At its annual Lamplighter Gala in September 2025, the American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) awarded Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp a top honor and inscribed his name on a ceremonial Torah scroll, recognizing the company’s role in delivering advanced surveillance capabilities to Israel — technology that grants Israeli intelligence unprecedented access into the private lives of American citizens.
The award celebrates Palantir’s rapid-response partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Defense after October 7, 2023, which integrated the company’s Gotham and Foundry platforms into the IDF’s real-time targeting and intelligence architecture.
Those same platforms, deployed across dozens of U.S. federal, state, and local agencies, vacuum up American phone records, financial transactions, license-plate data, and social connections — data that multiple former intelligence officials confirm is accessible to Israel under long-standing sharing agreements.
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Chabad’s public embrace of Palantir marks the first time a prominent Jewish organization has formally honored a firm whose tools effectively place millions of Americans under a surveillance umbrella that extends directly to Tel Aviv.
Karp, speaking briefly after accepting the award, called the recognition “deeply meaningful” and reaffirmed Palantir’s commitment to “defending Western civilization.”
Chabad officials declined to comment on whether the award encompassed Palantir’s domestic surveillance work or was limited to its Israeli deployments. A spokesman said only that the organization was “proud to honor leaders who stand with the Jewish people.”
The event marks the first time a major Jewish organization has publicly bestowed a high honor on a company whose core business is mass data collection and predictive policing—technology now embedded in both Israeli military operations and American law enforcement.