Chief rabbi of the Western Wall honors Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner looks on as Trump talks with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who is in charge of maintaining the Western Wall prayer site, during Trump’s visit to Israel in May. Image by Getty

By David Ian Klein December 22, 2020

In what may be one of the last opportunities for members of the Israeli Rabbinate to offer accolades to senior Trump administration officials while they are still in power, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, chief rabbi of the Western Wall, honored Jared Kushner in a ceremony on Monday.

The rabbi thanked the president’s Jewish son-in-law and senior adviser for his service to the State of Israel, before gifting him an archaeological artifact and an album of photographs from the Western Wall Tunnels excavation, which Rabinowitz oversees.

“This is incontrovertible proof of the connection between the Jewish nation and Jerusalem,” Rabinowitz said as he gave Kushner the album.

Kushner was in Jerusalem before traveling to Morocco with Israeli leaders to finalize the two countries’ normalization agreement, which he helped broker.

Earlier in the day, he joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a joint press conference, during which the two spoke about the normalization and urged the world to adopt a new perspective on Israel in the wake of the Abraham Accords.

“Scapegoating, antisemitism and isolating Israel have led to destructive behavior that has held the world back for far too long,” Kushner said. “As this new Middle East moves forward, I hope that all countries will focus on pursuing common interests for the benefits of their citizens instead of being held back by stale thinking and old conflicts.”

David Ian Klein covers breaking news and international Jewish communities for the Forward. You can reach him at [email protected] and on Twitter @davidianklein.

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