When Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was in the United States late last month, Chabad Online – the official website of the global Jewish outreach movement – gave the visit extensive and enthusiastic coverage. The headlines on the site proclaimed that “Minister Ben-Gvir bolstered by Crown Heights activists” and that “Ben-Gvir gave a speech at 770” – a reference to Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, located at 770 Eastern Parkway. Other headlines said that “Chabad’s representative in Miami backs Minister Ben-Gvir during visit to city” and “In the Rebbe’s light: Ben-Gvir prayed at Ohel Ha’kadosh,” the much-visited grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson) in Queens, New York.

Although Ben-Gvir’s visit to the United States was described as “political,” reports in the Israeli media claimed that it did not include a single meeting to discuss matters of state or with any official from the United States. This, it appears, freed up time for Ben-Gvir to spend much of his visit to Chabad centers across the country and meeting with representatives of the movement.

Reports from Ben-Gvir’s meeting with Chabad members provides a rare opportunity to examine a relatively new political axis – one that has been taking shape over the past three years – between the Otzma Yehudit party and Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty. Although there is no public perception of any intuitive link between the two, the fact is that they espouse similar ideological positions and the connection between them seems almost natural.

For decades, Chabad has branded itself as an apolitical movement, as part of its efforts to appeal to a broad swathe of the Jewish people by offering accessible and user-friendly Judaism. Among the movement's activities are local events during the Jewish holidays, distributing doughnuts for Hanukkah and Hamantasch at Purim on IDF bases and various other educational activities in schools from all streams of Judaism.

In a highly polarized society like Israel, initiatives of this kind typically provoke waves of criticism and resistance — but not when it comes to Chabad. By successfully branding itself as apolitical and highlighting the “beautiful and unifying aspects of Judaism,” the movement has carved out a place in the Israeli mainstream. However, a brief look at Chabad’s literature and ideology quickly reveals its clearly right-wing and messianic agenda — from unwavering support for the concept of Greater Israel and rejection of any negotiations with “the Arabs,” to a fundamental belief in messianic redemption.

1,300 Chabad Houses are becoming key players

The connection between Otzma Yehudit and Chabad has already proved to be fertile ground for advancing their common and individual interests. For Ben-Gvir, Chabad represents massive potential electoral strength and, no less importantly, it offers a well-organized apparatus that includes around 1,300 Chabad Houses in almost every community in Israel. For Chabad – which spent years looking in with envy from outside as other Haredi streams, which were represented by United Torah Judaism and Shas, enjoyed massive state funding, positions in state-run bodies and positions of power – the link-up with Otzma Yehudit is a tool for obtaining political influence and funding.

The relationship between Chabad and Otzma Yehudit began even before the 2022 general election and was evident on the ground three weeks before Election Day, at the end of the Sukkot holiday. Ben-Gvir was warmly greeted at the traditional Chabad Hakafot ceremony, when participants sing and dance with Torah scrolls. Significantly, he was applauded with even more gusto when Benjamin Netanyahu – who was the opposition’s candidate for prime minister at the time – refused to get on the stage with Ben-Gvir and declined to be photographed until the Otzma Yehudit leader had left.

A few months later, the first fruits of Chabad’s relationship with Otzma Yehudit were revealed in Clause 165 of the coalition agreement that Otzma Yehudit signed with Netanyahu’s Likud. “The Government of Israel values the work of the global Chabad movement,” the agreement states. “The government will pass a resolution to bolster and strengthen the Chabad movement, within the framework of which Kfar Chabad will be expanded and work will be completed on the construction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Heritage Center. In addition, the issue of financially supporting Chabad Houses will be examined (…) by the Division for National Resilience at the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience.”

In other words: Otzma Yehudit asked the government to “examine” the possibility of allocating state funding for a variety of Chabad’s activities and initiatives, including for some activities at Chabad Houses located overseas. Since it is not possible to isolate and identify the relevant budgetary clauses through which this funding was to be transferred, we cannot know whether any state funds were paid to Chabad and, if so, from which ministry’s budget. Nonetheless, according to reports on Haredi websites, the government has financially supported the Lubavitcher Rebbe Heritage Center and that plans to expand Kfar Chabad have already been advanced. In addition, the Knesset held a discussion on a proposed law to establish a new statutory corporation dedicated to commemorating the legacy of the Rabbi and Chabad, with an annual operating cost of up to 12 million shekels.

