Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser, is seeking to raise $500 million for a new foundation that will support research, mentoring and educational opportunities in his childhood home of Jerusalem.
In a filing with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, Kushner Companies unveiled the details of the Jared Kushner Initiatives Fund and named former Detroit Pistons basketball coach and Trump White House staffer Flip Saunders as its chair.
In a statement obtained by Fox News, Saunders said:
“There is now a significant rise in enrollment at religious universities around the world, and we believe that by providing access to the world’s greatest scholars we can help address the fundamental problem – that academic institutions are taking the world’s most brilliant minds and away from this country. We want to build a fund that will launch dozens of new scholars in the next two years and to consider the possibilities as we look ahead.”
The proposed fund seeks to build a new Israeli institution of higher learning and, if it moves forward, provide a significant cut of the investment to first-generation students from disadvantaged backgrounds, according to AIPAC’s Marty Indyk.
“This is a new starting point for our next chapter, and a start toward solving the problem of access,” Indyk said.
Meanwhile, the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he plans to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when he visits the region next month.
“I think I’m going to be having, from what I hear, very positive things to say about Israel,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to “building a new beginning between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.
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