Philosemitism, Project Esther, & the Hijacking of Jewish Identity

Although the Purim season has passed and Passover is nearly upon us, the Purim story continues to cast a shadow on both American Jewish life and the transformations roiling American society. Leftist Jews have long struggled with Purim. There's a lot to love about a holiday that joyfully smashes gender roles, but it's harder to appreciate exalting the genocide of 75,000 civilians. We've dealt with this in many ways: some have given up celebrating Purim altogether (if they ever celebrated it), while others have "engaged in play" to perform alternative stories. 

This year, Christian Zionists have further complicated the holiday by appropriating the Jewish heroine of Purim in Project Esther, an authoritarian plan to "combat antisemitism." The right-wing strategy weaponizes Jewish suffering from Shushan to Germany and beyond to entrench U.S. hegemony and white supremacy. And it places the burden for pushing back squarely on the shoulders of the Jews whose history it tries to misuse.

Project Esther’s philosemitism, its performative care for Jews, instrumentalizes Jewish identity and serves as a smokescreen to distract from the rampant spread of Nazi iconography and antisemitic ideology among conservatives. This strategy predates and extends beyond Project Esther. While Project Esther is not official U.S. government policy, the Trump administration’s actions follow its framework closely. The Heritage Foundation invents a “Hamas Support Network” (HSN) made up of “Hamas Support Organizations” (HSOs), which include Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and calls for “foreign members of HSOs/HSN” to be denied access to school campuses. On Jan. 30, the Trump administration issued an executive order to “combat antisemitism,” which mandated the investigation and punishment of “anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities,” which included “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws.” Shortly after, immigration agents detained Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, deported Dr. Rasha Alawieh, and disappeared other dissenters.

Preying on Jews’ self-perception as both eternal victims and the exceptional, chosen people, this framework purports to offer Jews the opportunity to save ourselves by aligning with fascism.

The Heritage Foundation’s means should feel deeply familiar to leftists, Jews, and especially leftist Jews. In labeling as terrorists all who organize for Palestinian liberation, the strategy recalls the McCarthy era, during which the federal government characterized Jews as un-American to justify state violence, including deportation, arrest, and execution. In this iteration of state repression, however, Jews represent American values as long as we can be used to justify U.S. power. Those who speak out against imperialism are “antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American,” according to Project Esther and its adherents, even when those people are Jewish U.S. citizens offering only mild critiques, as when Chuck Schumer called for Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu to resign and was in turn said by Trump to be “not Jewish anymore” and “a Palestinian.” Similarly, Project Esther derides Bernie Sanders’s support of Palestine and criticism of Israel as “inexplicable.” Project Esther takes advantage of this conditional inclusion when it calls to “ensure the security and prosperity of all Americans” while denying those who hold certain viewpoints “access to U.S. open society.” The message is clear: this document’s right-wing architects will protect Jews only as long as we serve their narrative, and the only Jews worthy of protection are those who pledge loyalty to their right-wing program. 

Similarly, Trump’s executive orders affirming the use of the reductive IHRA definition of antisemitism — which was first implemented by Trump in 2019 — claims that the federal government will “protect Jewish people to the same extent to which all other American citizens are protected” under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Title VI prohibits discrimination against people – citizens and noncitizens – based on race, color, or national origin. But under Trump, ICE violates Title VI constantly, arresting and terrorizing people based on perceived race. The “protection” Trump offers is worthless as his administration openly violates the law he claims will protect us. 

Project Esther exemplifies the efforts to position Jews in opposition to “the progressive left's obsession with LGBTQ+ and all other minorities” and exposes the right’s attempt to wield Jewishness for its Christian Nationalist ends. According to the Heritage Foundation, “American Jewry” is simultaneously (and paradoxically) a vulnerable minority in need of protection and a group of “amazing Americans” whose “power, strength, and intellect” will determine the fate of America. Preying on Jews’ self-perception as both eternal victims and the exceptional, chosen people, this framework purports to offer Jews the opportunity to save ourselves by aligning with fascism. But we should know by now that acquiescence to power will not save us: during the Holocaust, even Jews who supported Hitler were sent on death marches. If we are ever going to get free, we must stand for trans people, reproductive healthcare, climate justice, immigrants, and other minority groups, not only out of solidarity with these groups but also for our own self-preservation, even for those of us who do not hold other marginalized identities.

Project Esther’s version of the Purim story demonstrates its inability to understand nuance. After Esther convinces the King not to execute the Jews, the “National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism” tells us, “Haman and his family were hanged,” but it omits the 75,000 other people Jews murdered. Unlike leftist Jews putting on experimental performances that celebrate our resilience and play with cultural traditions, the Heritage Foundation distorts Megillat Esther in a way that serves their antisemitic ends. In doing so, they clearly identified themselves and the threat they pose to our liberation. Outsiders – and, therefore, Jews – are not welcome in the America Project Esther seeks to create. 

So, as we approach Passover, another holiday whose rituals leftist Jews have adapted in various affirming ways over the years, we can put into action the lessons of this fraught Purim season. This year, let us embrace Passover’s liberatory potential, reject conditional advantages, and unite with the oppressed groups of the day so that someday we can all be free!