A new Jewish-Muslim political power couple has announced their intention to tie the knot.
Jewish philanthropist Alex Soros, 38, the son of billionaire and prolific political donor George Soros, is now engaged to Huma Abedin, 47, who was one of Hillary Clinton’s top advisers and is best known for her former marriage to disgraced Jewish politician Anthony Weiner.
“It happened. We couldn’t be happier, more grateful, or more in love,” the couple wrote in a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday.
Soros proposed privately at their shared home in New York in May and the two had a formal celebration in Italy, reports Vogue. Abedin, 47, and Soros, 38, met at a mutual friend’s birthday party last year and made their first public appearance as a couple at the Met Gala in May.
Alex Soros is the second youngest son of George Soros, a longtime donor to liberal causes through his Open Society Foundations organization and a favorite target of the right wing. Criticism of the elder Soros – including the online image used to criticize him – has at times become what onlookers consider anti-Semitic.
George Soros, now 93, named Alex as his successor to run the Open Society Foundations last year. The younger Soros, already a longtime donor to progressive causes in his own right, is more public about his Jewish identity, regularly posting photos of holiday celebrations on social media.
The first donation made by Alex’s own foundation, founded in 2012, was $250,000 to a progressive Jewish group called Bend the Arc, whose board he still serves on. He is also on the board of the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.
Born in Hungary in 1930, George Soros was hidden as a child during the Holocaust and, as an adult, has always openly identified as Jewish. But he is not active in any Jewish institutions, has made relatively small donations to Jewish nonprofits and in 2007 wrote, “I am not a Zionist, nor am I a Jew.” His net worth is said to be around $6.7 billion, while his network of businesses and charities is worth a combined total of about $25 billion.
Abedin was raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by Muslim parents who ran the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. Abedin also worked there as an assistant editor. After starting as an intern for Hillary Clinton, she became Clinton’s campaign manager during her presidential race and deputy chief of staff while Clinton was secretary of state.
She is also known for her former marriage to former New York Representative Anthony Weiner, who was sentenced to prison for sexting with a minor in 2017. The couple separated in 2016.
