Rabbi Lookstein

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein in a recent photo. 

JEWS ARE CAUSING THEIR USUAL TROUBLE, in this case for the Republican National Convention.

Ivanka Trump's rabbi, Haskel Lookstein, has pulled out of his scheduled speaker spot of giving an invocation at the Republican National Convention next week because of “backlash from the Jewish community.”

[You will recall my previous post about one of rabbi Lookstein's conversions to the Jewish faith being rejected by a high Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem. However, this decision was subsequently changed by the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Israel, which accepted the woman's personal committment in court.]

Lookstein said he had been personally asked to speak by Ivanka, the daughter of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, but added that when his name appeared on the speakers’ list, another Jew from the Ramaz school where Lookstein was or is the principal started a petition urging him to decline because of Trump's association with "White supremacists".

Just think, she may be prevented from being associated with this elite gathering. What a blow!

IF SHE IS NOT ACCEPTED AS A JEW IN ISRAEL, then her children cannot be either. Trump's grandkids are possibly saved by a kippah.

According to a story in Britain's Daily Telegraph, Ivanka's conversion by an American rabbi doesn't hold water in Israel because the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has ruled that conversions supervised by New York rabbi Haskel Lookstein are invalid in the Jewish state.

A powerful and ultra-orthodox institution headquartered in Jerusalem, the Rabbinate wields major influence in the Israeli state. They and ultra-Orthodox political parties play key roles in Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. While he is secular, he "seems paralyzed" on the issue. But the case has been appealed to the Supreme Rabbinical Court, which could overturn the ruling. Too bad if it does. Rabbi Lookstein (left), who is said to be highly regarded among U.S. Jews, is Orthodox but practices a relaxed form of Orthodoxy. Too relaxed for Israel's Chief Rabbinate, which apparently reveals unresolved differences between American Jews and the Jewish state.