In father’s scandal, the genesis of Jared Kushner’s unflinching loyalty

The Boston Globe reports on Jared Kushner :

In 1997, when Kushner was just 16, then-President Bill Clinton made a stop at the corporate headquarters of the family business, lavishing praise on the Kushners during a speech. To mark the moment, the Kushners gave Clinton a shofar - a ram’s-horn musical instrument used in Jewish religious ceremonies.

A year later, as Jared Kushner was starting to fill out college applications, his father pledged $2.5 million to Harvard, to be paid in $250,000 yearly installments, according to a book, ‘‘The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges,’’ by journalist Daniel Golden. Jared’s test scores were below Ivy League standards, Golden wrote, citing an unnamed official at the yeshiva high school in northern New Jersey that Jared attended. But he had powerful people vouch for him.

Then-Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., made a call to the Harvard admissions staff on Kushner’s behalf - at the urging of a Democratic senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg, who had received more than $100,000 in donations from Charles Kushner, according to the book.

Jared Kushner was admitted.

Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for Kushner Companies, said the suggestion that Jared Kushner’s acceptance was connected to his father’s gift to the school ‘‘is and always has been false.’’

‘‘Jared Kushner was an honors student in high school, played on the hockey, basketball and debate teams. He graduated from Harvard with Honors,’’ she said in a statement.

Kushner’s parents, she said, have donated more than $100 million to universities, hospitals and other charitable causes, she said.

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