SAN DIEGO — The City Council’s new President, Dr. Jennifer Campbell, who is Jewish, told San Diego Jewish World that her maiden name was “Kushnir” — changed from “Kushner” — and that she might be a distant relative of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. On her mother’s side, she said, her second cousin “twice over” is Democratic political strategist and CNN commentator David Axelrod.
During a recent interview, Campbell, 75, said it was her great-grandfather who came to the United States from an area of the Russian Empire that today is part of Poland. “He was an interesting dude,” she said. “He ran away from oppression, being drafted into the Czar’s Army, and got on a ship and came to Galveston, Texas, from where he made his way to Pueblo, Colorado. He got himself a grub stake and opened a furniture store there.”
“He married four times, and each marriage lasted about 10 years, and the wife would die,” Campbell related. “He had 10 children with each wife, and ended up with four generations worth of children. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kushners (Jared, who is married to Ivanka Trump) are related to me.” While Campbell’s politics are diametrically opposed to those of Jared Kushner, she said, “looking at him, I think he might be a distant cousin.”
As for Axelrod, “His mom’s parents were cousins and I am related to both of them, so we are double related.”
Dr. Campbell is divorced from her husband, with whom she had two children. “Campbell was my husband’s name and I didn’t want to change it,” she said.
From Pueblo, Colorado, her family eventually moved to Denver, where, she said, she grew up reading the Rocky Mountain Jewish News.
She said her mother’s family came to the United States via the immigration transit point at Jersey City before Ellis Island in New York Harbor was opened. “Her dad, my grandpa, was an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agent, and they moved to Colorado because my mom had asthma.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrrison@sdjewishworld.com