Levi Shemtov
American Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, the movement's representative in Washington since the early 1990s and executive vice-president of American Friends of Lubavitch
| Levi Shemtov
| |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Residence | Washington, DC |
| Occupation | Rabbi; executive vice-president of American Friends of Lubavitch; founder of TheSHUL (Shul of the Nation's Capital) |
| Known for | Chabad's representative in Washington; the National Menorah lighting on the Ellipse |
| Parents | Abraham Shemtov |
| Spouse(s) | Nechama Shemtov |
Levi Shemtov is an American Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi who has represented the movement in Washington since the early 1990s as executive vice-president of American Friends of Lubavitch (AFL).[1] He is the son of Abraham Shemtov, who founded AFL in 1975 and handed the Washington work to him in 1993.[2] Sue Fishkoff describes him as "a lobbyist-without-portfolio" and "an ad hoc diplomat".[2] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in 2005 that he had "parlayed goodwill into a powerful voice for Chabad's interests".[3]
Taking over in Washington
The Jerusalem Post wrote in 2025 that he had been executive vice-president of AFL in Washington "since 1992" and was "one of the last emissaries appointed" by Menachem Mendel Schneerson before his death in 1994. As a young man he had travelled to Washington with his father to help him.[1] Fishkoff says he was "just twenty-five in 1993 when he took over Chabad's capital beat from his father". She gives his official title then as Washington director of AFL.[2] JTA reported that he "established the Washington office, called the American Friends of Lubavitch".[3] When he started, according to the Post, Chabad in Washington worked from "one small townhouse on Capitol Hill". By 2025 it had six branches, including TheSHUL (the Shul of the Nation's Capital) and four campus centres.[1] AFL's tax returns list him as vice-president, with pay of $79,147 in 2024.[4]
Lobbying and access
Congress
Fishkoff writes that his "clientele includes White House staffers, members of Congress, and foreign diplomats". She describes him "rushing from office to office, button-holing senators on issues of concern to Chabad headquarters, arranging meetings between legislators and the Chabad shlichim from their districts, advising non-Jewish staffers on Jewish protocol".[2] Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center, who she says often lobbied "at cross-purposes with Chabad", told her: "He has an ongoing presence on the Hill like no other Jewish organization has, and the lobbyist who is there all the time develops relationships others do not."[5]
In 1998 he created the Capitol Jewish Forum, a group for Jewish legislators and congressional staff. Its president was Ari Fleischer, whom Shemtov had met in 1993 while Fleischer worked for Senator Pete Domenici, and who later became White House press secretary.[5] In 2005 Steny Hoyer, then House Democratic whip, told JTA that he was "an extremely able and effective advocate who knows how to get things done on Capitol Hill". Howard Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, called him "a Washington institution".[3] The Post credits his bipartisan approach for the 1995 Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Schneerson, sponsored by John Lewis and Newt Gingrich.[1] JTA wrote in 2005 that his influence came "not from promises of votes or cash, but from an unerring instinct about whom to cultivate", and that his best work was done at dinners he hosted at home with his Australian-born wife, Nechama.[3]
Diplomacy
Fishkoff writes that he was on first-name terms "with dozens of ambassadors and State Department officials". He used those contacts to help Chabad emissaries abroad "regain control of a Jewish building, get permission for a new Jewish school, or just renew their visas in a hurry". On a day she spent with him in May, he was arranging with the Lithuanian ambassador to swap a historic Chabad synagogue in Vilnius for a municipal building. He also pressed for President George W. Bush to visit the nationalised synagogue in Shanghai, and lobbied the Slovak Education Ministry over school credits.[2][6] JTA wrote in 2005 that much of his work was "lobbying for Chabad's entry in force into vulnerable Jewish communities in Europe and Asia". It added that ties with Washington-based diplomats "translate into greater influence for Chabad abroad".[3] The Post dates his contacts with Arab diplomats to 2007, beginning with the Saudi ambassador, Prince Turki al-Faisal.[1]
White House
JTA called the national menorah lighting near the White House "a brazen mark of influence", given that it "claims to speak for an American Jewish community that traditionally has been uncomfortable with displays of belief on public land".[3] Joseph Telushkin writes that Shemtov supervised the koshering of the White House kitchen for its Hanukkah reception.[7] In December 2025 Washington Jewish Week reported that he led Hanukkah events at the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, the vice-president's residence, the Justice Department, the Kennedy Center, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He lit the national menorah on the Ellipse less than 24 hours after the Hanukkah shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney.[8]
He describes his work as "walking a tightrope over a cesspool, wearing a straightjacket, with everyone demanding that I dance". In 2024 he went with Donald Trump, then a candidate, to the Ohel, which he said Trump "decidedly made ... non-political". He said that Joe Biden knew him and his father "the best, by name".[9]
Rubashkin commutation
Sholom Rubashkin, former chief executive of the Iowa kosher meat plant Agriprocessors, was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced to 27 years in prison. In December 2017 Trump commuted the sentence.[10] The commutation shortened the prison term and left the conviction in place. The Forward reported that, according to "a person with direct knowledge of the encounter", Shemtov, "Chabad's chief representative in Washington, D.C.", was seen "speaking one-on-one with the president during the White House Hanukkah party in early December". Shemtov told the paper that, given the range of support, "It almost becomes a no-brainer at some point."[11] He told JTA that "many millions of people were under the impression that the integrity of our judiciary had been compromised".[10] The Forward credits Alan Dershowitz as probably the first to raise the case with Trump.[11]
TheSHUL and the Trump family
In January 2017 the Forward and JTA reported that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were moving to a house in Washington within walking distance of TheSHUL. The Forward said the couple had "ended up preferring" it to the Orthodox Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown. Shemtov told the Forward: "I haven't commented and cannot comment on who might attend our synagogue ... That is our policy."[12][13]
See also
- Abraham Shemtov
- American Friends of Lubavitch
- Education and Sharing Day
- Mosaic United
- Agudas Chasidei Chabad
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Alan Rosenbaum, A Global Rabbi in the Capital of Power The Jerusalem Post, 9 July 2025, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, New York: Schocken, 2003, p. 185.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 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.
- ↑ ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, American Friends Of Lubavitch, EIN 52-2193738 ProPublica, Form 990 data for 2011–2024, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 186–187.
- ↑ Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army, 2003, pp. 187–188.
- ↑ Joseph Telushkin, Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, New York: HarperWave, 2014, ch. 4.
- ↑ Zoe Bell, After Sydney shooting, loud, proud Chanukah across DC Washington Jewish Week, 24 December 2025, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Hadassah Chen, Real Talk: The Rabbi of Capitol Hill tells all Israel National News, 29 December 2024, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ron Kampeas, How Sholom Rubashkin's supporters got Trump to commute his sentence Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 22 December 2017, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 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.
- ↑ The Forward, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner pick $5.5m home and Chabad synagogue in Washington The Forward, 4 January 2017, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Gabe Friedman, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner reportedly moving into DC house near 2 Orthodox synagogues Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 3 January 2017, accessed 10 November 2026.