how to appeal to goyim prejudices
Yoram Hazony is an Israeli-American philosopher, Bible scholar, and political theorist, born in Rehovot, Israel, who moved with his family to Princeton, New Jersey, as a child. He holds dual American and Israeli citizenship, completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton and his PhD at Rutgers, and returned to Israel after university.
He serves as president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem and chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, the Washington-based organization that has run National Conservatism (NatCon) conferences in the United States, Britain, and Europe since 2019. Appointed a trustee of the Heritage Foundation in 2026, he authored The Virtue of Nationalism (2018), a foundational text for the national-conservative movement. NatCon events have featured figures including Tucker Carlson, Josh Hawley, and Peter Thiel. Hazony's meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is documented, and NatCon has since expanded its activities to Brussels.
Hazony and the Christian Nationalist Movement
Hazony has also become a consequential figure for America's Christian nationalist milieu, openly advocating a Jewish-Christian conservative alliance. He has argued that Jews
"should seek an alliance with nationalist and conservative Protestants and Catholics." [[1]]
The Herzl Institute frames the revival of national conservatism as a project Hazony has led alongside Ofir Haivry. [[7]]
His argument that the state should uphold "the biblical God and religious practices common to the nation" supplies philosophical grounding for the Christian-nationalist demand that government favor the majority faith. [[17]]
This has made Hazony a welcome interlocutor on evangelical platforms, including repeated conversations with Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. [[2]]
His co-founding of the Edmund Burke Foundation with David Brog, a former executive at Christians United for Israel, also ties the NatCon network to Christian Zionist infrastructure. Hazony has suggested that deeper engagement — including trips to Israel for young Christian conservatives — could help defuse antisemitism on the nationalist right. [[5]]
Hazony's Philosophy of Nationalism
Intellectually, Hazony grounds national identity not in racial homogeneity, but in bonds of mutual loyalty to a shared culture, history, and tradition.
His conception nevertheless envisions a dominant majority culture that establishes the nation's public character, with minorities incorporated as they adapt to that broader framework.
This distinction is central to understanding Hazony's argument. His nationalism is not explicitly based on race or biological ethnicity. Instead, it places enormous political importance on the historical, cultural, and religious traditions of the majority population.
The Criticism: Inclusion Through Assimilation
Critics from liberal, libertarian, and even conservative perspectives argue that this model amounts to inclusion through assimilation.
From this perspective, if national cohesion becomes the highest political good, then individual and minority rights can become subordinate to the cultural preferences of the majority.
The concern is particularly significant when Hazony's philosophy is applied to a predominantly Protestant or Christian society. Critics argue that the same principles that allow a majority culture to define the nation's public character could also give that majority the political authority to marginalize, disempower, or pressure other religious and cultural groups to conform.
That raises a fundamental question:
If the majority has the right to shape the public character of the nation according to its religious and cultural traditions, what protects minorities when the majority's traditions conflict with their rights?
Hazony's alliances and arguments are public. The substantive debate concerns their political consequences — particularly what happens when nationalism, religious traditionalism, and state power reinforce one another.
References
- Hazony, Yoram. Statement advocating a Jewish alliance with nationalist and conservative Protestants and Catholics.
- Conversations and appearances involving Yoram Hazony and Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
- Hazony's discussions concerning engagement between Jewish and Christian conservatives and efforts to address antisemitism on the nationalist right.
- Herzl Institute materials describing Hazony and Ofir Haivry's role in the revival of national conservatism.
- Critical commentary from liberal, libertarian, and conservative perspectives concerning Hazony's conception of nationalism and minority rights.
- Hazony's argument concerning the state's relationship to "the biblical God and religious practices common to the nation."