Jared And Ivanka Get Rabbi’s OK To Fly On Shabbat

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By Dave Goldiner May 19, 2017

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly got approval from a rabbi to fly with President Trump Friday as he kicks off his first overseas trip.

The First Daughter and son-in-law are observant Jews and typically wouldn’t travel on Shabbat from sundown Friday to Saturday.

But Politico quotes a White House official as saying they sought special permission to jet out with the president to Saudi Arabia, which is the first stop on his first overseas trip. They will later go to Israel.

Under Jewish law, rules requiring observant Jews to more or less unplug on Shabbat can be broken or bent in life-threatening situations, or in case of safety concern. It was unclear what grounds the dispensation was made for them to fly on Air Force One.

Kushner has been heavily involved in the preparations for President Trump’s trip, especially the Saudi stop.

It’s not the first time Jared and Ivanka have bent the rules to accommodate their roles as high-profile White House aides.

They also got a rabbi to say it was kosher for them to travel in a presidential motorcade during Trump’s inauguration weekend.

And Kushner broke with tradition by working on a Saturday during the 2016 presidential campaign when his father-in-law’s campaign was engulfed by a contrroversial tape that showed him apparently boasting about sexually asssaulting women.

Dave Goldiner is the Forward’s director of digital media. Dave is a veteran journalist who has spent two decades working at newspapers in the United States and Africa. A native New Yorker, Goldiner wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the attacks of September 11, along with thousands of stories of hope and heartbreak. He also studied and worked in Southern Africa and has written for publications in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He holds masters degrees in journalism and public administration from Columbia University. Dave can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

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