Chabad lobbying in Washington
Chabad-Lubavitch advocacy with the United States Congress and executive branch, and the federal lobbying registrations of Chabad bodies
| Chabad lobbying in Washington
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Advocacy by American Friends of Lubavitch and registered lobbying for regional Chabad bodies |
| Headquarters | Washington, DC |
| Key people | Abraham Shemtov; Levi Shemtov |
Chabad lobbying in Washington covers the efforts of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to influence the United States federal government. Most of it has been done by American Friends of Lubavitch (AFL), the movement's Washington office, run by Abraham Shemtov and his son Levi Shemtov. Sue Fishkoff calls Levi Shemtov "a lobbyist-without-portfolio", who goes from office to office "button-holing senators on issues of concern to Chabad headquarters". She also notes that he is "not an ambassador, or even an official lobbyist".[1][2] No registration of AFL as a lobbying client has been found under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995. Several regional Chabad bodies, and the Chabad prison charity the Aleph Institute, have hired registered lobbyists, mostly to seek federal money for local projects.[3][4]
Issues
Fishkoff wrote in 2003 that "Chabad 'lobbying' in D.C. is limited to issues such as funding for parochial schools and advocacy of a 'moment of silence' in public schools", positions she traces to Menachem Mendel Schneerson's views on education.[2] Elsewhere she says these positions, with its "right-wing stance on Israel", place the movement "on the far right edge of the American Jewish dialogue".[5]
Department of Education
The Rebbe's "first Washington campaign", according to Fishkoff, was for a federal department of education separate from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Abraham Shemtov, the only religious figure on an intergovernmental advisory committee on education, "spent hectic months lobbying for congressional support for a Cabinet-level department of education". President Jimmy Carter backed the plan and in 1978 declared the first "Education Day USA" in Schneerson's honour. When the Department of Education was created in 1980, Shemtov was a guest of honour at the inauguration.[6]
Israel and Russia
"At times, the D.C. shlichim have weighed in on issues of concern to Israel," Fishkoff writes. In a shmitta (sabbatical) year in the 1980s, Chabad "helped push through a U.S. Department of Agriculture arrangement" that used the US government as a middleman, so that Israeli farmers could sell produce to Arab countries. Shemtov said that "Jewish lobbyists couldn't accomplish it".[7] In the early 1990s the Los Angeles emissary Shlomo Cunin, then in Moscow seeking the release of the Schneersohn library, sent his six teenage sons to Washington to lobby for it. Fishkoff writes that they secured letters of support from seventy senators in five days. Joe Lieberman and Al Gore co-sponsored legislation, and in May 1992 the whole Senate signed a letter to Boris Yeltsin.[8] Abraham Shemtov recalled telling Senator Frank Lautenberg, who asked whether he was there on Soviet Jewry or Israel: "I'm here on every issue."[7]
Diplomacy and access
JTA wrote in 2005 that AFL's work included "lobbying for Chabad's entry in force into vulnerable Jewish communities in Europe and Asia", by cultivating diplomats posted to Washington.[9] The Jerusalem Post credits Levi Shemtov's bipartisan approach for the 1995 Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Schneerson, which was sponsored by John Lewis and Newt Gingrich.[10] At that event Gingrich contrasted Chabad with "dozens of high-paid lobbyists".[2] In December 2017 Donald Trump commuted the 27-year prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, the former head of the kosher meat plant Agriprocessors, who had been convicted of bank fraud. The commutation shortened the sentence but left the conviction in place. The Forward reported that Levi Shemtov was seen "speaking one-on-one with the president" at the White House Hanukkah party earlier that month, and that Alan Dershowitz was probably the first to raise the case with Trump.[11]
Registered lobbying
Filings under the Lobbying Disclosure Act show the following clients with "Chabad" or "Lubavitch" in their names.[3][4]
- Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska registered the firm Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh in January 2006, with Steven W. Silver as lobbyist, on education issues. Its reports describe funding for a heritage museum. The registration ended in mid-2007.[3]
