Yes, another “important” RNC convention speaker, Ivanka Trump’s Rabbi will be a no show after Tim Tebow also nixed Trump’s invitation yesterday…
Donald Trump is toxic and the Republican convention is now just a joke.
In an email to his congregation obtained by POLITICO, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of the Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side, said that he accepted an invitation from Trump’s daughter to deliver the convocation in Cleveland “out of respect for her and our relationship.”
But he decided to bow out and explained his reason to the congregation.
“Unfortunately, when my name appeared on a list of speakers at the convention, without the context of the invocation I had been invited to present, the whole matter turned from rabbinic to political, something which was never intended,” wrote Lookstein, who also served as the principal of the prominent Orthodox Jewish school Ramaz.
Earlier on Friday, the Jerusalem Post reported that 600 Ramaz alumni had written Lookstein a letter, condemning his decision to speak at the convention. “This is the single action history will remember you by, and history will not be kind,” it read.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
www.politico.com/…
Ivanka Trump’s rabbi says he’s asking to be “relieved” of his commitment to deliver the invocation at next week’s Republican convention.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein writes in an email to his congregation that he had agreed to deliver the invocation “out of respect” for Ivanka Trump.
She’s a member of his synagogue and the daughter of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
But the rabbi says that after his name appeared on a convention speakers’ list without noting he could be delivering the invocation and not giving a campaign speech, “the whole matter turned from rabbinic to political.”
Lookstein says his request to no longer appear at the convention “has been honored.”
www.washingtonpost.com/...