Israeli officials 'unsuccessfully' try to retrieve valuable artifacts 'stranded' at Mar-a-Lago: report

18 July 2023

Former President Donald Trump has had a very complex relationship with Judaism. On one hand, he has a history of making antisemitic remarks and promoting negative stereotypes of Jews. On the other hand, he brags about the fact that his once-Presbyterian daughter, Ivanka Trump, is a convert to Judaism and considers himself a staunch defender of Israel.

According to Haaretz reporters Amir Tibon and Nir Hasson, the Israeli Antiquities Authority let Trump borrow some treasured artifacts — including Israeli clay lamps — for a Chanukkah event in 2019. They were also intended for an exhibition in Washington, D.C. and were recently found at Mar-a-Lago. And Israeli government officials have "unsuccessfully tried to have them returned to Israel," Tibon and Hasson report.

The lamps, according to Tibon and Hasson, became "stranded" in the United States because of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and became a full-fledged pandemic in 2020. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland has since reported more than 6.8 million deaths worldwide from COVID-19.

Israeli politician Yisrael Hasson, a former Knesset member who later chaired the Israeli Antiquities Authority, told Haartez, "We wanted our man to go and bring it back, but then COVID broke out. And everything got stuck."

Reporting for the Jewish Chronicle, journalist Hannah Gillott notes, "The lamps were sent with approval from the Authority on the provision that they were returned within weeks. They were intended to be displayed briefly at the White House. The antiquities were neither displayed nor returned."

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