--- title: Donald Trump's Son-in-Law Says He Is Not Anti-Semitic description: Donald Trump's son-in-law defended him Wednesday after one of his own employees called him anti-Semitic in a New York newspaper. canonical: https://time.com/4395370/donald-trump-jared-kushner-anti-semitic-judaism-observer/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-06T19:24:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:05:19.588Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Son-in-Law Says He Is Not Anti-Semitic og:description: The response came after one of his own employees criticized Trump. og:url: https://time.com/4395370/donald-trump-jared-kushner-anti-semitic-judaism-observer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec807200c2faaef/69889abc428a9e6ef3cd350f/donald-trump-jared-kushner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) is joined on stage by his wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner (L-R) at a campaign rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Center on February 1, 2016 in Water og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Son-in-Law Says He Is Not Anti-Semitic twitter:description: The response came after one of his own employees criticized Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec807200c2faaef/69889abc428a9e6ef3cd350f/donald-trump-jared-kushner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Son-in-Law Says He Is Not Anti-Semitic by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 6, 2016 7:24 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) is joined on stage by his wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner (L-R) at a campaign rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Center on February 1, 2016 in Waterloo, Iowa. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) is joined on stage by his wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner (L-R) at a campaign rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Center on February 1, 2016 in Waterloo, Iowa.Brendan Hoffman—Getty Images by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 6, 2016 7:24 PM UTC Donald Trump’s son-in-law defended him Wednesday after one of his own employees called him anti-Semitic in a New York newspaper. Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, [wrote in the New York _Observer_](http://observer.com/2016/07/jared-kushner-the-donald-trump-i-know/) that “accusations like ‘racist’ and ‘anti-Semite’ are being thrown around with a carelessness that risks rendering these words meaningless.” The article, [only the second under Kushner’s byline](http://observer.com/author/jared-kushner/), came one day after an _Observer_ staffer wrote [an open letter to Kushner](http://observer.com/2016/07/an-open-letter-to-jared-kushner-from-one-of-your-jewish-employees/), the newspaper’s publisher, arguing that Trump and Kushner [were giving “tacit approval” to anti-Semites](http://time.com/4393942/donald-trump-jared-kushner-observer-dana-schwartz/). The post was prompted by a deleted Trump campaign tweet featuring a six-pointed star over a pile of money. “My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite,” Kushner wrote in response. “It’s that simple, really.” Kushner took pains to note that he respects the opinion of the staffer, Dana Schwartz. “As always, there are thoughtful points but journalists, even those who work for me at the Observer, are not always right,” he wrote. In the piece, Kushner said that Trump has always welcomed his religious beliefs when he began to date Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism before they married. “The fact is that my father in law is an incredibly loving and tolerant person who has embraced my family and our Judaism since I began dating my wife,” he wrote. “His support has been unwavering and from the heart. I have personally seen him embrace people of all racial and religious backgrounds, at his companies and in his personal life.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4395370/donald-trump-jared-kushner-anti-semitic-judaism-observer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4395370/donald-trump-jared-kushner-anti-semitic-judaism-observer/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Son-in-Law Says He Is Not Anti-Semitic","datePublished":"2016-07-06T19:24:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:05:19.588Z","description":"Donald Trump's son-in-law defended him Wednesday after one of his own employees called him anti-Semitic in a New York newspaper.","url":"https://time.com/4395370/donald-trump-jared-kushner-anti-semitic-judaism-observer/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","twitter","jared kushner"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec807200c2faaef/69889abc428a9e6ef3cd350f/donald-trump-jared-kushner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ec807200c2faaef/69889abc428a9e6ef3cd350f/donald-trump-jared-kushner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) is joined on stage by his wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner (L-R) at a campaign rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Center on February 1, 2016 in Water","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) is joined on stage by his wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner (L-R) at a campaign rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Center on February 1, 2016 in Water","creditText":"Brendan Hoffman—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4395370/donald-trump-jared-kushner-anti-semitic-judaism-observer/","name":"Donald Trump's Son-in-Law Says He Is Not Anti-Semitic"}}]}] ```