The problem with the Nexus Project

The Nexus Task Force, a Washington-based initiative, advises U.S. institutions on defining and responding to antisemitism. Launched in November 2019, its advocacy arm, the Nexus Leadership Project, began lobbying Congress and the executive branch in January 2024. The project's national director, Jonathan Jacoby, frequently quoted by major news outlets, argues against formally adopting any legal definition of antisemitism, stating, “We don’t think that any definition of antisemitism should be adopted in any formal way—certainly not incorporated into law.” This stance places Nexus to the left of organizations like the ADL, which endorses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Antisemitism. Nexus receives funding through the New Israel Fund (NIF) and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, with a significant $30 million pledge from the latter for organizations fighting antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate.