Of hypocrisy, that is. The Orthodox rabbinate in Israel was in a pickle. A bind. Facing a conundrum. They had vigorously and vociferously supported Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. When Trump was elected one prominent Israeli rabbi publicly said it was a sign that the Messiah was about to arrive. But there was a problem, and it had to be resolved fairly quickly. Trump’s daughter Ivanka was a convert to Judaism, but Israel’s Orthodox rabbis had previously stated that her conversion was not valid. What to do? How could they not accept the Jewish status of the daughter of the man they so desperately wanted to be president?
It seems it wasn’t so complicated after all. The very rabbis who deemed the conversion not halachic (not properly performed according to Jewish law) were now willing to ‘reexamine’ the issue. Just last week Israel’s chief rabbis released a statement in which they said a check list for proper conversion procedure would be put together, and once a rabbi was determined to follow that list all of his conversions would be considered valid. Interestingly the statement mentioned Ivanka Trump by name, adding that in a case like hers there would not be a need for investigation – her conversion would be valid, end of story.
What a relief! Just in the nick of time Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate remembered that in fact Jewish law can be flexible. It is a good thing, because it sure would have been embarrassing (awkward! in today’s vernacular) if those Orthodox rabbis had so warmly embraced Donald Trump while at the very same time so coldly rejecting his daughter. What would the Messiah have thought of that? We should be able to ask him soon. Now that Trump is going to be president, he should be here any day.
