Trump’s grandchildren: a link to Belarus

From ghetto prisoners to American billionaires — the story of a famous family

On January 20th next year, the residence located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20500, will be occupied by the 47th President of the United States — Donald Trump. Let’s not speculate on what his policies will be; given the explosive temperament of the newly elected President, it is a futile exercise. Belarusians definitely would like to see a more reasonable attitude towards their country, but as they say: time will tell. Perhaps the family ties to our country that exist within the Trump family will finally come into play. After all, the ancestors of the ‘senior’ son-in-law — and hence the three grandchildren of Donald Trump — hail from Belarus. Let’s examine everything in the right order.

Donald Trump, 45th and 47th President of the United States

They did not accept the fate prepared for them by Nazis

…This story began in Novogrudok. It was there, before the onset of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, that the Kushner family lived: father Zaidel, mother Hinda, and their four children — Esther, Rae, Leah, and Honie. The family was considered well-to-do, with the father being a skilled furrier; his products were in demand and generated a respectable income.
With the start of the war, Germans began the extermination of the local Jewish community, as was the case in all occupied territories. A ghetto was created, into which the already diminished Kushner family was forced on December 7th, 1941: the eldest daughter Esther was shot outright by the occupiers, like many other residents of Novogrudok.
While in the ghetto, Hinda Kushner was executed before the eyes of her loved ones. Understanding that the Nazis would show no mercy, the ghetto inmates decided to escape. With bare hands and spoons, they began to dig a tunnel beneath one of the barracks. Later, they devised makeshift tools to ease the work a little. The future escapees managed to bring electricity into the tunnel, which was not available even in the barracks where the ghetto inmates were held. They also created a system of air ducts to help them breathe in the tunnel, and even designed an alarm system. The work spanned four months, and the tunnel reached a length of 250 metres.
The escape took place on September 26th, 1943. A total of 235 people passed through the narrow tunnel. Unfortunately, the guards noticed the escapees almost immediately and opened fire on them. Honie Kushner, who was at the front of the group, was killed before reaching freedom. The guards managed to shoot 42 people. The fate of some of the escaped inmates remains unknown to this day. Zaidel, Rae, and Leah survived.

The escape from the Novogrudok ghetto is considered the largest in Europe. During the occupation, more than 5,000 local residents were exterminated by German Nazis in Novogrudok alone…

Grandson of Belarusian partisans

One hundred and fifty-two of the surviving ghetto inmates joined the partisan detachment of the Bielski brothers a few days after the escape. The partisan group, organised by the four Bielski brothers, was unique in its own right. It is believed that its maximum strength reached 1,300 individuals. However, slightly over a hundred actively engaged in armed struggle against the Germans. The remainder — the elderly, women, and children — lived in secluded corners of the Nalibokskaya Pushcha, their primary task being to survive amid total Nazi terror…
It was within the partisan detachment that Rae Kushner met her future husband, Joseph Berkowitz. The couple married in Budapest in 1945 after the war, and Joseph took his wife’s surname, after which they moved to the United States. It was there that their sons Charles and Murray were born, laying the foundation for a grand business that would make the heirs of Rae and Joseph billionaires. 
In his adult life, Charles Kushner continued to successfully engage in real estate, eventually founding real estate development firm Kushner Companies. By the time his son Jared was born in 1981, he was already a billionaire and a highly successful businessman.
Jared Kushner also became involved in the family business. In October 2009, he married Ivanka Trump — Donald Trump’s eldest daughter.
Jared Kushner played an active role in Trump’s 2016 election campaign, despite the fact that his father, Charles Kushner, had always been a supporter and sponsor of the Democratic Party in the United States. Jared is often referred to as the manager of that campaign, in which he served both as an advisor and trusted confidant, as well as a speechwriter for his father-in-law. He also involved his newspaper in advertising the candidate.

