Having Tucker Carlson blame Chabad-Lubavitch for a global war with Iran was not on my 2026 bingo card. As someone who grew up in Chabad, I can say with confidence that this theory has no basis in reality.

We are witnessing Carlson go off the deep end. This claim feels less like another controversial opinion and more like a 200-foot free dive into conspiracy thinking.

Recently, Carlson claimed that certain Jewish groups, including Chabad, are pushing for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem — specifically suggesting it could be rebuilt on or near the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He framed this as part of a global scheme influencing conflicts in the Middle East, including tensions with Iran. These assertions are factually unfounded and reflect a long-running pattern of conspiracy theorizing, rather than any reality about Chabad or mainstream Jewish practice.

I grew up in a Chabad family, born into it. As a kid, I thought Chabad was huge. Children often assume their world is the whole world. Yet as I got older, I realized just how small the Chabad community actually is.

When I meet someone who has a Chabad friend or relative, more often than not I recognize the family name. Either they went to school with one of my siblings, I know one of their relatives, or it’s simply a known name in the Chabad world.

Think about that for a moment. There are roughly eight billion people in the world, and this small Jewish Chassidic sect is tiny enough that I often recognize most family names.

Is Chabad a Chassidic sect? Yes. Is it as extreme as some other Chassidic sects? Definitely not. Do they want Moshiach, the Messiah, to arrive today? Yes, and they pray for that daily.

But here’s the thing: so do many other Jews.

Belief in the coming of the Messiah is one of the basic tenets of Judaism. If you open a standard Jewish prayer book, you will find references to it throughout the daily prayers. Chabad is not unusual in that respect.

As Mark Manson notes in his book Everything Is Fcked: A Book About Hope*, most religions revolve around hope for a future redemption or transformation. Christians await the second coming. Other faiths look forward to their own versions of salvation or renewal.

That’s simply the reality of how religions function.

Even though I am no longer part of the Chabad community per se, I still visit Chabad locations from time to time. The experience is usually very pleasant. Their mission is fairly straightforward: support local Jewish communities, strengthen Jewish identity, encourage Jewish families, and promote mitzvot, acts of goodness and kindness.

Growing up in the 1990s, I remember that Chabad kids were sometimes teased by non-Chabad Jewish kids, what we called “misnagdim.” Part of the tension came from theological disagreements, including beliefs surrounding the late Chabad Rebbe.

Over time, however, much of that friction faded as Chabad’s global network of emissaries expanded. Today I regularly meet Jews who are not Chabad but have a deep appreciation for it because of the kindness and hospitality they experienced while traveling or living abroad.

Chabad is, in reality, a very small sect that punches far above its weight. Much of that visibility comes from the network of Jewish centers they have established around the world over the past 75 years. Had Chabad not embraced outreach and instead remained concentrated in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, most people outside the Orthodox Jewish world would barely know it existed.

For the most part, Chabad families live fairly ordinary religious lives: praying, studying, raising large families, and, like everyone else, working to support themselves.

Which brings us back to Carlson’s bizarre claim.

For him to single out Chabad as some kind of driving force behind a war with Iran is, frankly, absurd. It’s a conspiracy theory with no basis in reality.

As a side note, I would be the first to denounce bad behavior in their community. Every single community on earth has its good apples and its bad apples. I do not vote like my family does, I do not believe what they believe religiously, and I live a very different lifestyle. I have no allegiance to the sect, and I have some thoughts on how my upbringing was, but that is not pertinent here.

In some strange way it might almost be entertaining if it were true, a tiny religious sect secretly pulling geopolitical strings. It would be funny to see this, perhaps in some alternate universe if Chabad had that sort of influence, like when Jeremy Lin suddenly became an NBA superstar and stunned the sports world.

But real life isn’t a Hollywood script. Conspiracy theories about Jews manipulating global events are anything but harmless.

Either Carlson is pushing this narrative for attention and views, or something more troubling is going on. In either case, it would be far better if he stopped naming or blaming Jewish people, communities, and institutions.

Now would be a good time.

The Jewish community has endured a great deal over the past two years, from the trauma of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel to the surge in antisemitic incidents both in the United States and around the world.

I’m generally not a fan of cancel culture. However when influential commentators start blaming tiny Jewish communities for global wars, it may be time to reconsider that position.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)