Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have apparently received a blessing in Jerusalem from a rabbi who once compared black people to monkeys.
The blessing was given on Sunday by Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
Yosef was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year for making the crude remarks.
During a sermon in March, the rabbi discussed how to properly say a blessing The Forward reports.
Yosef used the Hebrew word 'kushi,' which although it was used in the Bible is now considered a derogatory term for black people.
'You can't make the blessing on every 'kushi' you see — in America you see one every five minutes, so you make it only on a person with a white father and mother,' he said, according to the Times of Israel. 'How do would you know? Let's say you know! So they had a monkey as a son, a son like this, so you say the blessing on him.'
The Anti-Defamation League said that the remarks were 'utterly unacceptable', but Yosef's office defended the remarks by stating he was 'merely citing the Talmud', which is a set of Jewish laws which states that the same blessing is recited upon seeing an elephant, a monkey or an ape.
It's not the first time that Yosef has attracted criticism for his comments with a history of questionable remarks.
In the past few years he implied that secular women behave like animals because of their immodest dress and claimed 2016 that according to Jewish law, non-Jews were forbidden from living in Israel.
Kushner and Trump, who both act as senior advisers to President Trump, are in Israel as part of the American delegation celebrating the moving of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
They landed in Israel Sunday morning ahead of the US Embassy opening in the capital.
The White House advisers will attend the embassy inauguration ceremony scheduled for Monday along with other Washington delegates, including US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
President Donald Trump will not be in attendance.
Both Ivanka and Jared were seen embracing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu shortly after their arrival.
Ivanka posted several photos of her and Jared after touching down sharing a video of her waving at at camera after they landed.
'Great to join the friends of Zion for an amazing evening commemorating the dedication of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel,' she wrote.
Israel launched celebrations on Sunday for the US Embassy's relocation to Jerusalem, a move whose break with world consensus was underscored by the absence of most envoys to the country from a reception hosted by Netanyahu.
Monday's slated opening of the new embassy follows Trump's recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a decision he said fulfilled decades of policy pledges in Washington and formalized realities on the ground.
The embassy move will take place on the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