The blossoming relationship with Chabad is also reflected in the daily agendas of senior members of Otzma Yehudit – and many of their public comments. Front-row seats are always set aside for senior Otzma Yehudit officials at Chabad’s conferences and events – and there have been reports of close personal friendships between the politicians and the rabbis from the movement. Ahead of the last election, for example, Ben-Gvir visited the home of Rabbi Boruch Boaz Yurkowitz, head of the Chabad community in Lod, to get his blessing. In March, Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu and MK Yitzhak Wasserlauf paid a condolence visit to the family of Rabbi Yosef Wilshansky, the former head of the Chabad yeshiva in Safed.

Eliyahu summed up his connection to Chabad in an interview he gave to the Chabad.info website: “I have lived with Hasidic and Chabad values my entire life. The [Lubavitcher] Rebbe is still part of our lives in every respect and his light shines on.”

Rightism before ultra-Orthodoxy

“Chabad’s ideology is extremely rigid. They are very right wing but, on the other hand, they are not Zionists. It’s a very odd combination,” says writer and journalist Dov Elbaum. “There is a very strong mystical element. They are strong believers in the idea that God chose the Jewish people, and they have a racist conception of what it means to be God’s ‘Chosen People.’ It’s a perception that is akin to nationalism. But the state is not a factor when it comes to the holiness of the Land of Israel. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was not a Zionist. It’s a mystical concept.”

Elbaum sees the connection between Chabad and Otzma Yehudit as a natural one. To prove this point, he cites Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, a leading Hasidic rabbi who was known for his extremist right-wing views. U.S.-born Ginsburgh was the head of the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva when it was located in Nablus and continued in that position when it moved to Yitzhar. He was also arrested for incitement to racism, but the charges were dropped after Ginsburgh issued a clarification letter.

“Chabad’s ideology is extremely rigid. They are very right wing but, on the other hand, they are not Zionists. It’s a very odd combination.”

“Chabad has always been on the right of the political map,” Elbaum insists. “You can see it looking decades into the past. The leadership of the Rebbe was right wing. He always told his followers to vote for right-wing candidates. In the past few years, as part of the general crisis of leadership in ultra-Orthodox society, Chabad does not have an obvious leader. There have been all kinds of developments, so it is now a lot easier to go in different directions. Many of them went in the direction of Ben-Gvir.”

Because Chabad followers are distributed widely across Israel, it is not possible to sample their voting patterns. Nonetheless, one can get a sense of the general trend by looking at the results of the last election in Kfar Chabad itself, which only has residents from the movement. In 2022, Otzma Yehudit won 56.28 percent of the vote, winning by a huge margin ahead of second-placed United Torah Judaism, which won just 19.12 percent of the vote.

Dr, Shuki Friedman, Director General of the Jewish People Policy Institute, and a law lecturer at the Peres Academic Center, believes that Chabad’s electoral potential – which includes members of the movement and people close to it – could be between two and three seats in the Knesset. “The Chabadniks are the most extremist ultra-Orthodox group in Israel. The Lubavitcher Rebbe and, later, those who spoke for him on political matters, always supported the most right-wing candidate possible,” he says.

When reminded about the fact that the Rebbe often mentioned in his lessons the importance of voting for the most Haredi party, Friedman admits that this is a dilemma. “Within Chabad, there are still those who vote for Haredi parties. The older generation is loyal to UTJ, but the younger generation is leaning more toward Ben-Gvir,” he adds. Incidentally, in the last election there were those within Chabad who claimed that, according to the Rebbe’s values, Religious Zionism is also the most Haredi party. At the time, Religious Zionism was a technical merger between the National Union-Tkuma, headed by Bezalel Smotrich, Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and Noam, headed by Avi Maoz.

“The Chabadniks are the most extremist ultra-Orthodox group in Israel. The Lubavitcher Rebbe and, later, those who spoke for him on political matters, always supported the most right-wing candidate possible.”

“Unlike all of the other Haredi streams, Chabad is not obligated to vote for United Torah Judaism. Most members of Chabad usually vote for the most right-wing party. Around 10 percent of all Haredim in Israel vote for non-Haredi parties and about half of them are from Chabad,” says Dr. Gilad Malach from the Israel Democracy Institute. “Ostensibly, Chabad does not have any political representatives and ostensibly it is a movement that has removed itself from the political sphere, which means that they are not obligated to UTJ like other Haredi movements.”

