Weaponizing Antisemitism: Where Are Our Jewish Leaders?

The Jewish community is being played by the Trump administration to accept authoritarian challenges to democratic institutions and practices in the name of combating antisemitism. It is long past time to wake up, speak out and take action. 

Antisemitism is real in the United States. Even those of us long resistant to finding antisemitism (and antisemites) everywhere have come to recognize that antisemitism is on the rise in the United States and beyond. When in 2017, tiki torch-wielding marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Va., that was clearly antisemitism. When those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, carried signs saying “Camp Auschwitz” or wore Nazi insignia, that was also antisemitism. When Hasidim are attacked on the streets in the neighborhoods of Williamsburg or Crown Heights in Brooklyn, N.Y., simply for being visible Jews, that is antisemitism. And when students on campuses shout at Jewish students, “You should be dead,” that, too, is antisemitism. 

The Trump administration has launched a number of major initiatives in recent months allegedly to address this antisemitism. In the name of protecting Jewish students, it has denied hundreds of millions of dollars to major American universities and has demanded that each cede control over their curricula, their faculty, their student bodies and their speech codes to governmental oversight. Even the crackdown on undocumented immigrants and international students has been justified as protecting Jews against antisemitism from those who support Hamas or hate Israel. 

Some within the Jewish community have hailed these actions as laudable and even overdue, insisting that although it may constitute some overreach on the part of the administration, it is necessary because universities did not do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment during the encampments protesting the war in Gaza during the 2023-24 academic year. But it is deeply disturbing that more prominent Jews and Jewish organizations have not spoken out against such overreach, because it is not, in fact, going to make Jews any safer. 

As Rabbi Jill Jacobs noted in a recent webinar, and as Harvard argued in its suit against the Trump administration, stripping funding from institutions of higher education will not help Jews (or Jewish students). The reality is that universities have codes of speech and conduct; if they were not being applied effectively, the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education had tools and policies to address the lapse. So, if Trump were serious about addressing antisemitism, then he could have strengthened, rather than eliminated, the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, the office to which students who felt they had been denied appropriate protection on their campus would have appealed. Nor would he have appointed known antisemites to important posts in his administration or welcomed them to dinners at Mar-a-Lago and the White House.

Jews should be very disturbed by attacks on so many of the institutions of our democracy that have helped us to thrive.

Rather, this series of actions allegedly addressed to combating antisemitism follows almost exactly a playbook titled “Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism,” created by the Heritage Foundation, and brought to us by the same people who created Project 2025, the Trump administration’s blueprint for dismantling many of our most important institutions. “Project Esther,” officially published on Oct. 7, 2024, makes for chilling reading. Most significantly, the antisemitism it purports to engage is what it refers to as the “organized global Hamas Support Network,” which it says is composed of “virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti- American groups that comprise the pro-Palestinian movement.” According to Project Esther’s authors, virtually any support of Palestinian rights puts one into the camp of Hamas; thus, to support Palestinian rights or criticize Israel is effectively to become part of a terrorist support network whose ultimate goal is not just to “compel the United States government to change its long-standing policy of support for Israel,” but, in addition, and ultimately, “the destruction of capitalism and democracy.” 

On the one hand, this represents a total conflation of antisemitism with pro-Palestinian political views; and, on the other, it reflects a dismissal of any other sources of antisemitism or antisemitic violence. For the authors of “Project Esther,” antisemitism is anti-Zionism; thus any criticism of the policies of the Israeli government is immediately and deeply suspect. Further, the document goes on to equate supporters of Hamas with those who support anti-oppression work or movements in the United States. Indeed, later in the document it defines what it terms the “Hamas Support Network” (conveniently abbreviated as HSN) as comprised of organizations such as National Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, supported by “a coalition of leftist, progressive organizations such as the Open Society Foundations [sic], Tides Foundation, and numerous others … ,” which provide financial and consulting services. In short, it claims that a conspiracy of progressive groups is effectively using American institutions and organizations as dupes in their secret goal to destroy both Israel and democracy in the United States. 

