Lubavitch rebbe fans quickly clapped back at Candace Owens criticism.

(JTA) — For decades the Chabad-Lubavitch movement has followed the teachings of its last spiritual leader, popularly known as “the Rebbe,” to bring Jewish practice and learning to every Jew across the globe through a sprawling network of emissaries and Jewish centers. That includes cyberspace, where the Hasidic movement maintains one of the most-visited Jewish websites.

But a group normally committed to spreading Jewish joy found itself on the defensive this week after the far-right commentator Candace Owens called the movement’s last leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a hate-monger who believed Jews were superior to non-Jews.

On a Wednesday appearance on Piers Morgan’s YouTube channel, Owens said Schneerson, who died in 1994, “preached Jewish supremacism, the hatred of all non-Jews.”

She added, “You can go through his speeches and you will see that he continually talks about how non-Jews should be treated and that, again, we are a different species.”

Owens referenced the fact that some Chabad adherents believe Schneerson was the Messiah and suggested they should be accepting Jesus instead.