Ivanka Trump’s Rabbi Bails On GOP Convention, Was Supposed To Lead A Prayer Against Bigotry

And that makes three in one day. The New York Times reports:

Yet another prominent person Donald J. Trump hoped would appear at the Republican National Convention has rebuffed his invitation, the latest sign of disarray in the campaign’s planning of an event that starts in just three days.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who heads the congregation that Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, attend, told friends and congregants in an email on Friday that he had decided to back out because his appearance had become too politically charged. Faced with a backlash after the Trump campaign released his name on a list of speakers — without specifying that he would deliver an invocation and not a speech — the rabbi said he had little choice.

“The whole matter turned from rabbinic to political, something which was never intended,” he said in the email. “In the interest of bringing our community together, I have asked to be relieved of my commitment to deliver the invocation.”

From the planned prayer:



“We know that we are living in very dangerous times, when all of these blessings are threatened from without, by forces of terror and unimaginable brutality, and from within, by those who sow the seeds of bigotry, hatred and violence, putting our lives and our way of life at risk.”