Trump’s Jewish White House Staff Secretary and His Connection To The Rebbe
by CrownHeights.info
That President Donald Trump has a Jewish connection is hardly news, but did you know that his White House Staff Secretary is not only Jewish but visited the Rebbe as a child?
Will Owen Scharf, a lawyer educated at Harvard and Princeton Universities, ran for Attorney General in the state of Missouri in 2024. He didn’t win that race but instead took a position in Donald Trump’s presidential team, eventually landing the position of the President’s White House Staff Secretary.
In his new role, Scharf oversees the clearance and circulation of presidential documents, including proposed executive orders, speeches, and intelligence reports.
Scharf became a familiar sight at Trump events over the past two years, but only if you knew who you were looking for.
“He could be spotted behind the scenes at press conferences at Trump Tower and the president’s Bedminster golf club in New Jersey,” the Daily Mail wrote in an article. “A sign that the former federal prosecutor was taking an increasingly important role in Trump’s legal team.”
A candid moment with the president highlighted Trump’s appreciation for Scharf when he was heard whispering to Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, that ‘He’s [Scharf] very good.’
Yet Scharf’s history goes back beyond Princeton and Harvard, with his connection to the Rebbe going back to his father, Michael Scharf, a member of the Machane Israel Development Fund.
At a Kinus Hashluchim Event, Michael Scharf was invited to speak, where he told the story of visiting the Rebbe with his two sons, one of which was Will Owen.
Will grew up Modern Orthodox, but attending non-Jewish schools, describing his life as having “a foot in two worlds.”
“I believe I was the first observant Jew to graduate from Andover, which was very difficult,” he said, in an interview. “I had a special dispensation to not go to Saturday classes. The local Chabad rabbi was obviously very helpful.”
After moving St. Louis in 2011 to clerk for a federal appeals court judge, Scharf said that he keeps kosher, wraps tefillin every morning, davens regularly, and walks to the local Chabad on Shabbat.
“Judaism is still a big part of my life, and it comes up in weird places,” Scharf told the Jewish Insider.
During that interview he recalled one particularly memorable episode during his time with the Greitens administration. “I was at work late one night during Hanukkah and I lit a little travel menorah in my office in the governor’s office, and I thought to myself, like, this is probably the first time that a menorah has been lit in the governor’s office here, and it’s just sort of cool to think about things that way.”