The combination of Chabad’s electoral strength and the fact that it is present from the very northern tip of Israel to the southernmost city of Eilat – with the added bonus that it is not chained to the established Haredi leadership – is a dream come true for any right-wing party. Moreover, since Chabad members are fanatical in their religious beliefs and hold messianic worldviews, they can easily be recruited to the hasbara cause – especially during an election campaign.

When it comes to Chabad, it appears that the person who best encapsulated the gap between the movement’s branding and reality was none other than former prime minister and current opposition leader Yair Lapid. “To Chabadniks, I have this to say: You can't claim to represent all Jews year-round and then switch to political activism when elections roll around,” Lapid said in March during a Knesset debate on construction of the abovementioned Lubavitcher Rebbe Heritage Center. Lapid, incidentally, ended his comments by saying that his party would not vote against the Bill for Instilling the Legacy of Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Chabad Movement Dynasty “out of respect for the Rebbe.”

A local alliance

As already mentioned, Chabad for years refused to play any role in the political sphere. But if there was one moment that heralded its official coming out of the apolitical closet, it was the municipal elections that were held in February 2024. Several Chabad representatives threw their hats into the electoral ring, either running as independents or partnering with existing parties. In Rehovot and Kiryat Gat’s elections, for example, two Chabad members ran on the Otzma Yehudit ticket. It is not clear whether this was a political pilot ahead of a general election, but comments from Chabadniks who ran in those elections could shed some light on the matter.

“The positions espoused by the Lubavitcher Rebbe are very close to those of Itamar Ben-Gvir. Three things are integral: the People of Israel, the Torah and the Land of Israel. These are things that are particularly important to Otzma Yehudit and to us, too. So, we found common ground with them,” says Zalman Hecht, one of Chabad-Otzma Yehudit representatives on Kiryat Gat city council. According to Hecht, Ben-Gvir visited the town several times during campaigning. Asked whether the relationship between Chabad and Otzma Yehudit was purely utilitarian, Hecht insisted that it is not. “I know Ben-Gvir, and I like him a lot. He is trustworthy, honest and fair. He helped me during the election campaign; he worked on my behalf here in Kiryat Gat, and people respected what he had to say very much.”

“As far as Chabad is concerned, the importance of right-wing policies, nationalism and identifying with the Land of Israel can also be expressed on the level of local authorities.”

A source in Rehovot Municipality, where Chabad members also ran in the election on Otzma Yehudit tickets, told Shomrim that since they took up their seats on the council, there has been a major shift in the city in favor of the movement. “Since the start of this term of office, Chabad has – for example – been in charge of organizing everything to do with Jewish holidays. Once, we had modest celebrations for Hanukkah and Sukkot. Last year, it felt like they were running all of the activities in the city. You can feel their presence all across the city very strongly all the time,” the source added.

“As far as Chabad is concerned, the importance of right-wing policies, nationalism and identifying with the Land of Israel can also be expressed on the level of local authorities,” says Malach – who also says that he cannot rule out the possibility that Chabad would officially run on the same ticket as Otzma Yehudit in the next Knesset election. “It could happen,” he says, “and in the meantime, they are maintaining their official line [of being apolitical]. But that does not negate the possibility that Ben-Gvir will select someone for his Knesset list who is identified with or close to Chabad. That could be another way of strengthening their alliance.”

Shomrim reached out to Ben Gvir’s spokesperson for comment. The spokesperson referred the inquiry to Yossi Goldberger, whose official role within the party is unclear. An online search indicated that he is likely affiliated with the Hasidic movement.

In a phone conversation, Goldberger firmly denied any claims of a developing alliance between Chabad and Otzma Yehudit. Regarding municipal politics, he stated there is no special connection, and that the joint electoral runs in certain localities happened purely by chance.

When asked about Ben Gvir’s meetings in the United States, Goldberger remarked: “Have you seen a Knesset member or minister travel to the U.S. in the past year and not meet with Chabad?” As for coalition agreements, he asserted: “There’s a consensus around Chabad.”

He concluded by saying that Ben Gvir “is someone who appreciates Chabad, like many people who love Chabad and the Rebbe, and contribute in various ways.”