requests of the
Treasury Department
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conducting aggressive committee hearings
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and proposing numerous
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bills
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in attempts to repress political organization by groups and
institutions they disagree with.

So far, congressional Democrats have blocked the most extreme of these
efforts. But doing so will become much harder under a Trump
administration, with Republicans controlling both chambers of
Congress.

So American Jews must start now calling out Project Esther for what it
is: a far-right, McCarthyist attack on our democratic norms and
values. It will be increasingly critical for American Jews to say
unequivocally that we will not be made safer by the erosion of
American democracy through Project Esther, or any related efforts that
wear away at constitutional rights in the name of our community’s
safety.

The high levels of security and freedom that Jews have experienced in
the U.S. are due to our constitutional democracy and protections for
minorities. Supporting the unraveling of those protections in the
supposed name of our safety would amount to cutting off our nose to
spite our face. Under efforts like those proposed by Project Esther,
there would be immense potential for abuse against free speech, the
media, political organization, and political opponents across the
spectrum. These are the kind of authoritarian conditions that we saw
under McCarthyism, and that would threaten Jewish safety in this
country.

The majority of American Jews, who voted against the return of MAGA,
must be clear-eyed: We cannot effectively resist Project 2025 while
acceding to Project Esther, which exhibits all the ominous excesses of
Project 2025, for its supposed benefits to the Jewish community —
whom Project Esther’s (non-Jewish) authors blame for the current
state of affairs vis-a-vis antisemitism.

Resistance will demand that we defend the groups that are singled out
for political prosecution in Project Esther, including Students for
Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. This is a new
political moment. If we participate in the dismantling of our
democracy, and accept the degradation of equality under the law
because first on the chopping block are those we disagree with, we
will threaten our own future. The American Jewish community, and all
those concerned about democracy, must defend the fundamental rights of
free speech and dissent. In order to effectively resist
authoritarianism, our political alignments must be broad enough to
include those with whom we might disagree about other things, and
principled enough to understand who our bigger opponents are.

Dove Kent [[link removed]] has two decades of
experience in grassroots organizing, political education, and movement
building. She teaches internationally on antisemitism.

* anti-Semitism
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* zionism
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