A writer for the newspaper published by Donald Trump's son-in-law wrote a scathing "open letter" criticizing his tacit approval of anti-Semitic imagery contained in a now-deleted tweet on the GOP presumptive nominee's Twitter feed.
The New York Observer's entertainment writer, Dana Schwartz,
penned the opinion piece posted Tuesday calling out Jared Kushner, who is Jewish and married to Ivanka Trump and,
according to the New York Times, is now a top adviser to the Trump campaign.
"Please do not condescend to me and pretend you don't understand the imagery of a six-sided star when juxtaposed with money and accusations of financial dishonesty," writes Schwartz, who is also Jewish. "I’m asking you, not as a 'gotcha' journalist or as a liberal but as a human being: how do you allow this? Because, Mr. Kushner, you are allowing this."
In her open letter, Schwartz reposted
the controversial anti-Hillary Clinton tweet on Saturday that showed a photoshopped image depicting the Democratic presumptive nominee in front of a background of money, next to a six-pointed star, and captioned: "Most corrupt candidate ever!"
The tweet was blasted for suggesting anti-Semitic imagery with use of a six-pointed Star of David; the Trump campaign claimed it was meant to be a "sheriff's star."
Both Mic and The Daily Beast reported the image originated on a white Supremacist twitter account.
"When you stand silent and smiling in the background, his Jewish son-in-law, you’re giving his most hateful supporters tacit approval," writes Schwartz. "Because maybe Donald Trump isn’t anti-Semitic. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think he is. But I know many of his supporters are, and they believe for whatever reason that Trump is the candidate for them."
The Observer's editor, Ken Kurson, who is also Jewish, tells Politico he signed off on the open letter, and didn't discuss it with the publisher beforehand. He also says he disagrees with Schwartz's opinion, and issued a response posted by Politico.
In a tweet from an ABC News deputy political director, Kushner denied Trump was an anti-semitic bigot.
"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 said in a statement. "I know that Donald does not at all subscribe to any racist or anti-semitic thinking. I have personally seen him embrace people of all racial and religious backgrounds. The suggestion that he may be intolerant is not reflective of the Donald Trump I know."