Ivanka And Jared Golf On Shabbat. But Is It Kosher?

Image by Getty Images

By Daniel J. Solomon June 14, 2017

President Trump owns some of the world’s most famous golf courses – so it’s no surprise that first daughter Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner like to hit the green every now and then. But are the two violating the Sabbath by putting on Saturdays?

According to the New York Post, the couple tries to conform its Saturday games to Jewish law, by shunning golf carts and waiting until the next day to tip their caddies. But the practice still not be in keeping with Shabbat restrictions on certain forms of prohibited labor.

Conservative Judaism’s Rabbinical Assembly cautions Jews against golfing on the Jewish Sabbath, noting that golf clubs and balls can bore holes into the ground while being used, constituting a form of digging, which is forbidden work on Saturdays.

Kushner and Trump are both Orthodox Jews – and their Sabbath observance has come under scrutiny since President Trump’s election. The two have received special rabbinical dispensations to travel in a car during the presidential inauguration, which occurred on Saturday, and travel to Saudi Arabia on a plane during another Saturday.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.