Jonathan Sarna warns of anti-Semitic backlash in US if Kushner indicted

For preeminent American Jewish historian Prof. Jonathan Sarna, overcoming the Cassandra syndrome has been an uphill battle of late.

Well cognizant of history’s repetitions, during a recent marathon summary of the Jewish condition in the US for a select group of Jewish professionals in Jerusalem, the scholar drew historical parallels — and warned the leaders of possible future outcomes.

One case in point was an investigation involving President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, arguably America’s most famous Orthodox Jew (especially when his religiosity is put into question). ...

In addition to Kushner’s December meeting with Sergey Kislyak to allegedly set up back-channel communications, he met last year with Sergey Gorkov, the chief executive of an American-sanctioned Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, or VEB. That meeting has also drawn condemnation from a Putin-wary America; the Arabic-speaking Gorkov is a former intelligence agent with direct ties to the Russian president.

With anti-Semitic websites jumping on the conspiracy bandwagon and claiming a Jewish connection between Kushner and Gorkov (who is not known to be a Jew), at a recent intimate lecture hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America at Jerusalem’s Beit Avichai, Sarna warned Jewish community leaders to prepare for fallout.

Citing insinuations made by Politico that Kushner had used his ties to Chabad through Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar to make connections with the Kremlin, Sarna said that, if substantiated, the scandal could be “a major problem for the US Jewish community” in that its loyalty will once again be called into question. ...