The document reads almost like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, except that now, the conspirators aiming to take over the world are Hamas and its alleged supporters, rather than the Jews. Further, this conspiracy — in their view — has also captured the U.S. education system which “fosters antisemitism under the guise of ‘pro-Palestinian,’ anti-Israel and anti-Zionist narratives across universities, high schools and elementary schools, often under the umbrella or within the rubric of diversity, equity and inclusion and similar Marxist ideology” (p. 10). As the document goes on to state, “no other antisemitic organization or movement threatens American Jewry and Western civilization more than the HSN does at this time.” Forget about the Klan, the Proud Boys and all other right-wing antisemitic organizations that were named by the U.S. Department of Justice only a few years ago as the major terrorist threats in the United States; the only focus of this document is an alleged international conspiracy of Hamas supporters. 

The authors seem perplexed by the fact that most Jews are not sufficiently upset by the efforts of this alleged “network”; “the American Jewish community has not demonstrated a unified resolve against the HSN  … .” And even Jewish representatives in Congress have mostly been unwilling to censure those who criticize Israel. Or, as the document states, “that the political party with more elected Jewish Representatives chose political expediency over the morally correct position against antisemitism is striking” (p. 15). The authors claim that too many Jews are disengaged and must be “waiting for leadership to guide them.” But if antisemitism is defined only as criticism of Israel and the solution is to shut down such criticism, should it be so surprising that many Jews are unwilling to jump onto the censorship bandwagon? 

What is abundantly clear in this document — and in all-too-many of the actions the Trump Administration has taken so far — is that the goal here is to use the fear of antisemitism to undermine dissent, free speech, universities, scientific research and democratic institutions. The denial of funds to Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and others will not help Jews or protect us from antisemitism. To the contrary, it will close down long-standing scientific and medical research about cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and much more, as a result of which everyone in the country will suffer. Effectively, it provides cover for Trump to engage in a campaign against free speech, free expression, equity initiatives and political organizing which he has been wanting to do for years. The strategy, explicitly stated in the document, is to attack the “HSN” — and all the organizations that allegedly support it — as outsiders, foreign terrorists, not deserving of rights or any protections, so that they are unable to communicate, to use social (or other) media, no longer have access to the economy, “lose access to Congress” (whatever that means), have their communications disrupted and are prevented from conducting any demonstrations. Additionally, the authors of “Project Esther” aim to have anyone associated with or supporting these organizations removed or fired from any and all educational institutions; and any individuals associated with these organizations or their politics deported from the United States.

We know from our experience that we are safest under a government and institutions that recognize the rights of those who find themselves in the minority.

This is a formula for thought control and totalitarianism. In the guise of protecting against terrorism and antisemitism, the rights of all of us will be restricted. And the universities, which have been perhaps the greatest vehicles for the growth and flowering of Jews in the United States, will be profoundly weakened and unable to stand up to the onslaught against free speech and thought. 

It is profoundly distressing how many institutions (including many law firms, Columbia University, Paramount and others) have “caved” to the president’s demands and chosen not to fight in defense of American rights and liberties. What is even more distressing is the silence of mainstream Jewish institutions and those who claim to speak for the community in the face of these attacks.

The authors of “Project Esther” may complain that “the Jewish community” has not been more supportive of its efforts; but the reality is that Jews should be very disturbed by these attacks on so many of the institutions of our democracy that have helped us to thrive. Jewish communal leaders need to speak up and speak out, loudly, against such attacks on our fundamental rights. As people who have almost always been on the margins of the societies in which we have lived, we should be making common cause with those now being targeted in the United States, especially immigrants and trans folk. We know from our experience (and not just our past experiences) on the margins of our own Christian hegemonic society, that we are safest under a government and institutions that recognize the rights of those who find themselves in the minority. We should not be making common cause with those who seek to quash dissent, even if the substance of that dissent is something many of us find disturbing. Instead, we should be taking the lead to defend dissent, democratic institutions and the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights. This is a critical moment for the country. Our silence will not protect us.