When They Target Chabad, Jews Know Exactly What to Do |
When commentators claim that Chabad is somehow orchestrating wars or dragging the United States into conflict, they are not offering serious analysis. They are repeating one of the oldest antisemitic tropes in history: the idea that Jews secretly manipulate world events.
Recently, Tucker Carlson suggested precisely this—implying that Chabad is behind the conflict involving Israel and Iran.
The accusation is false, reckless, and dangerous. But it is also familiar.
The Jewish people have heard this story before. And we know exactly how to respond—because we have been responding to it for more than three thousand years.
What makes the moment especially striking is that this confrontation is unfolding between the Jewish holidays of Purim and Passover, two moments in the Jewish calendar that themselves revolve around existential threats to the Jewish people.
Purim recounts the genocidal plot of Haman, who sought to annihilate the Jews of Persia. Passover tells the story of Pharaoh, whose hardened heart brought destruction upon Egypt.
History does not repeat itself exactly. But the patterns are unmistakable.
Iran’s revolutionary regime has openly declared genocidal intentions toward Israel and the Jewish people for decades. Like Haman in the Purim story, such figures rarely act alone; they are surrounded by supporters, enablers, and ideological allies.
Recent military actions by Israel and the United States against Iranian capabilities have produced results that exceeded even the most optimistic expectations of military planners and intelligence officials. The extraordinary professionalism and courage of Israeli and American forces deserve full credit. Yet many experienced observers have noted that the speed and scale of the results seemed to defy conventional predictions. For people of faith, moments like these often evoke a deeper dimension of history—where human effort and something beyond human planning appear to intersect.
The Hardening of the Heart
Equally striking is the response of the Iranian regime. Despite devastating setbacks, it continues to double down rather than reconsider. The Bible describes precisely this phenomenon in the story of Pharaoh, whose heart hardened even as each plague fell upon Egypt. The parallels are difficult to ignore.
In the opening minutes of the war, Iran’s senior leadership was confirmed to have been decimated. Soon after came the destruction of major portions of Iran’s air force. Then the crippling of its naval capabilities. Military infrastructure that took decades to build has been systematically dismantled.
Even before the war began, Iran was suffering from internal crises of its own making—including a severe drought that has left many citizens of Tehran struggling for basic water supplies. And yet the regime continues to harden itself rather than change course. History repeatedly shows that regimes built on hatred often accelerate their own downfall in precisely this way.
Why Chabad Becomes a Target
So why do conspiracy theories suddenly focus on Chabad?
Because Chabad represents one of the most visible and dynamic expressions of Jewish life in the world today. With thousands of centers across the globe, Chabad helps Jews connect to Torah, mitzvot, prayer, and acts of kindness. It brings Jewish identity into the open and into public life. And historically, when Jews stand proudly and visibly as Jews, conspiracy theories inevitably follow.
For centuries antisemites have claimed that Jewish institutions secretly control governments, economies, or wars. These accusations change language with the times, but the underlying narrative never changes.
It is an ancient script. The names change. The accusations evolve. But the story is always the same.
If the accusation is old, so is the Jewish response.
And we do not abandon who we are.
We double down on what has sustained the Jewish people for more than three thousand years.
More acts of kindness toward one another.
During the Six-Day War in 1967, as Israel faced an existential threat, the Lubavitcher Rebbe urged Jewish men around the world to put on tefillin and increase mitzvot. The Rebbe understood the geopolitical stakes of the moment. Yet he also believed that spiritual action could influence the moral balance of the world. Many Jews saw the stunning outcome of that war as reflecting both human bravery and divine providence.
Today, once again, Jews around the world are strengthening their connection to Torah and mitzvot. With more than 5,000 Chabad centers globally, countless acts of prayer, learning, kindness, and mitzvot are taking place every single day. And in Jewish tradition, those actions matter. They tip the scale of the world toward goodness.
A Time for Confidence, Not Fear
The purpose of conspiracy theories is to make Jews feel isolated and afraid. But this moment calls for the opposite response. It calls for confidence.
The Jewish people have faced Haman before. We have faced Pharaoh before. We have faced conspiracy theories before. And each time the Jewish answer has been the same: deeper faith, deeper unity, and deeper commitment to bringing light into the world.
We are not naïve about the dangers of antisemitism. But we also know something our enemies repeatedly forget. The Jewish story is more than three thousand years old. And the strategy that defeats hatred has already been written.
When they attack Jewish life, the Jewish response has always been the same.
We do not shrink. We shine brighter.