A Letter To Ivanka, Who Can Save The World

Dear Ivanka,

A long time ago in a far off land a beautiful young queen saved the Jewish people.  She was brave and strong, just like you are.  Ever since, we celebrate our survival in a joyous holiday known as Purim. This Saturday night we will again rejoice and listen to Megillat Esther. I’m sure your children will be beautifully costumed, grogger equipped.  And I’m sure your mishloach manot will be very special. Perhaps you and Jared will wear costumes as well.

But, far more urgent than our Purim spiels, carnivals and Megillah readings will be how you can save the world…….not only the Jewish world this time, but the entire world.  Perhaps history will remember your bold actions and perhaps there will one day be a holiday in your honor.

Saving the world will require unprecedented heroism, Ivanka.  You will need to turn against someone you love, and someone who loves you. He will perceive this as a devastating betrayal but, ultimately, you can convince him that you acted out of love…..love for him and for the Jewish people, and for the children of the world.  I believe that you can and must do this.  Only you can succeed. Yes you can!

You must convince your father, President Donald Trump, that he must resign his office.  You must do this with kindness, without rancor, and with the understanding that he will lash out at you, but eventually be convinced that you were correct, that he had to resign for his own mental health and to save your family and the world.

I’m guessing that you’ve known for a very long time that your father has serious mental health issues that made him unsuitable for the powerful position he now holds.  I’m guessing that you and your siblings and Jared felt you could be with him, steer him, guide him and have constant influence on him so that he could fulfill his dream without causing needless harm to others and damage to our country.  You thought you could avoid the dangerous threat of his having the power to begin a nuclear war.

I know that you and Jared have even sacrificed the peace of Shabbat in order to calm him during crises. But, unfortunately, there are Hamans all over pouring their toxins into his ears.  Especially a Haman named Bannon.  And there are many others who are too weak or terrified to challenge him……and so they don’t.  And you and Jared have learned that you can’t be with him all of the time.  You have a young family with needs and your father’s tweets in the wee hours of the morning are beyond your reach.  It is his compulsion, and impossible to control.

We have all seen that this job is inappropriate for him.  His skin is thin. His imagination…….or paranoia……takes over whatever trace of rational behavior he has.  He says strange and destructive things, no longer in the privacy of your family setting but to the entire world.

I’m sure you’ve grown up with a love-hate relationship.  He’s a loving father but his behavior is terribly embarrassing.  You never could predict, and you can’t now, what he would say or do.  And his womanizing throughout his life is reprehensible to a fierce and strong woman such as you have become.

Knowing more about him than just about any other person in the world, but also having the knowledge that he trusts and loves you, puts you in the unique position of being able to stop him.  To stop him before he, perhaps, blows up the world. I adjure you Ivanka to persuade your father to relinquish his office.  You can remind him that he did get elected and that you are so proud of him.  He did what all the talking heads insisted was not possible.  Give him his dignity in exchange for his resignation. Please.

Ivanka dear, I am, like you, a Jewish mother.  I am older than you but I am no less committed to the welfare of my progeny.  I want them to experience a world of love and peace and tolerance.  That is my prayer and that is really all that I want out of this lifetime!

I hope you will think about my words.  I hope you will heed them.  And, of course, I wish you a Chag Purim Sameach.

In kinship, Savta Ro.