An antisemitism task force affiliated with the Heritage Foundation announced on Thursday that it would cut ties with the conservative institution, as the prominent think tank has come under fire for its defense of Tucker Carlson after the firebrand podcaster hosted neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes for a friendly interview. 

The co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced in a Thursday email, viewed by Jewish Insider, that they will continue their work “outside the Heritage Foundation for a season.” 

A member of the task force told JI that its members had not ruled out working with Heritage again if the organization improves. “We hope that one day we’ll be able to collaborate with Heritage again,” said the member, who requested anonymity to talk about confidential discussions.

The task force was formed following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and was instrumental in the drafting of Project Esther, Heritage’s signature counter-antisemitism framework released last year in response to the Biden administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism. 

The Project Esther report made no mention of antisemitism on the political right. In their Thursday email, the co-chairs of the task force said they can no longer ignore it.

“The NTFCA will also now expand our work to fight the rising scourge of antisemitism on the Right, beyond our previous work combating the pro-Hamas movement on the Left,” wrote the co-chairs, announcing that they will co-host a conference on “Exposing & Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Right” on Nov. 18 in Washington, in partnership with the Conference of Christian Presidents for Israel. 

The task force’s leaders are Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation; Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project. 

The Heritage Foundation has been awash in controversy since its president, Kevin Roberts, released a video last week defending Carlson as the conservative commentator faced criticism for his interview with Fuentes. 

In a staff meeting on Wednesday, Roberts apologized for the video, which remains on X. He acknowledged the video did not go far enough in making clear that although he is opposed to “canceling” anyone, including Carlson, he is not thereby “endorsing everything they’ve said.”

Still, he has resisted requests to remove the video, according to a source familiar with the deliberations. Deleting the video was one of the recommendations made earlier in the week by the task force members.

The four task force co-chairs pledged to continue the work they had started with the support of the Heritage Foundation, which played a major role in the task force’s launch and operations, according to the task force member. The organization gave the task force access to meeting rooms, publishing resources and research assistance, as well as paid administrative and policy staff members. The task force co-chairs did not say where the group would go next. 

“The future of the Conservative movement will include a broad coalition of people that love America and all she stands for,” the co-chairs wrote. “We cannot allow the Conservative movement to be corrupted and destroyed by those consumed with attacking America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and values, thereby distracting us all from the real challenges facing our nation.” 

This story was updated at 6:31 p.m.