Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation’s campaign to battle antisemitism, plans to target Wikipedia editors it claims fuel anti-Jewish hostility. But Project Esther’s own rhetoric about battling powerful Jewish “masterminds” reinforces centuries-old conspiracy theories about Jews who have too much power and influence.
Heritage, the conservative think tank behind the Project 2025 blueprint for a second Trump administration, announced last November that it was launching its “National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.”
Attacks on Jews have soared since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel’s military responded with deadly force. But Project Esther’s selective approach has raised questions and criticism, as BNG reported last year:
- Heritage developed its plans with conservative Christian groups and the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, not established Jewish groups that have fought antisemitism for decades.
- Heritage focused only on leftwing offenders it says are part of the “Hamas support network,” not on rightwing pundits such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens who have promoted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, nor on the white supremacist groups, including those that marched in Charlottesville proclaiming, “Jews will not replace us.”
“No major Jewish organizations appear to have participated in drafting the plan, or publicly endorsed it since its release,” reported the Jewish news outlet The Forward in December.
Now, some of Project Esther’s latest initiatives have only added to the concerns.
Exhibit A is Project Esther’s plan to have a former FBI agent lead its use of deceit to “identify and target” Wikipedia volunteer editors who are “abusing their position” by publishing content critical of Israel or Jews that the group believes to be antisemitic.
Heritage bills itself as a free speech advocate and claimed in a recent article for the evangelical World magazine that, “No entity or person has the right to limit speech for political gain.”
“Heritage’s Project Esther seeks to limit the speech of Wikipedia editors.”
But Heritage’s Project Esther seeks to limit the speech of Wikipedia editors, according to internal Heritage documents reported by The Forward, which was founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily newspaper.
Project Esther plans to use “targeting methodologies” to out offending editors, including creating fake Wikipedia user accounts designed to trick editors into sharing their personal information. Heritage would not say whether the targeting has begun yet, or what it plans do with the personal information it gathers.
The pressure on Wikipedia comes as the online, user-generated encyclopedia has been under fire from some Jewish organizations for its coverage of the war in Gaza and for labeling the Anti-Defamation League a “generally unreliable source” on the war. Wikipedia says the ADL is a pro-Israel activist group that declares nearly any criticism of Jews or Israel antisemitic.
Some Jews call the online encyclopedia “Wokepedia,” a claim Elon Musk has echoed to his 200 million-plus followers on X.
Exhibit B in Project Esther’s problems is its effort to target and “neutralize” people it calls “masterminds” who are allegedly part of an “antisemitism ecosystem” that plans to “dismantle Western democracies, values and culture.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Project Esther’s list of eight masterminds includes two prominent Jewish leaders: George and Alex Soros of the Open Society Foundations, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is Jewish and operates his own foundation.
A Heritage presentation says its strategy is to “expose and discredit” the antisemitic masterminds, “wage lawfare” so they “wither on the vine”; and “remove cancer, preserve democracy.”
Billionaire philanthropist and foreign-born Holocaust survivor George Soros long has been “a bogeyman for the hard right.” For some, Soros perfectly embodies the most popular antisemitic conspiracy theories listed in the American Jewish Committee’s “Hate Glossary:” cabal, control, cosmopolitan elite, dual loyalty, globalist, the Illuminati, Jewish communist, New World Order.
The Hate Glossary includes a separate entry for “Soros.” The American Jewish Committee explains: “George Soros is vilified in some quarters of the world (and revered in others) for supporting progressive causes such as immigration and criminal justice reform. … Criticizing Soros or his politics and actions is not antisemitic. Indeed, those who have suggested that any criticism is antisemitic do real disservice to the cause of fighting Jew-hatred. However, when Soros is used as a symbol for Jewish control, wealth and power, the criticism may be an updated version of traditional antisemitic tropes.”
Those who blame Soros for many of the problems of America and the world may be entertaining a form of Jew-bashing that goes way back, says the AJC: “From Medieval times until the present day, conspiracy theories have spread antisemitic beliefs that blame Jews for the world’s worst tragedies. Jews were accused of poisoning wells in 14th century Europe, causing the Black Death, and in 21st century America, they were charged with being the ‘hidden hand’ responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
According to Jewish Insider, groups supporting Heritage’s Project Esther include Family Research Council, Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, Concerned Women of America, Pat Robertson’s Regent University, Independent Women’s Forum, Philos Project, Coalition for Jewish Values, Latino Coalition for Israel, and Colorado’s Steamboat Institute.
Heritage claimed its Project Esther had the support of other groups, but at least five such groups told Jewish Insider that claim was false: World Jewish Congress, the Hudson Institute, the Atlantic Council, John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel, and the Republican Jewish Coalition.
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