An Open Letter to Ivanka Trump

I'm writing to you ... one Jew to another ... with the hope that this letter will reach you and those other Jews who are familiar with the Jewish Ethos and who are still planning to vote for your Dad, in the upcoming election. I want nothing more than to remind you of some of the Jewish texts that may be relevant to such decisions and perhaps are appropriate for discussions at a Shabbos dinner table.Perhaps, it would have been preferred to contact you outside of the public arena and, indeed, I did try to determine such a pathway, but in Presidential Politics? Kafka wrote a short story about China, where by the time communication occurred between the Palace of the individual, the communication was moot as the Emperor was no more. And, in the end, I feel a concern that your Father has convinced some other religious Jews of his good intentions and fitness for service and I would hope to reach some of them, as well.

1. Yom Kippur has just passed. Perhaps, the central story for the day is at first glance a children's tale .... the story of Jonah. We all know the bit about Jonah being swallowed by a Big Fish but there is the theme of this man's sojourn, as well. Jonah's God tells him to go to the great city of Nineveh (more or less Mosul, on today's maps) and tell the folk to repent or else. For fear that it might not look good for his people if the Ninvites repent, Jonah high tails it out of town and the fish story occurs. He's actually treated with great kindness by the Sailors and after being vomited up by the Big Fish wanders quickly to Nineveh but sits outside the city, pondering his dilemma. His God makes him comfortable by providing the shade of a Kikayon. He feels pretty good. God then strikes down the Kikayon and asks the schvitzing Jonah: So, Joe, are you depressed. Jonah says: Damn right, I'm depressed.

God then hits him with the moral of the story ... OK, so you're depressed about the Kikayon which came to you out of pure dumb luck, and I shouldn't feel for the thousnds of my creations and their many cattle who will perish without your work.

The story comes to remind us all that our categories ... Jewish-Non-Jewish ... American-Foreign ... Judaeo/Christian-Moslem .... are all, at best, fleeting. "All men are created equal" ... All stand in protection and judgement as the Jews see themselves on Yom Kippur. Jonah is the longest piece in the Jewish liturgy on Yom Kippur ... must mean something.

2. The Torah speaks well over a dozen times to remind Jews of the mandate to show kindness to those who live among us who may be different than we are ... the גר or sojourner. The תושב or landed immigrant. It tells us Jews to remember that we, indeed, were sojourners and landed immigrants, once upon a time. Over and over we are reminded that we all come from immigrants ... all once we're strangers in a strange land.

3. The Torah does speak about the appointment of Kings to be chosen from among you ... not from above you or from an aristocracy ...but from among you ... מאחיך. It does tell us that he should live with a degree of material modesty ... לא ירבה לו סוסים ... not too many horses ... לא ירבה לו נשים ... not too easy with the number of women. He should be immersed in the study of the law, of Torah. Indeed, he should pen a complete copy of that Law. The Talmud (I think San. 11) frets, indeed, about the statement about the appointment of Kings and the prohibition against the planting of Trees of Worship (אשירה כל עץ) and compares the appointment of an unfit leader to that of idolatry .... arriving at this conclusion due to their proximity in Scripture. כל המעמיד דין שאינו הגון כאילו נטע אשירה. 

4. Maybe I'll end with one last Jewish text. Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful young woman who by chance was chosen to be the next Queen of the vast empire of Persia. Her people came under the threat of persecution while she lived in the palace. Her uncle came to her pleading that she go speak to the King, asking that he intercede before the planned genocide. The princess expressed fear. Her uncle opined (Esther 4:13-14): 

and Mordechai said to relay to Esther, 

"Do not think that you will escape [the fate of] 

all the Jews by being in the king's palace. 

For if you will remain silent at this time, 

relief and salvation will come to the Jews 

from another source, and you and the house 

of your father will be lost. 

And who knows if it is not for just such a time 

that you reached this royal position." 

My point: Your Dad's rhetoric  frightens me. More or less, my entire matrilineal line was wiped out in the name of making another country great, again. Good people were convinced by that man's rhetoric ... And when I hear your Father speak of Muslims or Mexicans with what can only be called hateful fear-mongering ... when he talks about the international banking conspiracy ... when he uses graphics that tie Sen. Clinton with Jewish Money ... when he talks callously  about women ... when he breaks the prohibition against treating the weak and the infirmed with mockery ... with all these and other matters, I, my wife, my children and grand-children fear for our positions and lives as Jews in a Republic that has been a haven for us qua Jews in a World in which we represent two-tenths of a percent of the population.

I'm certain that you can find other religious people of many faiths who can point you towards texts in Scriptures that may speak otherwise. Still, I think such meditations that I've listed might be worthy of your attention ... as a Jew, as a Woman, as a Person ...

With regard ... HHC