Dove Kent (U.S. Senior Director of Diaspora Alliance)
Appearances
Today, Explained
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There are basically no Jews involved in this plan to supposedly dismantle antisemitism. The Heritage Foundation as the core author and other allied organizations, many of them Christian nationalist organizations, And I will say that throughout the plan, they misuse Jewish text, they refer to Jewish groups with the wrong terms, they call Jewish positions on antisemitism inexplicable.
Today, Explained
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In an interview actually with a member of the Heritage Foundation, they said something along the lines of, If Jews were doing their job countering anti-Semitism, we wouldn't be in the position we're in now. So the plan really derides Jews throughout it.
Today, Explained
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The Book of Esther, it's a text that Jews read once a year on the holiday of Purim. In the story, Queen Esther makes an intervention with the king in which a mortal decree that the king's advisor had made against the Jewish people is instead turned against the advisor. So the victims become the heroes.
Today, Explained
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But within the story is also the idea that those lines are not so binary and that what is good and what is evil may change. The story of Esther has been repurposed by far-right Christian political movements. There's a phrase from the text that Esther was put into a position of power for such a time as this.
Today, Explained
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And that phrase has been used by extremist groups like Moms for Liberty, protesters at the US Capitol on January 6th, the Esther call to the mall that brought hundreds of evangelical women to DC to protest reproductive rights.
Today, Explained
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Queen Esther is invoked for this idea of spiritual warfare that must be waged against evil in the world, this battle against demonic forces that Christian nationalists believe they are in. So it makes sense that the Heritage Foundation would invoke this Christian nationalist frame for a kind of warfare against liberal civil society.
Today, Explained
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Next question. No, just kidding. We cannot terrorize or incarcerate or deport. port or fire or infiltrate our way out of antisemitism. That's just not how it works. And we certainly can't dismantle constitutional protections as a way to combat antisemitism when we know that Jewish safety in the U.S. depends on constitutional democracy and minority protections.
Today, Explained
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So, deporting international students doesn't combat antisemitism. Public firings don't combat antisemitism. Withholding funds from research institutions doesn't combat antisemitism. Arresting activists doesn't combat antisemitism.
Today, Explained
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And there is no city or country in the world where these kinds of actions have been applied that have seen any increase in Jewish safety or decrease in antisemitic ideas or behaviors.
Today, Explained
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Yes. So agreeing with your earlier guest that this phrase, Hamas support network, was just made up by the Heritage Foundation and its allies as a smear for any organization that supports Palestinian rights and humanity. Right. This is part of an effort to completely conflate support for Palestinian rights and humanity with support for Hamas.
Today, Explained
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Project Esther's scope extends well beyond these groups to target a wide spectrum of liberal donors, foundations, and organizations that also do not in any way support Hamas. The plan even names anti-capitalist groups, claiming that they align with America's overseas enemies.
Today, Explained
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And all of this just sets the stage for guilt by association and exposes the true intent of Project Esther, which is dismantling civil society institutions such as universities and nonprofit organizations as a way to get rid of any domestic opposition to the administration, all under the guise of protecting Jews. And there's another important note here.
Today, Explained
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What they're doing with the term Hamas support network is trying to create in the minds of Americans a whole class of people who are associated with terrorism and violence and therefore do not deserve the protections of U.S. law, including immigration law. So when the administration starts to detain and deport people through illegal means, as they are currently doing,
Today, Explained
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they are banking that Americans won't protest. And it's directly connected to what they're doing in sending immigrants to prison in El Salvador under the false premise that they're all connected to a violent gang. And one other thing I'll say is that
Today, Explained
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Project Esther has literally nothing to say about the firehose of anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories coming out of the far right in this country, which are the leading drivers of anti-Semitic violence in the U.S. according to any and every serious study. So the sole target of this is pro-Palestinian groups and beyond who they accuse of being not just anti-Semitic, but also anti-American.
Today, Explained
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Well, the Trump administration's initial attacks on students and higher education that we are seeing as the very clear rollout of Project Esther. don't just not work against antisemitism. They actively stoke antisemitism by making Jews the face of authoritarian crackdowns. People are losing their jobs. They're losing funding for critical scientific research.
Today, Explained
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They're losing their freedoms, supposedly in our name. And this feeds into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about shadowy outside Jewish power and makes Jews the one to blame for the longtime Christian nationalist goal of dismantling higher education. So the immediate and long-term impact of Project Esther
Today, Explained
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ironically, is an increase in anti-Semitism across the country, on top of the incredible harm being done to international students, educators, researchers, and all of us who benefit from free speech and academic inquiry. This is an effective strategy by the right because they're executing the policies they want to anyway, but they're doing so in the name of fighting anti-Semitism.
Today, Explained
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The erosion of those rights makes all communities less safe, including Jews. And any work to carve out exceptions, whoever they target or claim to protect, undermine the universal protection that actually makes us all safe. I'll also say that it is abundantly clear that the Trump administration is not truly working on behalf of Jewish safety.
Today, Explained
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Trump's right-hand man, Elon Musk, is working to dismantle the federal government while repopularizing the Nazi salute, running a platform rife with anti-Semitic conspiracies, and encouraging German politicians to abandon their post-Holocaust commitment to keeping far-right extremists out of power.
Today, Explained
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The administration is filled with appointees who have long histories of spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. They've defunded the Office of Civil Rights for universities, which is the very body that is tasked with reviewing and enforcing rules against anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination on campus.
Today, Explained
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It's also clear that no one in this administration cares about bigotry or discrimination of any kind unless it's an invented and inverted anti-white or anti-Christian discrimination. And American Jews can see that this administration is not truly fighting for our safety.
Today, Explained
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Dove, go ahead, give me your full name and tell me what you do. My name is Dove Kent, and I am the U.S. Senior Director of Diaspora Alliance. Diaspora Alliance confronts anti-Semitism and its distortion. And we believe that antisemitism corrodes democracy by fueling conspiracy theories and bigotry and misdirecting people's anger, fear, and understanding of power.
Today, Explained
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And at the same time, fabricated or reckless accusations of antisemitism are used to thwart and malign struggles for human rights, justice, and equality, and make it harder to challenge antisemitism when it arises. Both of these are true at the same time, and they reinforce each other.
Today, Explained
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Well, what I'll say is that there's actually not a lot of difference in how most Jews or scholars define the basics of anti-Semitism. What people disagree on is how and when that is applied to Israel. And so a lot of the fights over the definitions are actually proxy fights for people's politics about Israel and Palestine.
Today, Explained
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Yeah, I think that whether speech or conduct about Zionism and Israel is anti-Semitic should be based on the standards for speech or conduct that apply to anti-Semitic behavior in general. But that as a general rule, criticism of Zionism in Israel, opposition to Israel's policies, nonviolent political action directed at the state of Israel or its policies are not as such inherently anti-Semitic.
Today, Explained
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Very soon after it came out, it was published on the one-year anniversary of October 7th. So it was published on October 7th, 2024. And right away, my colleagues and I were very alarmed by this plan. Right when Project Esther was rolled out, most Jewish institutions that you might imagine might be aligned with this had actually nothing to say because they'd never heard of it.