Joseph Kushner

Kushner was born Joseph Berkowitz in Navahrudak (Polish: Nowogródek) on 10 October 1922 to Chana and Moshe Berkowitz.[2] In August 1945, he married Reichel "Rae" Kushner (February 27, 1923 – 2004) in Budapest.[1][3] Rae Kushner was also from the city of Navahrudak, and is remembered for leading 350 people with her brother to escape via digging a tunnel from the local Jewish ghetto established by the Nazis. Joseph took his wife’s last name upon marriage due to his lower social status.[1] In an area where about 10,000 Jews lived before World War II, approximately 550 survived. The story of Rae Kushner and her brother Honie is on display in the local Museum of Jewish Resistance, for which Charles Kushner was the chief benefactor.[1] In 1945, the city was transferred from Poland to the Soviet Union under the Potsdam Agreement (Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II). The Kushners came to the United States as Sh'erit ha-Pletah from the USSR in 1949.[1]

Kushner worked as a carpenter in New Jersey eventually running his own business which was fueled first by the G.I. Bill and later by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 which fueled the growth of suburbs.[4] By the time of his death in 1985, Kushner had built over 4,000 homes.[4]

The Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy and the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, both in Livingston, New Jersey, are named in their honour.[5]