What’s project esther?

Project Esther's strategy of weaponizing fear to control a social movement is not just about Palestine. It’s a blueprint for how to crack down on other movements — civil liberties, immigrant rights, queer and trans rights, racial justice, workers’ rights, and more. This means that — for all of us — defending the right to speak out for Palestine is central to defending the rights and freedoms of all people in the U.S. Click on the links above to see how other social movements are next.

Yes. Many of the moves Trump has made since he took office have been directly pulled from Project Esther — in fact, Trump has already implemented or threatened to implement more than half of Project Esther’s tactics. These include cracking down on campus anti-war demonstrations, arresting and detaining students and faculty who speak out, directly attacking universities’ funding, abducting student leaders in an attempt to deport them, pressuring social media companies to censor pro-Palestine content, and denying funds and permits based on political speech.

But – a very strong movement for peace and justice has exposed Project Esther and more and more Americans are outraged by its deceptive plan to roll back our civil rights. Click on the links above to learn about what’s already been put into place.

Heritage Foundation — the same far-right think tank behind Project 2025 — created Project Esther. The Heritage Foundation is an ultraconservative organization that helped provide the blueprint for the Trump administration’s authoritarian takeover across the board, including its attacks on diversity and equality initiatives, queer and trans people, workers rights, the environment, and reproductive freedom. 

The Heritage Foundation formed an alleged “Task Force on Antisemitism” — but the task force isn’t made up of Jewish people. A key strategy of the Heritage Foundation is to claim the mantle of defending Jews from antisemitism. But research by JVP’s Academic Advisory Council found that Project Esther was created predominantly by Christian Nationalists, not Jewish people. 

• 11 of the 12 organizations authoring the Task Force report were evangelical Christian groups and organizations promoting “American military superiority.”
• Only 1 was a Jewish organization (a pro-Trump Orthodox fringe group wholly unrepresentative of the American Jewish community). 
• Project Esther launch materials quoted a Heritage Foundation “expert” named James Carafano, who himself has posted multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

No. Project Esther focuses only on pro-Palestinian advocacy, and manufacturing claims of antisemitism to defend the Israeli government’s genocide and crush free speech. Meanwhile, Project Esther does not actually engage with dismantling true antisemitism: the report contains no mention of the Tree of Life Shooting, the neo-Nazi march on Charlottesville, or other instances of violence or vitriol against Jews for being Jewish.

Yes. Project Esther specifically names Jewish Voice for Peace as an organization to target with repression, along with American Muslims for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine. It lays out a strategy to dismantle JVP, that will include falsely claiming our Jewish organization is antisemitic, defaming and defunding us, and eventually attacking our members’ and leaders’ ability to communicate openly without fear of retribution. 

As Jews, we refuse to be the scapegoats for fascism. We remain steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian freedom, to protecting free speech and the right to protest, and to defending all those under attack by the Trump regime.