Before last summer’s Republican National Convention, the widely esteemed Rabbi Haskel Lookstein was asked to deliver the invocation. He was reportedly honored and graciously accepted, but soon, petitions and protest led the rabbi, who served as Ivanka Trump’s sponsoring conversion rabbi, to rescind his acceptance. Despite the fact that the role has traditionally been apolitical,…
Charles Brotman has been the announcer at every presidential inauguration since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957. But Donald Trump has decided to go in a different direction, leaving the 81-year-old Brotman out in the cold, CNN reported. Brotman, who was once the voice of the Washington Senators baseball team, told reporters he was “heartbroken” and…
(JTA) — Rabbi Marvin Hier has known Charles and Seryl Kushner — Jared Kushner’s parents and Donald Trump’s in-laws — for decades. The Hiers and the Kushners have gone to the same kosher for Passover resort, the Arizona Biltmore, over the years. The Kushner family, prominent real estate developers, have also been generous donors to…
(JTA) — President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team leaders have been “aggressively courting” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come to the Jan. 20 inauguration, the New York Post reported. The newspaper cited an unnamed source “close to the transition” in its report Saturday. The transition officials, led by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, want Netanyahu to attend…
The rabbi President-elect Donald Trump appointed to participate in his inauguration ceremony heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which claims the United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements is the most “anti-Semitic/anti-Israel” event of 2016. Rabbi Marvin Hier founded the center, named for the legendary Nazi hunter who died in 2005. “The most stunning 2016 UN attack…
President-elect Donald Trump’s backers have appropriated the phrase “basket of deplorables” – used by Hillary Clinton during the campaign to pillory some of his backers – to plan an inauguration party called the “Deploraball.” But the planned gathering has revealed a deep schism within the ranks of a movement known as the alt-right: pitting those…
(JTA) — Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, will offer a prayer at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Hier reportedly will offer readings, recite an original prayer and give Trump and incoming Vice President Mike Pence each a benediction at the Jan. 20 ceremony. “Since the first inaugural…
President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly chosen Jewish adviser Stephen Miller to write his inaugural address, continuing to draw on the expertise of an aide who penned many of his campaign trail speeches. “Steve’s a machine,” said Jason Miller, another Trump confidant, in remarks to Politico. “I’ve literally seen him knock out three speeches in a…
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