Jason Dov Greenblatt (born 1967) is an American lawyer. He was the executive vice president and chief legal officer to

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

and

The Trump Organization The Trump Organization is a group of about 500 business entities of which Donald Trump is the sole or principal owner. Around 250 of these entities use the Trump name. The organization was founded in 1927 by Donald Trump's paternal grandmother ...

, and his advisor on Israel. In January 2017, he was appointed as an Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations by President

Early life

Greenblatt is the son of

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

refugees, and grew up in

Forest Hills, Queens Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. During World War II, his father fled

Szatmárcseke Szatmárcseke is a village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. Geography It lies at a distance of 94 km from Nyíregyháza, 29 km from Vásárosnamény, 17 km from Fehérgyarm ...

in 1941 as a child, while his mother hid in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

with her family during the Nazi occupation, and fled to the United States after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. He was born with the given name Theodore but had it legally changed as a teenager. He is the first cousin, once removed, of anti-war activist

Robert Greenblatt Robert Greenblatt (born 1959/1960) is an American television executive, former Chairman of NBC Entertainment and former Chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment. He has since launched his production company, The Green Room Early life and educatio ...

. Greenblatt was educated at Yeshiva Dov Revel, the

Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, also known as Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB), MTA (Manhattan Talmudical Academy) or TMSTA, is an Orthodox Jewish day school (or yeshiva) and the boys' prep school of Yeshiva University (YU) ...

, followed by

Yeshivat Har Etzion Yeshivat Har Etzion (YHE; ), commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush", is a hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced Tora ...

and then

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universit ...

where he studied English. In 1992, Greenblatt received a J.D. degree from the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

Career

Greenblatt started as real estate lawyer for the New York law firm,

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (known as Fried Frank), is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm also has offices in Washington, D.C., London, Frankfurt, and Brussels, and has more than 500 attorneys wor ...

. In the mid-1990s, he started a cappuccino coffee company, with pod machines at Penn Station and the New York City airports, but following the rise of Starbucks, sold his business and returned to practicing law. Greenblatt is the creator of the blog ''Inspire Conversation'', a collection of resources for parents and teens, as well as the author of three travel books, one about a family trip to Israel. Greenblatt has worked for Trump since 1997, rising to executive vice president and chief legal officer to Trump and the Trump Organization, and his advisor on Israel. Greenblatt favors a

two-state solution The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. The boundary between the two states is still subject to dispute and negotiation ...

, reached by the parties concerned and not imposed from outside by a body such as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. Greenblatt has stated that "West Bank settlements are not an obstacle to peace". In late December 2016, Trump named Greenblatt as his Representative for International Negotiations for his incoming administration. Greenblatt is one of only four administration officials with access to Trump's plan for Middle East peace, alongside Jared Kushner, Ambassador David Friedman and Kushner aide

Avi Berkowitz Avrahm "Avi" Berkowitz (born November 4, 1988) is an American attorney and political adviser who served as the Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations from 2019 to 2021. He was an advisor to Jared Kushn ...

. On September 5, 2019, it was announced that he would be leaving the White House. In February 2020, Greenblatt joins

OurCrowd OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the co ...

, global venture investments platform, as a partner with the responsibilities of building ties in the Middle East. In 2022 ''In the Path of Abraham: How Donald Trump Made Peace in the Middle East'' by Jason Greenblatt was published.

Personal life

Greenblatt is an Orthodox Jew, and lives in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, th ...

, with his wife and six children, the eldest three of which are triplets. His wife, Dr Naomi Greenblatt, is a psychiatrist. In May 2017 Greenblatt received an honorary doctorate from

Touro College Touro University is a private Jewish university system headquartered in New York City, with branches throughout the United States as well as one each in Germany, Israel and Russia. It was founded by Bernard Lander in 1971 and named for Isaac an ...

in New York City. Four years later he received an honorary degree from Yeshiva University in NYC at Yeshiva's 90th annual commencement exercises

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenblatt, Jason 1960s births American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American Orthodox Jews Living people New York (state) Republicans People from Queens, New York People from Teaneck, New Jersey The Trump Organization employees Yeshiva University alumni Yeshivat Har Etzion People associated with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Trump administration personnel