Life

Ivanka’s Frum Skirt And Melania’s Hand-Dodge

Melania and Ivanka Trump Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy May 22, 2017

The Trumps are in Israel, which is of course very reassuring to American Jews, every last one of us. Below, the highlights of the lady-news aspects of this voyage. (The menfolk are at work on the serious business of bringing “peach” to the region.)

-Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump prayed at the women’s section of the Western Wall, thus shocking everyone who had imagined either Trump woman to be at the forefront of avant-garde feminism. I guess it’s better than if they’d gotten an exception made in their case? At least this way there’s no talk of Ivanka breaking gender barriers when what’s actually happening is, she’s the daughter of President Trump.

-Melania Trump seemingly doesn’t wanna hold your haaaand. If you’re Donald Trump, that is. I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation for the now-viral clip of her apparently swatting away her husband’s hand.

–Ivanka wore a $959 pleated skirt. A skirt that I totally own the $30 version of. Specifically: It’s the one that, when I went to get it hemmed (I’m approximately twelve feet shorter than Ivanka), the (almost certainly non-Jewish) tailor told me made me look Orthodox. (It still does, post-hemming, just, I suppose, a different denomination than pre-hemming.) So I can vouch for the style’s appearance of piety. I’m not convinced the version she wore is worth 30 times what the Uniqlo one cost, but I’m quite sure she’s not losing sleep over this.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at bovy@forward.com. She is the author of “The Perils Of ‘Privilege’”, from St. Martin’s Press. Follow her on Twitter, @tweetertation

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO