The Kushner clan, the other powerful family in the United States who weaves his canvas in Trump’s shadow

His sulphurous past did not prevent Donald Trump from appointing him ambassador to France. Charles Kushner, 71, father of Jared Kushner – Gendre and former adviser to the American president – will soon land in Paris with a controversial CV in his luggage. This billionaire of real estate, convicted in 2005 for tax fraud and blackmail, is the symbol of a “kleptocratic” power, as analyzed by Parisian diplomatic circles.

Read too
Jared Kushner, the perfect husband of Ivanka Trump

A revenge orchestrated with blackmail

The case which earned Charles Kushner fourteen months in federal prison will remain in the American judicial annals. In 2002, faced with the testimonies at the expense of his brother Murray and his sister Esther in a fraud investigation, “Charlie” – as it is called – orchestrated a vengeance worthy of a thriller. A warned of the notorious infidelity of Esther’s husband, he paid a police officer close to retirement 25,000 dollars to trap Billy with a prostitute. The billionaire then sent the video of the antics to his sister to silence her. “Vile and odious”: these are the words Chris Christie, then federal prosecutor of New Jersey, to qualify this behavior, as we can read in the New York Times . A family betrayal that Charles Kushner had deemed intolerable. “I am not a perfect person,” admitted the interested party during his hearing in front of the US Senate last May, admitting having committed “over twenty years ago”, a “very very very serious error”.

Pass advertising

The Empire of “Holocaust builders”

Behind these scandals, however, hides a success-story in American sauce, very detailed by Andrea Bernstein, journalist of the New York Times and author of American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power. The Kushner is one of those nicknamed “Holocaust Builders” – the “Holocaust builders” – Jewish refugees who made a fortune in real estate after the Second World War.

Joseph and Rae Kushner, Charles’ parents of Belarusian origin, arrived in New York in 1949 after two weeks aboard the SS Sobieski. When disembarking on the quays, they are “emaciated, disputed and speak very little English”. But a new chapter opens up to them. Thanks to the help of the American Association for Aid for HIAS Refugees (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Rae, Joseph and their little Linda, as well as Lisa, Rae’s sister, and their father Naum, obtained their visa for the United States. It is then a question of starting a new life, far from the trauma of war. Because a few years earlier, Rae Kushner, born in 1923 in Novogrudok (today in Belarus), survived the Shoah.

Locked in 1941 with her family in the Jewish ghetto established by the Nazis, she participated in 1943 in a spectacular escape via a tunnel dug in secret by prisoners using pieces of wood or spoons. After which, Rae, his father and sister secretly survive in a camp hidden in the forest, run by the group of Bielski brothers (this group of resistance fighters protected more than 1,200 Jews in the woods of Naliboki).

There, Rae actively contributes to the life of the camp, sometimes ensuring custody and participating in the preparation of meals, until the liberation of the region by the Red Army in 1944. There, she also finds Joseph Kushner (Yossel), which she knew before the war. The two married in August 1945 in Budapest, then crossded several countries, including Czechoslovakia and Hungary, before arriving in Italy. There are four years there when they live in a camp of displaced people near Rome, waiting for a visa for the United States. In 1949, theAmerican dream becomes reality. Joseph begins by being a carpenter.

Then, installed in New Jersey, the Kushner family embarks on real estate. And success is there. Joseph Kushner has some 4,000 apartments at his peak. An Empire that his son Charles will resume by creating Kushner Companies in 1985. Forbes Estimated in October that the family empire was worth $ 2.9 billion, even exceeding Donald Trump’s real estate portfolio.

Jared, the icy son -in -law

Pass advertising

But beyond Charles, Joseph and Rae Kushner, there is especially Jared who is none other than the mysterious and faithful son-in-law of Donald Trump. When his father was sentenced in the 2000s, Jared Kushner was only 24 years old. “Almost overnight, Mr. Kushner, still a law student, has become the public face of the family business,” reports the New York Times . During the week, he visits the sites; On weekends, he flies to Alabama visiting his father in prison. “He was the best son for his father in prison, the best son for his mother, who suffered terribly, and he was a father for his brothers and sisters,” said Charles Kushner later New York Magazine . The two men have remained fused since that time: “I speak to my father about everything related to my life,” will tell Jared in 2009 to the same weekly.

