Trump Inauguration Rabbi Received at Least $35,000 From Kushners
Marvin Hier Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Ivanka Trump’s in-laws have donated to an organization headed by the rabbi who is scheduled to deliver a prayer at the inauguration of her father, President-elect Donald Trump.
The Charles and Seryl Kushner Family Foundation has donated $35,000 to the Simon Wiesenthal Center: $25,000 in 2011 and $10,000 in 2012, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, citing the foundation’s tax filings. Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, is the son of Charles and Seryl Kushner.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced last week that Hier will offer readings, recite an original prayer and give Trump and incoming Vice President Mike Pence each a benediction at the Jan. 20 ceremony. He is one of six religious leaders who will participate in the inauguration.
Hier expressed concern about Trump when he was a candidate for the presidency, but since the announcement of his selection to participate in the inauguration has said it would be his “honor” to participate and that he will deliver a prayer with a “21st century ring to it.”
Hier and his Wiesenthal Center earlier last week called the U.S. abstention on a United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Israel for settlement building the top anti-Semitic incident of 2016.
He is not the first rabbi connected to the Kushner family who has been invited to participate in a major Trump event, Haaretz pointed out. In July, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion, was asked to deliver the invocation at the Republican national convention. He later backed out after pressure from the Modern Orthodox community of which he is a leader.
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