Is God Antisemitic?
By The Heritage Foundation’s Reckoning, Perhaps
By now, many—perhaps most—Americans have heard of Project 2025, the “Mandate for America” produced by the far-right Heritage Foundation and being implemented by the Trump administration.
Project Esther
But the Heritage Foundation isn’t finished yet. Its next big endeavor is Project Esther. This project title is based on a book in the Bible about a young Israelite woman named, not surprisingly, Esther. And this project is every bit as heinous as Project 2025. But first, some contextual background…
In this Bible story, the Persian King Ahasuerus takes the Jewish girl Esther as his queen. Behind the scenes, Haman, a malicious, prominent Persian, devises a plan to kill all the Jews within the Persian kingdom. Esther’s Uncle Mordecai learns of Haman’s plot and asks Esther to intervene with the king. Esther is hesitant because even the queen is not allowed to approach the king without his invitation.
Uncle Mordecai says to Esther, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, New International Version, Biblica, 2011). Esther then dares to meet with the king. The result is that the Jews survive, and evil Haman is killed. Thus, we get the evangelicals’ oft-cited phrase, “For such a time as this.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther states, “The virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American groups comprising the so-called pro-Palestinian movement inside the United States are exclusively pro-Palestine and—more so—pro-Hamas. They are part of a highly organized, global Hamas Support Network (HSN) and therefore effectively a terrorist support network.” The document begins with a similar summary of the Old Testament book. Then, that opening summary ends with this provocative sentence: “Today, Israel, Jews everywhere, and Americans face yet another ‘Haman.’ The question remains: Will we face the threat as Esther did so many centuries ago or capitulate to intimidation and fear?”
Questioning Israel Is Anti-American?
Who is that modern-day Haman to whom modern-day, God-fearing Americans must not capitulate? Today’s Haman is “The virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American groups comprising the so-called pro-Palestinian movement inside the United States are exclusively pro-Palestine and—more so—pro-Hamas. They are part of a highly organized, global Hamas Support Network (HSN) and therefore effectively a terrorist support network.” The remainder of the Project Esther document is then built upon the notion that liberals—or anyone who does not unreservedly support Israel—are antisemitic and anti-American. If you criticize Israel, you are the modern-day Haman.
The document’s stated purpose is “to provide a strategic blueprint to all Americans who are willing to counter antisemitism in the United States so that they can protect not only American Jewry, but the sanctity of the core values derived from our Founding documents that ensure the security and prosperity of all Americans.”
Adding to its attempt to make the case that criticizing Israel is anti-American, the document states,
The anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Jew-haters attempting to lay siege to our education system, political processes, and government have not simply been influenced by this way of thinking—they have enthusiastically adopted it. This makes them a threat not just to American Jewry, but to all Americans. Their ideology and actions directly challenge and attempt to undermine the American values that are fundamental to our way of life, our nation’s success, and our future.
A Pathetic Portrayal of the Bund
But an even more alarming—and ironic—statement is found in the document’s reference to the German American Bund that formed in the United States as Nazism was advancing in Germany just prior to World War II. Implying that the Bund had ties to liberals and favored socialist ideals, the document declares, “America has been here before. Between World War I and World War II, the United States witnessed the rise of a highly organized, nationwide group of American Nazis known as the German–American Bund.” (p. 17).
Anyone who applied to be a member of the Bund had to declare that they had no Jewish or African American ancestors. But while The Heritage Foundation slyly implies liberal connections to the Bund, the Holocaust Encyclopedia tells the true story:
The Bund’s vision for the United States was based on an eight-point plan. Central tenets of the plan included: establishing white Christian supremacy in the United States; expelling Jews from labor unions and government positions; ending relations with Soviet Russia and outlawing Communism in the United States; stopping the flow of refugees into the United States; and isolating the United States from international conflicts and world affairs.
Three of those central tenets could have come directly from a Trump rally or a Christian Nationalist convention. It’s MAGA, not progressives, that wants to establish white Christian supremacy in the United States, outlaw Communism in the United States, and stop the flow of refugees into the United States. And, at least in theory, it’s MAGA that wants to isolate the United States from international conflicts and world affairs.
Far-Left or Far-Right?
Given their typically contrary policy stances, it seems surprising that Project Esther would quote this Anti-Defamation League study, but here it is:
In 2023, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tabulated 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the United States, a 140 percent increase from 2022 and the highest the ADL has recorded since it began tracking the statistic in 1979. The dramatic increase occurred following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Between October 7 and the end of 2023, ADL tabulated 5,204 incidents—more than the incident total for the whole of 2022. (Project Esther, p. 7)
Certainly, the number of antisemitic incidents noted is cause for concern, but again, providing no context, the writers imply that those incidents were committed by the “anti-American, leftist” forces the entire document targets. However, as noted in PsyPost, Eitan Hersh and Laura Royden conducted a study—“Antisemitic Attitudes Across the Ideological Spectrum”—that provides some of the data Project Esther omitted:
New research provides evidence that antisemitic attitudes are far more prevalent on the political right in the United States. The study, published in Political Research Quarterly, indicates that prejudicial attitudes towards Jews is particularly strong among younger conservatives.
Furthermore, according to the ADL, “Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, was responsible for 427 antisemitic propaganda incidents, or 37% of the year’s total incidents.” And that’s just one among many far-right, proudly antisemitic organizations.
Additionally, Project Esther reveals an ideological kinship with the Trump administration, particularly as seen in its “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” (NSPM7), which makes sweeping and largely unfounded and undocumented assertions that “anti-fascists” specifically and progressives in general are responsible for most of America’s political violence.
These assertions are contradicted by studies such as “Politically Motivated Violence Is Rare in the United States,” conducted by the right-leaning Cato Institute, which concluded,
Right-wingers are the second most common motivating ideology [first was Islam, based on the 9/11 attacks], accounting for 391 murders and 11 percent of the total. The definition here of right-wing terrorists includes those motivated by white supremacy, anti-abortion beliefs, involuntary celibacy (incels), and other right-wing ideologies.
Is God Antisemitic?
The Heritage Foundation began its Project Esther document with a quotation from the Old Testament book of Esther. It seems fitting to end with a few quotes from two Old Testament Israelite prophets—and God—speaking to Israel’s leaders and citizens:
“Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.” – Isaiah 1:23
“These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me, and their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.” – Isaiah 29:13
“‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 23:1
“If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.” – Leviticus 26:21
Dozens more could be cited.
Apparently, neither the Old Testament prophets nor God Himself was averse to criticizing the Israelites when they were wrong. Would the Heritage Foundation accuse them, too, of being antisemitic and anti-American?
About the Author
Jerry Gramckow was a “Ronald Reagan Republican” even before Reagan was elected president. But he officially left the GOP on January 20, 2017, and has not looked back. From 2000 through 2005, he served as an editor in the public policy division of the far-right Focus on the Family evangelical ministry. His goal now is to make amends for his misdeeds of that era.
His decades-long writing and editing career also includes serving as a judge for many writing contests, with the 2015 Star Trek Strange New Worlds scriptwriting contest being among them.