Jared Kushner defends Donald Trump in raw op-ed

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last updated 6 July 2016

In an op-ed published Wednesday at the Observer, Jared Kushner responded to those urging him to call out his father-in-law Donald Trump over the latter's perceived anti-Semitic behavior. Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is Jewish, as are Trump's grandchildren. Ivanka converted to Judaism before marrying Kushner in 2009.

Kushner begins his Observer piece bluntly, writing: "My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite." He goes on to detail his family's personal history with the Holocaust — he lost a great-aunt and a great-uncle in the war, he writes — to explain that he knows "the difference between actual, dangerous intolerance versus these labels that get tossed around in an effort to score political points." Kushner also called Trump an "incredibly loving and tolerant person" who has embraced his family's Jewish faith from day one. "The from-the-heart reactions of this man are instinctively pro-Jewish and pro-Israel," Kushner wrote.

Kushner's response comes after he was called out Tuesday by Jewish Observer writer Dana Schwartz for his lack of public criticism of his father-in-law, who sent out a tweet using what was largely seen as anti-Semitic imagery in reference to Hillary Clinton. Kushner is the publisher of the Observer. You can read his entire essay here.