Kushner Torah scroll in honor of king of Bahrain brought to Manama synagogue
Former White House senior advisor presented Torah scroll to Gulf monarch in September
A Torah scroll commissioned by former White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner in honor of Bahrain’s king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, was brought to the synagogue of the Jewish community in the capital city of Manama on Monday morning.
Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, originally presented the Torah scroll to the Gulf monarch in a visit to Bahrain in early September 2020 shortly before the signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington that officially normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Kushner at the time said that the intention was for the scroll to be housed at the Gulf’s oldest synagogue located in Manama and on Monday that desire was fulfilled as former Ambassador of Bahrain to the United States Houda Nonoo and Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo, president of the local Jewish community, received the Torah scroll at the recently renovated House of Ten Commandments.
In another sign of the increasing ties between Bahrain and Israel following the Abraham Accords, the two countries last month agreed to recognize the vaccination certificates issued by each other, greatly facilitating travel between the countries amid the coronavirus pandemic. It is the first such agreement between any two countries in the world.