Chabad and Trump

Relations between the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and Donald Trump, his family and his administrations, 2016–2026

Chabad and Trump covers the documented links between the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and Donald Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his two administrations. These links fall into a few groups:

• Kushner's long personal involvement with Chabad, and his family's donations to it.
• The couple's visits to the Rebbe's grave (the Ohel) and their attendance at Chabad's Washington synagogue.
• Trump's 2017 commutation of the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, a Chabad member convicted of bank fraud.
• Trump's own visit to the Ohel in 2024, his annual "Education and Sharing Day" proclamations honouring the Rebbe, and Chabad rabbis' role at White House events.
• The appointment in 2025 of a Chabad follower as US antisemitism envoy.

Chabad states that it does not endorse parties or candidates. Commentators have disputed claims that the movement acts as a political link between Trump and other governments.

Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Chabad

Harvard Chabad and family donations

JTA reported in 2017 that Kushner "established a constant, outsize presence at the Harvard Chabad" as a student there. He attended prayers and Shabbat dinners, recruited students, studied the Tanya with the campus rabbi, Hirschy Zarchi, and gave a personal donation that Zarchi called "one of the largest checks we ever received, not just from a student, but even from a parent". According to JTA, Kushner "has stayed connected to Chabad" since graduating. Kushner and Ivanka Trump are themselves Modern Orthodox, not Chabad hasidim.

In January 2017 JTA summarised a Haaretz review of foundation filings, which found the following donations:

• The Charles and Seryl Kushner Family Foundation gave about $342,500 to Chabad institutions over ten years. This included $78,000 to the Ohel visitors' centre in 2011 and 2013, and $150,000 to Harvard Chabad in 2007.
• The Donald J. Trump Foundation gave $11,550 to three Chabad institutions.

The Ohel visit, 2016

On the Saturday night before the November 2016 election, Ivanka Trump and Kushner visited the Ohel, the grave of Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Queens. JTA wrote that they "may have been praying for victory" for her father. Chabad's own news service later called the couple's visits a "family tradition": "Prior to both presidential elections, his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, paid late-night, media-free visits to the Ohel."

TheSHUL in Washington

When the couple moved to Washington in January 2017, they chose the Kalorama neighbourhood. The Forward reported that they "will attend the nearby Chabad synagogue", known as TheSHUL and led by Rabbi Levi Shemtov of American Friends of Lubavitch. Shemtov would not confirm this: "I haven't commented and cannot comment on who might attend our synagogue. That is our policy." JTA described the synagogue as "lower key, without a formal membership", and said its location near embassy row had "attracted prominent guests".

First term (2017–2021)

The Rubashkin commutation, 2017

Sholom Rubashkin, former head of the kosher meatpacker Agriprocessors, was convicted of bank fraud in 2009 and sentenced to 27 years (see Chabad and fraud). On 20 December 2017 Trump commuted his prison sentence. The White House statement said the action was "encouraged by bipartisan leaders from across the political spectrum, from Nancy Pelosi to Orrin Hatch". It noted that more than 100 former senior Justice Department officials, prosecutors, judges and scholars had raised "concerns about the evidentiary proceedings" and "the severity of his sentence". It also stated: "This action is not a Presidential pardon. It does not vacate Mr. Rubashkin's conviction, and it leaves in place a term of supervised release and a substantial restitution obligation."

JTA's account of the campaign said that Alan Dershowitz "directly counseled Trump to free Rubashkin". It quoted David Zweibel of Agudath Israel of America, who said Trump had "identified the Orthodox as the segment of the Jewish community most likely to be supportive of him". JTA noted that "Kushner has longstanding ties to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, of which Rubashkin is a member". Nathan Lewin, a former lawyer for Rubashkin, said: "My impression is that Donald Trump is much more receptive to the interests and concerns of the Orthodox Jewish community, maybe because of the association with his son-in-law." Levi Shemtov welcomed the release. JTA also gave critics' views. Rabbi Morris Allen wrote that Rubashkin's business model "was built on the exploitation of his immigrant labor force". Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T'ruah questioned the "hero's homecoming". The Forward reported that Dershowitz raised the case with Trump at the end of a meeting on the Middle East peace process.

Editor's note: the sources show lobbying by Orthodox groups, lawyers and members of Congress. No source found shows Kushner personally lobbying for the commutation. JTA mentions his Chabad ties only as background.

The Politico article and its critics, 2017

In April 2017 Politico Magazine published "The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin". It traced links between Trump's business partners, Russian oligarchs who fund Chabad, and Berel Lazar. JTA replied that the article "never actually shows what Chabad has to do with any of the ties between Trump and Russia". It argued that Chabad's role "emerges as nothing more than incidental", and that "Kushner's Chabad support far predates his connection with the Trump clan". For the Russian side, see Berel Lazar and the Kremlin and Russian oligarchs and Chabad.

Trump's Ohel visit, 2024

On 7 October 2024, the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Trump (then a former president and a candidate) visited the Ohel. According to Chabad.org he was received by the visitors' centre director and the Chabad spokesman Motti Seligson. Others present included Yehuda Krinsky of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, Levi Shemtov, and the family of the hostage Edan Alexander. Trump referred to the visit in his 2025 proclamation: "I visited the Ohel of Rabbi Schneerson and drew spiritual guidance and replenishment from his voice and message."

Second term (2025– )

Education and Sharing Day proclamations

Every US president since Jimmy Carter has proclaimed the Rebbe's Hebrew birthday as "Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.". Trump's 2025 proclamation said of Chabad's emissaries that they "still serve as beacons of the Rebbe's teachings". It added that the Rebbe's "inestimable dedication and unwavering example have become woven into the very fabric of our Nation and its character". The 2026 message tied the occasion to administration policy: "As President, I am proudly advancing the Rebbe's vision of intellectual achievement, righteousness, and faith. My Administration is restoring our education system ... ending left-wing indoctrination of our students".

Antisemitism envoy

On 18 December 2025 the Senate confirmed Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. JTA described him as "a follower of the Chabad Hasidic movement, a Miami businessman and a 2024 Trump campaign surrogate". The vote was 53–43, "split strictly along party lines". Democratic critics argued that his "past statements and political activity reflected an overtly partisan approach".

White House Chanukah, 2025

On 14 December 2025 gunmen killed 15 people at Chabad's "Chanukah by the Sea" event at Bondi Beach, Sydney. Among the dead were Rabbi Eli Schlanger of Chabad Bondi and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan. Shemtov led Chanukah events in Washington that week, including at the White House. He told Washington Jewish Week that Trump had "encouraged Jews all over the country to be proud, to be loud, to be Jewish", and had said at the White House party: "I will always be a friend of the Jewish people."

Chabad's stated position

Before the 2024 election, Rabbi Avrohom Shemtov, chairman of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, issued a letter on the movement's election policy. It said that "the Rebbe was emphatic that Chabad Lubavitch does not affiliate with or endorse political parties or candidates, and to avoid the perception of partisanship while involved with public officials". The letter quoted the Rebbe: "neither I personally, nor the Lubavitch movement, take a public stand in any election to any office, which is a policy of long standing."

Editor's note: no source found records Chabad or its central bodies endorsing Trump. Its emissaries' work with his administrations (proclamations, White House events) also took place under other presidents, as with the bipartisan Education and Sharing Day tradition. The 2016 Ohel visit was reported from social-media video, and its purpose is JTA's inference.

See also

• Berel Lazar and the Kremlin
• Russian oligarchs and Chabad
• Chabad and fraud
• Menachem Mendel Schneerson
• Agudas Chasidei Chabad
• Public menorahs