Jared Kushner’s biggest private equity win so far is an Israeli business he tried to buy into more than a decade ago. In 2014, #Kushner was 33 and the CEO of Kushner Companies, the New York City-based real estate company cofounded by his father and grandfather. Looking for new investments, he targeted the Israeli insurance and financial services firm Phoenix. Kushner entered into a tentative deal to buy a 47% stake in the company, enabled in part by a loan from the seller. All looked promising for a time. But regulatory hurdles soon proved too difficult, and the bid fell through. Ten years later, he got a second chance. Through Affinity Partners, the private equity firm he founded in early 2021, he’s spent roughly a quarter of a billion dollars buying a nearly 10% stake in Phoenix since July 2024. One of Affinity’s biggest bets to date, it’s also the firm’s “best investment,” boasts Kushner, now 44, who says he’s already made an over 9-times return. Thanks in part to bets like this,...