The North Jersey Young Mogul

I was flipping through New York Magazine last week when I flipped to a feature called "The Legacy." I looked at the picture and thought I was looking at some internet young gun, a visionary creator of some site that I stumble on occasional basis. The picture resembled a photo I saw a few months ago of Mark Zuckerberg, the king of Facebook.

from NY Magazine

Then I read the headline opening and did a double take. It was an article about a 28 year old named Jared Kushner. Kushner is a big name in the North Jersey Jewish community. The name seemed to bandied about in various major organizations and the family built a competing yeshiva day school in New Jersey while I was in high school. I went there once to compete with them in indoor soccer and took a look around at a beautiful state of the art campus with amazing facilities that was just starting to take off.

Back to Jared, I went to high school with him. If I remember correctly, he was the captain of the hockey team and dated some of the more attractive girls in the school. Not that this was surprising. The school that I attended, even though housed in a dingy location, was full intelligent, wealthy, upper-class minds. Yet it is still surprising to see a cover feature on him & to be informed that he now owned The New York Observer, a newspaper (admittedly, one I've never read).

The article goes on to tell the crazy trials and tribulations of Jared's father and how he ended up in jail forcing Jared to jump up to the plate and take over the family business. Again, the story was surprising, I heard frequent tales of families torn apart by money, especially when it came to millions/billions of dollars. All of this was interesting but not that shocking.

My shock came when the section turned to his love life. Jared was dating the beautiful, ultimate shiksa, Ivanka Trump, the seed of the combined forces of Donald & Ivanna Trump. Then the article went onto a more interesting issue that doesn't usually come up in the press but was very intriguing:

Dating Ivanka was fraught with family peril. Though she is converting to Judaism, studying with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on East 85th Street, it has not always been easy. Jared’s mother, in particular, has struggled with their relationship. Last summer, Seryl told Jared to cool it. They broke up for a time but soon got back together. Ivanka told me she and Jared plan to marry, but they aren’t officially engaged. "I am studying," she said of her conversion, "and it’s been an amazing and fulfilling experience for me" One of the jokes I first started making when Jared and I first started dating is, I’m a New Yorker, I’m in real estate. I’m as close to Jewish, with an i-s-h’ naturally as anyone can start off."

Jared must be quite the man. I might have spoken to him once or twice on the gym basketball court but I never figured anyone I ever knew would be dating or considering marrying The Donald's daughter.

via Gawker

I'm not to hip to Page Six so I went online to do some further research and found out the couple even had a combo name like Bennifer (Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez, I believe). The name was J-Vanka. Not bad, maybe it could be changed to Jew-Vanka. Since the article has been released, the couple has been officially engaged, maybe the article egged it on? Mazel Tov! These could be the most attractive babies in the world. Gawker has an assortment of quotes from Ivanka on the couples' relationship.

But the real question is will Ivanka Trump become Ivanka Kushner? It doesn't have the same ring. Will it be a dash deal? Ivanka Trump-Kushner? Will Kushner be a future board member on The Apprentice, giving it a youthful & Jewish flavor? When will the nasty, public divorce take place that is inevitable with any Trump-related marriage? Only time will tell. Good luck J-Vanka.

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The Legacy - New York Magazine Feature

Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner Totally Get To Do It Now (Gawker)