Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jared Kushner Blasted for Defending Donald Trump — by Own Family

Some of Jared Kushner’s relatives are distancing themselves from his support of father-in-law Donald Trump in a flap over a Tweet many find anti-Semitic — and blasting the newspaper publisher for invoking their Holocaust survivor grandparents.

The relatives called it “self-serving” and “disgusting” for Jared Kushner to use their family history as a way of backing Trump against charges of anti-Semitism.

“I have a different take­away from my grandparents’ experience,” Marc Kushner, Jared’s first cousin, wrote on Facebook, according to Politico. “It is our responsibility as the next generation to speak up against hate. Anti­-Semitism or otherwise.”

The family feud erupted after Trump posted a tweet of Hillary Clinton, alongside a six-sided star and a pile of dollar bills. Many Jews and others objected to the post as anti-Semitic.

But Kushner pushed back by saying that Trump is “and incredibly loving and tolerant person who has embraced my family and our Judaism.”

On July 7, he released a statement in the Observer, a paper that he owns, in response to journalist Dana Schwartz’s open letter denouncing what she called Trump’s anti-Semitism.

“I am the grandson of Holocaust survivors…” Kushner wrote. “I go into these details, which I have never discussed, because it’s important to me that people understand where I’m coming from when I report that I know the difference between actual, dangerous intolerance versus these labels that get tossed around in an effort to score political points.”

Some of Kushner’s relatives don’t buy it.

Jacob Schulder, another cousin, also reportedly said that he does not appreciate Jared Kusher’s invoking their grandparents to justify Trump’s behavior or help advance his presidential campaign.

“For the sake of the family name, which may have no meaning to you but still has meaning to others, please don’t invoke our grandparents in vain just so you can sleep better at night. It is self serving and disgusting,” he wrote.

Contact Veronika Bondarenko at [email protected] or on Twitter, @veronikabond.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.