JTA — A group of Jewish leaders are fed up with right-wing efforts to combat antisemitism. So they created their own strategy.

The Shofar Report, released this week by the liberal-leaning Jewish group Nexus Project, is a new guide to fighting antisemitism that its authors say is intended to curb the strategies of the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The new report was written explicitly as a rebuttal to Project Esther, a 2024 blueprint against antisemitism written by the conservative Heritage Foundation that outlined many policies now undertaken by the Trump administration, particularly on campuses.

“Project Esther was not a strategy for fighting antisemitism,” Jonathan Jacoby, the Nexus Project’s president, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview. “Project Esther is the Heritage Foundation’s tool for implementing Project 2025” — referring to a now-infamous policy blueprint for a second Trump term.

What Trump and his supporters are actually doing, Jacoby said, is “weaponizing antisemitism.” Conversely, he said, that is bad for the Jews: “Weaponizing antisemitism breeds antisemitism. Weaponizing antisemitism undermines efforts to confront antisemitism.”

In response, the Shofar Report — released during the High Holidays in an effort to mimic a shofar blast as a wake-up call to Jews — calls for policymakers to wind back the clock.

Many of its own recommendations for fighting antisemitism involve undoing Trump’s handiwork, along with some new proposals. Slashing university funding, arresting and deporting student protesters, blocking student visas and tying synagogue security funding to immigration enforcement are all steps the new report says must be reversed to fight antisemitism properly.

Its central message: that fighting antisemitism requires fighting for democratic institutions and embracing traditional liberal coalition-building. Universities, civil rights law, and immigration rights all must be protected in order to safeguard Jews within a liberal democracy, the authors argue.

That could prove a challenge, as many Jews have felt scorned by a lack of support from such coalitions and institutions after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which........

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