At a time of rising tensions, campus protests and global conflict, the need to confront antisemitism and oppose bigotry is real and urgent. Jewish communities in the U.S. and abroad face growing threats — both physical and rhetorical — that demand principled responses. When anti-Zionism veers into demonization or denial of Israel’s right to exist, it must be challenged. These are serious issues that deserve meaningful engagement.
Enter Project Esther, a new policy initiative developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation and fast-tracked during President Donald Trump’s second term. Publicly framed as a national effort to combat antisemitism, the project proposes sweeping federal policies to address what it labels anti-Jewish hate. These include expanded surveillance of protest activity, penalties for institutions that tolerate “anti-Israel bias,” broader definitions of antisemitism and restrictions on political speech — especially criticism of the Israeli government or advocacy for Palestinian rights. It also calls for tighter visa policies, monitoring of foreign students and potential defunding of universities where such speech is prevalent.
While Project Esther claims to protect Jewish communities and promote safer public discourse, its actual scope reveals a troubling agenda. Rather than a measured approach to antisemitism, it functions as an ideological offensive — one that risks criminalizing criticism of Israeli policy, suppressing peaceful pro-Palestinian activism and enforcing conformity across American institutions.
The branding of the initiative as “Project Esther” is particularly unsettling. The name evokes the biblical Queen Esther, who saved the Jewish people from extermination. The intended parallel is clear: to link today’s threats with ancient genocidal plots. While extremist rhetoric from groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis warrants serious concern, invoking Queen Esther to justify domestic crackdowns on dissent is a manipulative use of sacred history to advance a partisan agenda.
Project Esther exploits legitimate concerns about antisemitism to justify tools of surveillance, censorship and state control. Dissent becomes danger. Advocacy for Palestinian rights is conflated with terrorism. Students and professors who voice critical views may face investigation, defunding or even deportation. Social media is to be purged of content deemed antisemitic — now defined so broadly it includes routine political speech. Foreign nationals sympathetic to Palestinian perspectives may be treated as national security threats.
Elements of Project Esther resemble a blueprint for authoritarian governance, aiming to impose a worldview not through open debate or a democratic process, but by legal force and institutional coercion.
In the short four months of the new Trump administration, Project Esther has advanced rapidly. According to The New York Times, more than half of its proposed measures are already surfacing in federal policy: threats to university funding, aggressive visa enforcement and increased surveillance of political speech.
This speed is no accident. It reflects the Heritage Foundation’s broader strategy — articulated in its companion initiative, Project 2025 — to embed operatives across the federal government and implement a hard-right agenda with minimal oversight.
We are not alone in raising concerns. Thirty-six former leaders of major Jewish organizations have publicly condemned Project Esther, warning that it weaponizes Jewish suffering to erode democratic norms and suppress dissent. They fear, rightly, that such overreach undermines the credibility of efforts to combat genuine antisemitism by turning it into a partisan weapon.
A healthy democracy demands space for open debate on contentious moral and political issues. Project Esther does the opposite. Under the guise of protection and patriotism, it threatens to undermine the foundations of pluralistic democracy. Queen Esther would not support actions that trample democratic principles for partisan purposes, or otherwise.
