Volume 7, Number 1 Winter 2017
THE
Serving the Local New Orleans, Northshore, and Baton Rouge Jewish Communities
Meet the Jews in Donald Trump's administration By Josefin Dolsten
(JTA) — American Jews are watching the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency with both fear and hope. Many have expressed worries about some of his supporters' ties to the so-called "alt-right" movement, whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness." Those fears intensified when Trump named as his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, a site Bannon once referred to as a "platform" of the alt-right. Trump's strongly conservative Cabinet picks also back policies on health care, the environment, abortion and civil rights often diametrically opposed to the views of most Jewish voters. Yet others have praised Trump's stance on Israel and his nomination of David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who supports West Bank settlement construction and has expressed doubts about the twostate solution, as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Trump won 24 percent of the Jewish vote, with especially strong support in the Orthodox community. Here is a look at the president's Jewish advisers who will be helping to shape U.S. policy for the next four years. Jared Kushner Trump's Orthodox son-in law is serving as a senior adviser to the president. Kushner, the 36-year-old scion of a prominent real estate family from New Jersey, will not receive a salary and will focus on the Middle East and Israel as well as partnerships with the private sector and free trade, according to The New York Times. A day before his appointment was announced, Kushner said he would step down from his role as CEO of his family firm, Kushner Properties. Kushner, who married Trump's
daughter Ivanka in 2009, played a crucial role in the president’s campaign, especially on Israel. He worked on Trump’s speech to the AIPAC annual policy conference that earned the real estate mogul a standing ovation, and helped plan a trip to Israel for his father-in-law last year. (Trump canceled the trip after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed his call to ban Muslim immigration to the United States.)
Jared Kushner exiting Trump Tower in New York City, Dec. 7, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Trump appears to be smitten with Kushner, often referring to his “fantastic” son-in-law when boasting of his pro-Israel credentials. Kushner may have become a household name during the campaign, but he’s no stranger to the limelight. In 2006, at 25, he bought the New York Observer newspaper. Two years later he became CEO of Kushner Properties, four years after his father was sent to jail for tax evasion, illegal campaign donations and witness tampering. In 2015, Fortune named Kushner to its 40 Under 40 list, an “annual ranking of the most influential young people in business.” David Friedman Friedman, a bankruptcy expert and longtime Trump attorney, was tapped as the U.S. ambassador to Israel. A statement by Trump's transition team in December said Friedman, who speaks Hebrew, would serve from Jerusalem, but White House press secretary Sean Spicer said last week that Trump had yet to
versity graduate, Greenblatt studied at a West Bank yeshiva in the mid1980s and did armed guard duty there.
David Friedman, left, and Donald Trump exiting the Federal Building following their appearance in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, N.J., Feb. 25, 2010. (Bradley C Bower/Bloomberg News via Getty Images)
decide on moving the embassy from Tel Aviv. Friedman, who is in his late 50s, is the son of a Conservative rabbi with a family history of ties to Republican presidential candidates — his family hosted Ronald Reagan for a Shabbat lunch in 1984, the year he won re-election. He lives in Woodmere, New York, in the largely Jewish area known as the Five Towns, and owns a home in Jerusalem's Talbiya neighborhood, according to Haaretz. Friedman has expressed support for and funded construction in Israeli settlements, and has expressed doubt about the future of the two-state solution, traditionally a pillar of bipartisan U.S. policy in the region. Some of his controversial statements — including slamming backers of the liberal Israel advocacy group J Street as “far worse than kapos" and charging President Barack Obama with "blatant antiSemitism" — have sparked outrage from liberal groups.
Jason Greenblatt will work as a special representative for international negotiations in the Trump White House. (Uriel Heilman)
A father of six from Teaneck, New Jersey, Greenblatt said he speaks with people involved in the Israeli government but has not spoken to any Palestinians since his yeshiva studies. He has cited the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as one of his main sources for staying informed about the Jewish state, and helped draft Trump's speech at the lobbying group's annual conference in March. Greenblatt, who has said he supports the two-state solution, has implied that Trump will take a laissez-faire approach to peace building. "He is not going to impose any solution on Israel," Greenblatt told Israel's Army Radio in November. He also said that Trump "does not view Jewish settlements as an obstacle to peace."
Steven Mnuchin Trump picked Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive who worked as Trump's national finance Jason Greenblatt chairman during the campaign, to Greenblatt, the longtime chief serve as Treasury secretary. legal officer for the Trump OrganiTrump and Mnuchin have been zation, is working as special repre- friends for 15 years, and prior to sentative for international negotia- being in charge of Trump's camtions focusing on the paign finances, Mnuchin, 54, served Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S.- as an adviser. Part of what The New Cuba relations and American trade agreements with other countries. See MEET THE JEWS 25 An Orthodox Jew and Yeshiva Union Page