Should Ivanka Want a Sheitel…
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen July 17, 2009
Welcome to the tribe, Ms. Trump.
No sooner had the mikveh water dried from her conversion to Judaism this week than Ivanka Trump became affianced to Jared Kushner.
The future Mrs. Trump-Kushner announced their engagement by sending off this Tweet.
She completed her conversion this week under the tutelage of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who is among the last of this country’s old-time modern Orthodox rabbis. He is the long-time spiritual leader of the Upper East Side synagogue, Congregation Kehillat Jeshurun. Hopefully he gave her a sense of what will be expected of her as a married Jewish woman.
Ivanka, best known for assisting father Donald Trump on his show The Apprentice, works for her father’s real estate development company and is also the creator of a self-named diamond jewelry company.
Her intended wisely chose a 5.2 carat ring from her collection for his proposal of marriage Wednesday night.
Kushner, son of N.J. real estate mogul, tzedakah-macher and convict Charles Kushner, is a 28 year old business mogul himself, currently owner of The New York Observer.
In this new blog post, journalist Gabriel Sherman updates his excellent recent New York magazine profile of young Mr. Kushner with new details about the future Ms. Trump-Kushner’s involvement with the Kushner family. For all of her gloss and savvy, in the update the young businesswoman sounds like a balabusta in the making. “I don’t think we’ve ever been to a nightclub together in two years,” she said. “I’m really thankful for that. I have a lot of stamina, but I don’t think I have the stamina to work as hard as I do and play that hard.” One of their favorite activities is to group friends together for dinner parties. “I’ve learned how to cook,” Ivanka said. “Once a week, we have a night in and I cook for just the two of us. We turn everything off and spend time together and talk about what we’re working on.”
Sounds like good prep for hosting the Shabbat and festival-eve dinner parties that are surely in her future. Ivanka doubtless has a few things to learn to be a Jewish woman who can create the kind of home environment that her husband-to-be was used to, growing up in a modern Orthodox home in Livingston, N.J. She’s already been to a local mikveh fundraiser, according to New York magazine, and of course, experienced a dip for the first time herself this week, as she emerged from the water, stripped of diamonds and designer duds, simply a Jew.
Being married probably doesn’t involve covering her beautiful blonde tresses with a sheitel. But if, for some reason, she decides to, she may want to take advantage of the deal being currently offered by the Sarah Palin wig — now “drastically reduced!”
In any case, The Sisterhood wishes you mazal tov, Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner. Yours will undoubtedly be the Jewish wedding of the century — diamond-bedecked huppah, anyone?
Hopefully the only drama will involve observing whether a satin yarmulke will stay put on top of Donald Trump’s architectural coif, and whether the bride’s mother, Ivana Trump, will bring her last known boyfriend, a French model 22 years her junior, as her “plus 1.” At least the bride and groom won’t be arguing, in their early marriage, about whose parents they go to for seder and Rosh Hashana-eve dinner.
But what do we give as a wedding gift to the couple who surely has everything? I have the perfect idea: a copy of Blu Greenberg’s classic work, “How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household.”
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