Luke Moon, a conservative Christian activist who has emerged in recent months as an outspoken critic of antisemitism on the right, has joined the Heritage Foundation as a part-time visiting fellow supporting the think tank’s work to combat antisemitism. 

Moon, who recently founded an organization called Gen Zion to build ties between Christians and Jews in support of Israel, once worked closely with Heritage on antisemitism-related issues. He helped draft a 2024 report called Project Esther, which outlined a conservative framework for fighting antisemitism.

But he publicly disaffiliated from the prominent conservative institution in November after its president, Kevin Roberts, released a controversial video defending Tucker Carlson following the podcast host’s friendly interview with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. 

At the time, Moon was one of four co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which had been responsible for the Project Esther strategy. One of the co-chairs — Victoria Coates, a former national security official in President Donald Trump’s first term — remained at Heritage, where she has served as vice president of its national security institute since 2023. 

It was Coates who announced Moon’s hiring on Monday. 

“It’s an honor to have [Moon] join Heritage’s efforts to combat antisemitism and support the Jewish people in the United States across the political spectrum,” Coates said in a statement. “Regardless of its source, Jew hatred cannot be tolerated in a healthy society.” 

Soon after the task force spun off from Heritage last fall, it hosted a daylong convening in Washington on the topic of right-wing antisemitism. In a speech that day, Moon described an impending battle against antisemitism on his side of the aisle.

“It’s the early days of this war. I don’t feel like we did win the last battle, but we didn’t lose yet either,” said Moon. 

Moon told Jewish Insider in an interview on Monday that he believes the conservative movement has begun to make progress in fighting back against antisemitism within its ranks.

“It’s a war where we lose some battles and win some battles, and I think I’m winning more than I’m losing,” Moon said. “What I didn’t have a year ago was enough allies and tools, and now I have a lot more allies, and I think I have a lot more tools, and so I’m actually optimistic.” 

Heritage first reached out to him about the position in January, Moon said, but he was not sure at the time if “there was a real desire to change.” He decided to join the organization after it tapped Yoram Hazony, an Israeli scholar and advocate for political nationalism, to join its board in May.  

“One of the things that I get from people is, ‘We haven’t necessarily seen enough change from Heritage,’ and I’m like, ‘I think I’m part of that change,’” said Moon. 

Even though Moon has seen improvements on the right, he said he still sees a lot of ignorance about Israel and the Jewish community from conservatives — particularly, he said, those who do not know any Jews personally. 

He said that Vice President JD Vance, who has been highly critical of Israel this month in his role as the public face of U.S. negotiations with Iran, at times uses rhetoric that falls into that category.

“The problem is that the way JD talks about it is probably like I would have talked about it in 2009 before I knew any Jews, before I had anything to do with this space at all, and the challenge is that it’s probably [how] a lot of people would talk about it,” said Moon. 

Moon spent 12 years, most recently as executive director, at the Philos Project, an organization that promotes Christian engagement with the Middle East. 

“I don’t think JD is on the antisemite side. I think he’s also not been in the pro-Israel space at all,” said Moon. “I wish he would frame things differently. I think that some of the stuff he frames is not helpful at all, and can certainly be perceived as being antagonistic towards Israel, but I mean, if you had asked me in 2009 what do you think about Israel and Jews, I would have said nothing.” 

Moon has built close ties with members of the Jewish community, and he said that allows him to feel “the anxiety of the moment.”

“Unfortunately, because most people don’t know any Jews, they just don’t see that. They don’t feel it,” said Moon. “Most of that’s going to go straight over the head of most people, and I think JD doesn’t realize the kind of existential angst that I think a lot of Jews are feeling.”