Honoring Jared Kushner: The Perfect is Indeed Not the Enemy of the Good

Dear Mr. Greenblatt:

I read recently of your honoring Jared Kushner at a prominent ADL event, for his role in the Abraham Accords, and in the name of Jewish communal unity in the aftermath of October 7th. I suppose those are reasonable decisions, but only if you believe a human soul is like pie, and that you can serve up pieces of it while preserving the rest.

While Jared Kushner might have been instrumental in helping to negotiate the business deal that is the Abraham Accords, his complicity in the administration of his father-in-law, a Nazi-embracing, antisemitic trope-loving, America-hating, democracy-destroying stain on everything decent and humane, should disqualify him from being in the company of decent human beings, much less receiving an honor from the Jewish community.

The idea of unity with those who have harmed us, who have PROFITED from their perfidy, as Kushner has, makes a mockery of anything resembling Jewish “values.” If we are so desperate for alliances post-October 7th that anyone with a pulse qualifies, shame on us. Just ask Israelis who were sacrificed on the altar of a power-mad, self-serving, Israel-despising SOB named Benjamin Netanyahu. Still today, he accepts no responsibility for the horrors that have befallen Israelis, shows no empathy for the hostages and their families, or for those slaughtered on October 7th, and their anguished loved ones.

It boggles the mind that “establishment” Jews choose to ignore the harm we have done to ourselves by embracing the worst among us. As the estimable organization Facing History, for which I once worked, wisely notes: People Make Choices. Choices Make History. You, sir, have made the wrong choice, and are on the wrong side of history.

I don’t know that your decision will permanently undermine the good the ADL has done, but some stains can be impossible to wash off. This might very well be one.

Heartbroken,
Nina Mogilnik