Jason Greenblatt, outgoing head of US Middle East efforts, with HaRav Edelstein
Avi Berkowitz has been chosen to replace the retiring Jason Greenblatt. Avi studied in Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, after which he went to study in Kol Torah. He is now about 30 years old. This was told to us by a distinguished avreich who knows him personally and maintains steady contact with him.
"After a period of study in yeshiva, he returned to the U.S. to study law in Harvard University. During the Pesach vacation several years ago, he struck up a friendship with Jared Kushner, who employed him in his real estate company, before the Trump election campaign. When the campaign was launched, Avi joined Kushner and ever since, has been his right hand man."
Berkowitz was a member of Greenblatt's task force on the Middle East.
He notes that Berkowitz' membership in Greenblatt's task force was attacked on the grounds that he was affiliated with Kushner. "Avi actually was in Greenblatt's team as Kushner's representative. He is a very quiet person, very talented and basic, though not charismatic. From what I understand, he is one of the four men who understand the peace plan from the ground up, which was very instrumental in the decision to have him step into Greenblatt's large shoes."
Our interviewee expands on the young man chosen for the position. "He is religious in the style of his home town of Lawrence, Long Island, not yeshivish. I believe that he is related to the late HaRav Moshe Shapiro. He is very American, very straight, through and through, square-minded, eschewing tricks and shtick, and I believe that is why he was chosen, since he doesn't cut corners or round them out. There is another such member of the team, Ari Einhorn, who also studied in a yeshiva in Yerushalayim, is much more yeshivish, perceptive, yet without a secular academic background."
In the course of his studies at Harvard, Berkowitz began writing for the New York Observer (owned by Kushner), dealing with various issues taking place on campus. "Anti-Israel sentiments on the campus incited students to demonstrate through hate mongering talk," he wrote at the time, regarding anti-Semitism.
Various other people with whom we talked had good things to say about Berkowitz, but none of them see him as being innovative, creative or having leadership qualities in making a positive dent. They all agree however that he was chosen to the position mainly to serve as the active arm of Jared Kushner, the real man behind the "Program of the Century" which will eventually have to show its goods.
