Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Newspaper. Office Tower. Marry Ivanka. Did PR Maven Give Jared A Checklist?

When dad Charlie Kushner got sent to prison for political wheeling-and-dealing, Jared Kushner reportedly got some advice from Howard Rubenstein, possibly the king of crisis communications in New York City.

Rubinstein, according to a piece in the Huffington Post, apparently told Kushner to buy a newspaper, purchase a Manhattan building and marry a rich New York society woman in order to rid himself of his father’s taint.

It’s not clear if Rubinstein’s advice was the cause, but that sounds a lot like what he did.

He bought up the New York Observer, a then-prestigious New York weekly. He dropped billions on 666 Fifth Avenue, an office tower in the middle of midtown Manhattan. And he wed Ivanka Trump, whose father owned the pink-and-marble skyscraper a few blocks up the way from Kushner’s new digs.

According to the Huffington Post, Kushner is still a creature of public relations, with a swarm of flacks around him. Despite all the staff, he won’t talk to the press himself, giving only one interview to Forbes since after the election, a fact that’s turned him into fodder for comedians.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.