When the Heritage Foundation announced its new Project Esther, including a National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, last November, it promised a “new coalition of Jewish, Christian and conservative nonprofits.”
But the effort has been hampered by a host of problems, according to reporting from Jewish Insider:
- The task force consists mostly of politically conservative and Christian groups, overlooking established Jewish groups that have long been involved in fighting hatred and violence toward Jews.
- Some of the groups Heritage claimed were part of the effort have said they knew nothing about it, had no involvement in it, and had not permitted Heritage to use their names.
- Heritage’s task force “trains its eye exclusively on antisemitism emanating from left-wing, anti-Zionist spaces,” particularly anti-Israel campus protests.
- Organizers decided not to criticize Tucker Carlson or other popular conservatives who promote antisemitism to their large audiences.
In other news, the man who once led Heritage’s Project 2025, the 900-page blueprint for an incoming GOP administration, has criticized Heritage President Kevin Roberts for his “violent rhetoric.”
Antisemitism is a significant problem worldwide and has been on the rise in the U.S. since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The Anti-Defamation League reports the attack unleashed a 388% increase in reported incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault and a 1,000% increase in the “daily average of violent messages mentioning Jews and Israel in white supremacist and right-wing extremist channels” on social media.
Heritage’s Project Esther was designed to be a “serious conservative” response to a Biden administration antisemitism strategy, but aside from a January 2024 meeting, there’s little to show for its efforts, other than criticizing antizionism and “supporting the state of Israel.”
“Heritage’s tactics — including criticizing the White House document that several nonpartisan Jewish organizations had a hand in writing, purposely spurning Jewish groups in the Project Esther task force and ignoring concerns about antisemitism on the right — have antagonized some would-be allies,” said the Jewish Insider report by Gabby Deutch.
Representatives of Jewish groups (the World Jewish Congress), policy organizations (the Hudson Institute, the Atlantic Council), the largest evangelical pro-Israel group (John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel), and the Republican Jewish Coalition all told Deutch they were not part of the task force as Heritage had claimed.
Christians United for Israel said it stood with established Jewish organizations — including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Conference of Presidents of Jewish organizations — that are committed to fighting antisemitism from both the left and the right.
Heritage also claimed Christian and conservative groups were better equipped to deal with the problem than Jewish groups.
A Heritage spokesman told Deutch some Jewish groups were left out of the task force because they are misdiagnosing the problem of antisemitism. Heritage also claimed Christian and conservative groups were better equipped to deal with the problem than Jewish groups, which have been ineffective in combatting antisemitism so far.
James Carafano
Heritage spokesman James Carafano, a Project Esther leader, also defended the decision to focus on antisemitism from the left, claiming there’s no problem with antisemitism on the right: “I refuse to acknowledge that that is part of the conservative movement and that they are my problem, because white supremacists are not my problem, because white supremacists are not part of being conservative.”
The groups that are part of Project Esther include:
- Politically conservative Christian groups (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)
- A Jewish group (Coalition for Jewish Values)
- A pro-Trump group (America First Policy Institute)
- A pro-Israel group (Latino Coalition for Israel)
- Another conservative think tank (Colorado’s Steamboat Institute)
One Heritage task force member said the group discussed but decided against calling out popular conservative figures who’ve promoted antisemitic views on their platforms, including Tucker Carlson (who recently hosted a Holocaust-denying historian on his program) and Candace Owens (the sharp-tongued Black conservative Christian commentator who has used her platforms to promote a series of antisemitic conspiracies.)
The Anti-Defamation League criticizes Carlson for being “an accelerant to the erosion of our democracy, political divisiveness, increased toxicity online, and decreased faith in public institutions.”
ADL says Carlson’s antisemitism can lead to real-world violence against Jews: “As early as 2021, white supremacists were praising Carlson’s promotion of the Great Replacement theory, the racist, antisemitic and xenophobic conspiracy that posits that white Americans are at risk of being disenfranchised by nonwhite immigrants, sometimes described euphemistically by Carlson as ‘demographic change’ or ‘replacing the population.’”
Tucker Carlson and former President Donald Trump react during the final round of the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J., July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
ADL says Carlson promoted Great Replacement theory on more than 400 episodes of his Fox News show. Carlson lost his job at Fox after the network paid $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems. Since leaving Fox, Carlson has continued to promote antisemitic claims.
Focus on the Family and its allied organizations call Carlson inspiring, smart, passionate, brave, bold, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Christianity and “the leading voice in American politics.” They say Carlson exhibits the courage — if not the evangelistic calling — of Billy Graham. Carlson headlined Focus’ 2023 major donor retreat in Laguna Niguel, Calif., and has done fundraisers for a handful of Focus-affiliated state organizations.
Candace Owens speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference at The Rosen Shingle Creek on February 25, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The Anti-Defamation League describes Owens as “a right-wing public figure who has come to espouse explicitly antisemitic, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel views, notably following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel.”
Owens also has claimed Judaism is a “pedophile-centric religion that believes in demons.”
Owens also “promoted the ‘blood libel’ conspiracy, the false charge that Jews used the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes, which in past centuries led to Jews’ being violently attacked,” ADL said.
As BNG previusly reported, Owens has worked with conservative groups including Focus on the Family, Turning Point USA, PragerU, and the conservative news outlet the Daily Wire. Daily Wire dismissed Owens in March after a series of antisemitic incidents, but Focus and the other groups have not publicly criticized her antisemitism.
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