His meeting with Ivanka Trump is decisive. Jared crossed paths with his future wife in 2007, during a business lunch organized by a common friend. If we believe an article of Marie Claire UKthe charm immediately operates. It must be said that the two twenty -year -olds share many common points: both have grown in New York, are the children of controversial real estate millionaires and use their family influence to get into the business world. They may be in love, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump separate briefly in 2008 due to religious disputes. Coming from an Orthodox Jewish family, the Kushner family wants Jared to marry a woman of Jewish confession, which is not the case with Ivanka, raised in the tradition of the Presbyterian Church.

Their reconciliation takes place thanks to the intervention of Wendi Deng, ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch, who brings them together during a yacht outing. Jared then asks his girlfriend in marriage to a engagement ring decorated with a 5 -carat diamond. To remove the religious obstacle, Ivanka converted to Judaism before their union, celebrated with great fanfare in 2009. Symbol of the alliance of money and power.

On the career side, Jared Kushner inherited and developed the Family Immobilier Empire, Kushner Companies. How ? By purchasing, renovating, managing and resale of real estate, mainly residential and commercial. The businessman, described by some of “American oligarch”, also distinguished himself by becoming a high adviser to the President of the United States during the first mandate of his stepfather. His main feat of arms? Having negotiated the Abraham agreements in 2020, which standardized relations between Israel and several Arab countries.

But since Donald Trump’s electoral setback in the 2020 presidential election against Joe Biden, Jared Kushner has distanced himself from politics to return to his first love: real estate. In 2021, he launched in Miami Affinity Partners, a venture capital fund supported in particular by Saudi Arabia, through which he injects money into companies with strong growth and in various sectors: finance, energy, artificial intelligence, data centers, real estate … only, controversy is never far away. These latest real estate projects in Serbia and Albania, fueled by Saudi petrodollars, are very controversial. And some observers still see his hand in the Trumpian idea of ​​evacuating Gaza to erect a “riviera from the Middle East”.

Read too
In Serbia, protected ruins, the real estate project of Trump’s son -in -law and a state scandal

Joshua, the black Democratic sheep

Pass advertising

In reverse of his pro-Trump family, Joshua Kushner, 40, Jared’s little brother, is a “black sheep”. This assumed democrat refused to vote for Donald Trump and built an empire in tech. Patron of the Thrive Capital investment fund, he had the Flair and bet very early on companies like Instagram, Spotify, Slack or Openai. “He had invested time in Instagram for a year before investing money,” said Kevin Systrom, the co -founder of Instagram, in Forbes In 2017. “His credibility and strategic reflection counted much more than any business pedigree.” He is also associated with the French CEO of Iliad, Xavier Niel.

Forbes Estens today at 3.8 billion dollars his participation in Thrive Capital, making him “by far the richest of the Kushner”. It is even one of the richest 400 personalities in the United States. Married to the model Karlie Kloss since 2018, “Josh” Kushner has been leading a discreet life between his New York penthouse and his villas in Malibu and Miami.

Women in the shadows

The Kushner, Nicole and Dara sisters remain in the shadow of the clan. Nicole, director of Kushner Companies, found herself under the spotlight in 2017 during a controversial trip to China. As reported Town & Countryshe had proposed to wealthy Chinese investors the financing of a family real estate project with this slogan: “Invest $ 500,000 and immigrez in the United States”, presenting himself as Jared’s sister. From Dara Kushner, on the other hand, we know very little. She seems to live a life away from the media and family business.

As for the matriarch SERYL KUSHNER, she holds with her husband 20% of the family Empire and regularly attended corporate meetings, described in 2016 by the American monthly Esquire Like “a family affair” where “Charles and Jared sit side by side in the center of a long table”. Because the masters of the family are them …