Jared Kushner donates $1 million to Chabad of United Arab Emirates after rabbi murdered
Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, described Zvi Kogan’s work as a ‘shining light in the world and a strong counter to the history of division’
Jared Kushner during an Aug. 2020 press briefing at the White House about the Abraham Accords, in which Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations. Photo by Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh November 25, 2024
Jared Kushner, President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former Middle East adviser, announced on Monday a $1 million donation to the Chabad center in the United Arab Emirates following the horrific murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, a local Chabad emissary.
“Ivanka and I will be donating $1 million to the Chabad of UAE and will redouble our efforts to work with the Jewish community and the country’s leadership to build a resilient, vibrant Jewish community in Abu Dhabi and Dubai,” Kushner said in a statement posted on X.
His brother and sister-in-law, Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss, followed and matched the contribution with an additional $1 million.
Kogan, who worked in the capital of Abu Dhabi as an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and who held both Israeli and Moldovan citizenship, had been missing since Thursday. His body was found on Sunday and authorities arrested three Uzbek nationals in connection with the murder.
Kushner, who brokered the normalization deal between the UAE and Israel in 2020, known as the Abraham Accords, attended prayers led by the local Chabad center in Abu Dhabi when he led a joint American-Israeli delegation to the country in September 2020.
While Kushner said earlier this year that he would not return to the White House, he is reportedly involved behind the scenes and could be a key player in a potential normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Affinity Partners, Kushner’s private equity firm, secured an estimated $2 billion investment from the sovereign wealth fund overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Kushner and his wife, Ivanka, have a special connection to Chabad. In 2016, the couple visited the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, referred to as the Ohel, in the Queens borough of New York City. Kushner was behind the 2017 decision by Trump to grant clemency to Shalom Rubashkin, a prominent member of the Chabad community and the former head of America’s largest kosher meat processing plant in Iowa, who was convicted in 2009 on fraud charges. The Kushner family’s foundation reportedly donated more than $342,500 to various institutions and projects associated with the Hasidic sect.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward In NYC, Itamar Ben-Gvir says he’s changed — and wants ‘the Trump plan’ in Gaza
-
Fast Forward On his first trip to Auschwitz, New Jersey governor urges vigilance against rising antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Survivors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7 embrace at Auschwitz, marking annual March of the Living
-
Fast Forward Could changes at the FDA call the kosher status of milk into question? Many are asking.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile
-
Opinion Trump’s heedless approach to an Iran deal could be a big problem for Israel
-
Fast Forward In NYC, Itamar Ben-Gvir says he’s changed — and wants ‘the Trump plan’ in Gaza
-
Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.