Memory of the land that gave you life

After Donald Trump’s victory, Jared Kushner held the position of Senior Advisor to the President of the United States. He was involved in reforming the criminal justice system and veteran support in the country, managed the Office of American Innovation, and worked on modernising the federal government. Furthermore, it was Jared who oversaw America’s relations with Israel and even prepared the ‘deal of the century’, which was intended to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jared and Ivanka are raising three children: 13-year-old Arabella Rose, 11-year-old Joseph Frederick, and 8-year-old Theodore James. The Kushners have never forgotten their family’s history and visited Novogrudok even during the Soviet era — at that time, Charles brought his mother, Rae, to the site where the ghetto had been. In 2007, ten members of the Kushner family came to the opening of the Museum of Jewish Resistance. Among the guests was Leah Kushner, a survivor of the ghetto.
In 2016, the grandfather, Charles Kushner, brought his grandchildren to Novogrudok. At the museum, he recounted the family’s story, showed them the site where their relatives perished, and where the historical escape took place.
As they were leaving Novogrudok, Charles Kushner promised to bring his grandchildren back to Belarus for their bar mitzvah — the Jewish religious coming-of-age ceremony that occurs at the age of 13. This year, Arabella Rose turned 13, but unfortunately, the Kushner family did not come to Belarus, and there is currently no information indicating that such a trip is being planned.
However, in two years, Joseph Frederick’s bar mitzvah will take place. Why not? Charles Kushner may decide to bring his grandson to Belarus. I am sure that we will receive them with the courtesy and empathy that Belarusians are known for.

Also ours

• Albert Bruce Sabin, born in Białystok, Grodno Province in 1906, invented the polio vaccine. 
• The grandfather of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was born and lived in Klichev and had the surname Chernyshevich. For foreigners, it was a complicated surname, so he changed it to Tyler.  
• The great-grandparents of actress Scarlett Johansson lived in Nesvizh, and her mother was born in Minsk.  
• Sophia Grojsman, born in 1945 in Lyubcha, is one of the most renowned perfumers in the world.  
• Globally acclaimed fashion designer Ralph Lauren (Lifshitz) has a mother from Grodno and a father from Pinsk.  
• David Sarnoff, born in Uzlyany near Minsk in 1891, became the father of electronic mass media.  
• Actress Lisa Kudrow has grandparents from Belarus.  
• Pavel Sukhoi was born in the village of Glubokoye, Disna District, Vitebsk Region, in 1895 — he created one of the most famous series of combat aircraft in the world.  
• Larry King (Lawrence Harvey Zeiger), the famous American TV journalist and a TV legend, has a mother from Belarus.  
• Meyer Lansky (also known as Maier Suchowljansky from Grodno) — the boss of the American mafia and the 'father' of Las Vegas.  
• One of the most renowned diplomats of the Soviet era, Andrei Gromyko, was born in 1909 in the village of Staryye Gromyki in what was then Gomel District, Mogilev Province.  
• The great-grandfather and great-grandmother of actor David Suchet are from Belarus.  
• The first President of Israel (1949-1952) was Chaim Weizmann, who was born in 1874 in the village of Motol near Pinsk, Brest Region. He was not only a politician but also a well-known chemist.  
• Shimon Peres was born in 1923 in the village of Vishnevo (today part of Volozhin District of Minsk Region), serving as the ninth President of Israel.  
• Louis Burt Mayer was born in Minsk in 1884 (or 1885) and stood at the origins of the creation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the famous film studio in Hollywood; he was also one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).   
• Zhores Alferov, the Nobel Prize winner in physics, was born in Vitebsk in 1930.  
• Sheldon Glashow (Glukhovsky), also a Nobel laureate in physics, has parents from Bobruisk.  
• The grandfather of actress Winona Ryder is from Minsk.  
• Actor Harrison Ford has grandparents from Minsk.  
• The parents of actor Kirk Douglas are from Chausy.
And this list can go on indefinitely…

By Alena Krasovskaya