- West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch, described in its filings as a "Nonsectarian social services provider", hired Squire Patton Boggs from 16 November 2008. Its first issue was "availability of guarantees for tax exempt charitable bonds".[12] Later reports list appropriations requests for an "emergency food and social services center renovation project", "prevention, resource, information and drug education projects", a "solar electric power project" and a "friendship circle for children with special needs project". One lobbyist, Sarah Groothuis Vilms, listed earlier posts with Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly and Senator Lieberman.[13][14] The firm reported income of $370,000 from the client between late 2008 and the third quarter of 2010, and the registration ended on 1 January 2011.[3]
- Chabad-Lubavitch of Wisconsin registered Broydrick & Associates in January 2023 on "Funding for early, elementary, and high school education. Funding for community outreach and development."[15]
- The Aleph Institute, which Fishkoff calls "a Chabad-sponsored nonprofit group" for Jewish prisoners, founded in 1981 by Rabbi Sholom Lipskar,[16] registered as its own lobbyist from 30 November 2020. Its final report, for the last quarter of 2024, gave expenses of $50,000 on "Issues relating to clemency and pardons in connection with criminal convictions". It listed contacts with the House, the Senate, the Justice Department and the White House Office.[17]
Federal funding
In 2010 and early 2011 Chabad bodies in California and Nevada received federal grants that match the wording of the West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch lobbying reports. The filings do not say which grants resulted from the lobbying. USAspending.gov lists Department of Energy awards to Chabad of California ($1,167,366, for a "Running Springs Retreat Center solar upgrade") and Chabad of Northern Nevada ($1,000,000, "solar electric power for nonsectarian educational and social services facilities"). It also lists Justice Department "prevention, resource, information and drug education" awards to Chabad of Southern Nevada, Chabad of S. Jose and Chabad of the Valley, and a Health and Human Services award to South Bay Chabad marked "(EARMARK: ACF/CB) Chabad Crisis Center".[18]
Since 2011 Chabad centres have also received money as sub-grantees under the FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which pays for security at places of worship and other nonprofits through state agencies. USAspending lists more than 900 such subawards to recipients with "Chabad" or "Lubavitch" in their names, totalling about $110 million to September 2026. Yearly sums rose from about $1 million in 2011 to $14–17 million a year in 2022–2025. Subaward reporting is incomplete, so these figures are a minimum.[19]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, New York: Schocken, 2003, p. 185.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 189–190.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lobbying Disclosure Act database, filings with client name containing "lubavitch" LDA.gov (US Senate and House of Representatives), 32 filings, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lobbying Disclosure Act database, registrations with client name containing "chabad" LDA.gov, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, p. 16.
- ↑ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, p. 192.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 194–195.
- ↑ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 197–199.
- ↑ Jewish Telegraphic Agency, In D.C.'s political maelstrom, Chabad man makes his mark CrownHeights.info (reprint of JTA), December 2005, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Alan Rosenbaum, A Global Rabbi in the Capital of Power The Jerusalem Post, 9 July 2025, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Josh Nathan-Kazis, Rubashkin Freed After Dershowitz Seized A Moment With Trump To Plead His Case The Forward, 22 December 2017, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Registration: Squire Patton Boggs for West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch LDA.gov, posted 8 January 2009, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Q3 2009 report: West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch LDA.gov, posted 20 October 2009, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Q2 2010 report: West Coast Chabad-Lubavitch LDA.gov, posted 19 July 2010, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Registration: Broydrick & Associates for Chabad-Lubavitch of Wisconsin LDA.gov, posted 11 January 2023, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 309, 311.
- ↑ Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Q4 2024 termination report: The Aleph Institute, Inc. LDA.gov, posted 15 January 2025, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ USAspending.gov, spending_by_award search, recipient text "chabad", grants, fiscal years 2008–2026 USAspending.gov (US Department of the Treasury), accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ USAspending.gov, spending_by_award search, subawards, recipient text "chabad" and "lubavitch", assistance listing 97.008 USAspending.gov, accessed 10 November 2026.