Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

DId ‘Jewish Style’ Homemade Brisket Clinch New NAFTA Deal?

At the 11th hour, a delivery of homemade brisket by Rob Silver and his son to a meeting of Canadian authorities helped cinch the new NAFTA deal, the Financial Post reports.

Silver is married to Katie Telford, chief of staff to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Silver, whom the Post called a “public affairs consultant” describes himself as a “local unemployed man and mediocre fantasy baseball player.” Humble balabusta Silver is jobless after leaving his position as a strategist at the government relations firm he co-founded when Telford was appointed Trudeau’s chief of staff. “I’m immensely proud of her and want to do everything I possibly can do to make sure she is successful,” Silver said at the time, explaining that he was vacating his job to avoid a conflict of interest.

Silver and young George Telford-Silver — whom Telford describes as “raging feminist,” per this profile — apparently arrived at a tense scene in the Canadian Prime Minister’s office on Saturday. High-ranking officials had been shut up in offices negotiating the North American Trade deals. They were stressed out and hungry — and then Silver and his sous-chef arrived bearing a home-cooked meal.

“Everybody was pretty happy about having something real, rather than running out and getting coffee and donuts,” David MacNaughton, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, told the Post.

The next day, NAFTA had become USMCA — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — and all parties were satisfied (if not equally-well nourished). Brisket to the rescue.

We have reached out to Silver but have yet to hear back. He is likely busy making celebration kneidlach.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

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.