Rabbi Yaakov Menken, one of the nation’s leading Orthodox rabbis, announced that he was resigning from the Heritage Foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism – citing the failure of the organization’s president to condemn Tucker Carlson’s antisemitic rhetoric and advocacy.
“We are resigning from the Heritage Foundation’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, because [Kevin] Roberts is simply not apologizing for what he did,” Menken said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” on Tuesday morning.
Menken was referring to the Heritage Foundation’s president, who created the controversy last week by posting a video announcing Heritage’s support for an interview Tucker Carlson conducted with avowed white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.
Roberts described critics of Carlson and Fuentes as part of a “venomous coalition.”
Menken is the founding CEO and current Executive Vice President of the Coalition of Jewish Value, a national organization comprising more than 2,500 rabbis.
In his resignation letter, shared with Newsmax, Menken wrote: “We cannot grant legitimacy to an effort to combat antisemitism operated by the Heritage Foundation while Heritage is validating antisemitism and giving it a platform.”
His decision, he explained, stems from Roberts’ refusal to distance the think tank from Carlson after the host interviewed right-wing provocateur Fuentes.
After an outcry, Roberts did clarify his video remarks to say he condemned Fuentes for his antisemitism, but maintains he keeps a close friendship with Carlson and fully supports the podcast host.
Newsmax has reached out to the Heritage Foundation, as well as all four co-chairs — Mario Bramnick, Victoria Coates, Ellie Cohanim and Luke Moon — of the Heritage Foundation-linked National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism for comment.
Supporters of Heritage question why the organization’s president is working to assist Carlson, who himself has claimed Jews control the United States, President Donald Trump and the Pentagon – as well as having foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks and engaging in genocide against Gazans.
Fuentes, a self-professed admirer of Adolf Hitler, used his platform with Carlson to denounce “organized Jewry” and “Zionist Jews” as enemies of America – with little pushback from the host.
According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Fuentes is a well-known white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.”
The Center quoted Fuentes denying that six million Jews could have been murdered during the Holocaust.
Fuentes is also quoted as saying, “I piss on your Talmud. Jews get the f*** out of America.”
Menken emphasized that his move is not an attempt to silence dissent or stifle free speech.
“It’s not about canceling anybody,” he said. “There is a huge difference between saying somebody doesn’t have a First Amendment right to say what they say, and that we’re going to pay to give that person a platform.”
The rabbi expressed frustration that Roberts and Heritage have, in his view, failed to uphold the standards of their own initiative against antisemitism.
“Nobody should be platforming hate or discrimination,” Menken said.
“And when Tucker Carlson says and brings people on his show and retweets content – all of which hints that Israel’s committing a genocide in Gaza, for example – that’s both devaluing the lives of the Jewish hostages and providing backhanded support to Hamas.”
Menken argued that the rhetoric expressed during Carlson’s interview of Fuentes runs counter to the task force’s mission, which he said was designed to expose and challenge antisemitism across the political spectrum.
He warned that a failure to call out right-wing antisemitism could lead to a takeover of extremists, as has happened in the Democratic party, he said.
Menken’s resignation comes as a growing movement of supporters of Heritage are backing away from Roberts.
The New York Post reported Monday that respected Heritage board member Robert P. George, a leading conservative academic, is calling for Roberts to step down.
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