• As a professor of Jewish history and the Holocaust, I am particularly concerned about how Project Esther actually endangers Jewish safety by misdirecting attention from real antisemitic threats

The author holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, US, and serves on the Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.

ISTANBUL

Project Esther [1], the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for dismantling Palestinian solidarity movements across America, represents one of the most cynical political documents of our time. Named after the biblical queen who saved Jews from annihilation, this 33-page strategy paper outlines a systematic campaign to weaponize accusations of antisemitism against anyone who dares criticize Israel's assault on Gaza.

Despite Project Esther's stated intention to combat anti-Jewish hatred, its true goal is to leverage false claims of antisemitism to prevent Palestinians and their allies from speaking about Israeli war crimes and its genocidal assault. The consequences extend far beyond Palestinian advocacy; Project Esther threatens to strip antisemitism of any meaningful content, transforming it from a term describing attacks on Jews' fundamental place in society into a political cudgel. Yet as this strategy unfolds, clear signs of resistance and pushback suggest its ultimate failure.

Understanding Project Esther requires recognizing what antisemitism historically meant [2]: attacks on Jews' fundamental place in the societies where they lived, rooted in the perception that Jews were essentially alien to the prevailing racial, national, religious, or economic order. True antisemitism targeted Jews as members of a supposedly foreign people whose very presence threatened the social fabric. Project Esther corrupts this understanding by conflating criticism of Israeli government policies with hatred of Jews themselves, thereby diluting the concept's power to identify and combat actual anti-Jewish bigotry.

From policy to suppression: The impact on higher education

The document's influence on policy has been swift and devastating. While Project Esther gained prominence under the Trump administration, many of its core strategies were already being implemented during the Biden years. Similar to how global powers' support for Israel's assault on Gaza has upended decades of international law [3] designed to protect vulnerable populations, Project Esther's strategy – ostensibly aimed at protecting Jewish students, faculty, and staff – has led to the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives [4], the firing [5] of faculty [6] and expulsion of students [7] who are critical of Israel, shackling [8] academic Middle East and South Asian studies programs, and undermining academic freedom and faculty governance [9] mechanisms across American higher education.

This assault on academic freedom extends beyond individual universities to scholarly associations themselves. The American Historical Association's recent experience exemplifies this dynamic perfectly. After AHA members voted overwhelmingly [10] (428-88) to condemn Israeli "scholasticide" in Gaza, the systematic destruction of Palestinian educational infrastructure, the organization's Council vetoed the resolution [11]. This veto represents exactly the kind of institutional capture Project Esther envisions.

The most disturbing aspect of this campaign has been watching institutions preemptively comply with these authoritarian tactics. Whether through what some observers call "anticipatory compliance" or, more likely, those who prioritize perceived financial and legal liabilities over academic freedom over fostering critical intellectual inquiry, too many institutions have abandoned their educational mission in favor of political expediency. The result has been a chilling effect on campus discourse that extends far beyond discussions of Palestine and Israel.

Large cracks in this strategy are becoming increasingly visible, however, suggesting that Project Esther may ultimately backfire. The case of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student abducted by ICE agents for his pro-Palestinian activism [12], illustrates both the authoritarian overreach of the strategy and its legal fragility. Khalil, a legal permanent resident married to a US citizen, was detained for months without criminal charges solely based on his political speech. When federal judge Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil's release in June [13], calling his continued detention "highly, highly unusual," the ruling represented a significant judicial rebuke to Project Esther's tactics.

Perhaps more significantly, political developments suggest a broader shift in American attitudes toward Israel and antisemitism accusations. Zohran Mamdani's stunning victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary [14] provides compelling evidence of this transformation. Despite intense criticism of his positions on Israel, including his support for the boycott movement and refusal to condemn the phrase "Globalize the Intifada," Mamdani defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo with crucial support from young Jewish voters [15]. Mamdani's victory reflects national polling that many Jews reject the false equation between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Moreover, the Democratic Party, historically Israel's strongest supporter in American politics, attitudes are shifting. A majority of Democrats now oppose the assault on Palestinians [16], representing a fundamental realignment that threatens Project Esther's underlying assumptions about American political support for Israeli policies and the efficacy of weaponizing antisemitism allegations in this way.

Educational institutions are also beginning to resist Project Esther's influence. The National Education Association's recent vote to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League [17] represents a watershed moment. The NEA's 7,000-member Representative Assembly voted to reject ADL materials and programs [18], explicitly stating that "despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be." This decision by America's largest labor union reflects growing awareness that organizations like the ADL have abandoned their original mission of fighting antisemitism in favor of policing criticism of Israel.

Misplaced focus

As a professor of Jewish history and the Holocaust, I am particularly concerned about how Project Esther actually endangers Jewish safety by misdirecting attention from real antisemitic threats. By focusing exclusively on Palestinian solidarity movements while ignoring white supremacist violence, which accounts for the vast majority of actual antisemitic attacks in America, Project Esther weakens rather than strengthens Jewish security. The document barely acknowledges right-wing antisemitism [19], dismissing groups like the Ku Klux Klan as "relics of the past" despite clear evidence of their continued influence through movements like the Proud Boys and various militia groups.

The strategy's apparent failure stems from a fundamental misreading of American society. Project Esther assumes that Americans will indefinitely accept the conflation of criticism of Israeli policies with hatred of Jews. However, as images of Gaza's destruction have filled our social media feeds and as young Americans witness the systematic dismantling of Palestinian society, this conflation becomes increasingly untenable. When institutions invoke "Jewish safety" to justify censoring opposition to genocide, the cynicism becomes too obvious to ignore.

Looking ahead, Project Esther's mixed legacy, marked by harm to our society’s social, legal, and academic institutions and profound principled resistance to those assaults. While it has provided mechanisms to bring enormous harm to higher educational institutions and democratic discourse, the growing cracks in its implementation suggest that Americans, including many Jews, are beginning to see through its manipulation. The document's overreach may ultimately strengthen rather than weaken the Palestinian solidarity movement [20] by exposing the authoritarian tactics being deployed against it.

The path forward requires rejecting Project Esther's false framework entirely. True opposition to antisemitism cannot be separated from opposition to all forms of racism and oppression. As Jews, we are safest when we stand in solidarity with other marginalized communities, not when we allow our historical trauma to be manipulated in service of contemporary injustice. The growing resistance to Project Esther suggests that this understanding is beginning to take hold, offering hope that both Palestinians and Jews might yet find genuine security through justice rather than domination.

[1] https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/project-esther-national-strategy-combat-antisemitism

[2] https://keywords.nyupress.org/keywords-continued/antisemitic/

[3] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/12/israels-assault-foundations-international-law-must-have-consequences-un

[4] https://www.vox.com/24010858/republicans-antisemitism-dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-jewish-students

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/magazine/academic-freedom-politics.html

[6] https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/cuny-suspends-student-activist-leader-fires-four-faculty-members-in-escalation-of-repression-against-palestine-activism/v

[7] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rz4eqx4g7o

[8] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/25/does-columbia-merit-the-name-of-university

[9] https://cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2024/01/academic-freedom-weaponized-antisemitism-and-big-chill

[10] https://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/6/aha_scholasticide_resolution_gaza

[11] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/shared-governance/2025/01/17/historians-council-vetoes-gaza-scholasticide

[12] https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil-ice-15014bcbb921f21a9f704d5acdcae7a8

[13] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/judge-orders-columbia-university-protester-mahmoud-khalil-freed-from-immigration-detention-center

[14] https://apnews.com/article/new-york-mamdani-mayor-democrats-jews-israel-39e3a3df4ce9d05c090a78ba7a1eb48b

[15] https://forward.com/news/753505/jews-zohran-mamdani-election-nyc-mayor/

[16] https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx

[17] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/09/us/nea-teachers-union-anti-defamation-league

[18] https://www.axios.com/2025/07/08/gaza-war-adl-teachers-union-nea-vote

[19] https://forward.com/news/680626/project-esther-heritage-jewish-conspiracy-antisemitism/

[20] https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-antisemitism-project-esther-heritage-palestinian-rcna207935

*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.