What If There’s a Divorce in the White House?
This is a really big fear! And I’m not talking about Donald and Melania, although I do suspect that their marriage is one of convenience. But, frankly, I don’t care much about their relationship. Nor should you.
The marriage I have long worried about is Jared and Ivanka’s. For good reason. Our Jewish lives may very well depend on it.
Even with a Jewish son-in-law, Jewish daughter, and Jewish grandchildren, Trump’s Jewish sensitivities are sorely lacking. See: Virginia, Charlottesville. See D. Duke. See American Nazis. See alt rt.
Ivanka is a welcome convert. Supposedly she takes her Judaism seriously. Maybe not as seriously Orthodox as she and Jared portray themselves, but probably more seriously than most of their American cohort in the non-Orthodox world.
It’s the what ifs that give me nightmares.
Those two handsome hand-holding young lovers live incredibly stressful lives. True, they don’t seem to have money troubles like many of their Jewish contemporaries. But working in a glass house called the White House is definitely a challenging, intense and probably pretty miserable existence. And it’s not just at work. They’re always on view. The eyes of the world are on them. At home. Abroad. Wherever they go. Constantly. Every public step is chronicled. Many private steps are similarly tweeted or leaked. There’s no space for a bad hair day or a noisy argument. I don’t know how they do it. I know I couldn’t.
Ivanka comes from a broken marriage. Her father has been married three times. Her childhood was not a stable two-parent household. Her father carried on a very public affair with Marla Maples before finally leaving Ivana, her mother. She knows divorce. It’s not something foreign to her.
In America, approximately 40-50% of marriages end in divorce. No doubt with the Trump-Kushner marriage the odds are greater due to the aforementioned pressures.
I don’t question Ivanka’s Jewishness. I don’t even suspect she would leave Judaism if she and Jared were to divorce.
It’s Donald I worry about. If he even suspected that Jared hurt Ivanka emotionally, the repercussions could be quite awful. Potentially catastrophic. For you and me. For the Jews. For Israel.
Donald Trump must have things go his way. Any criticism will be met with animosity and hatred. See: M. Rubio, J. McCain, H. Clinton, J. Sessions, S. Spicer, judges of Mexican heritage, disabled reporters, etc. etc. etc. He is a vengeful man. Vengeance and power are a pretty potent mix.
So Jews, pray for the marriage of Ivanka and Jared to be stable, at least until Trump leaves office. Pray hard. It won’t be good for us if something goes awry. Not good at all.