Jared Kushner’s Rabbi slams Trump for Charlottesville response
55
views
The rabbi who supervised Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism in 2009 before marrying Jared Kushner wrote that he was “deeply troubled” by President Trump’s remarks about the violence in Charlottesville, Va, that killed a young woman and seriously injured dozens of others.
In a letter posted Wednesday to the Facebook page of the Orthodox synagogue Kushner and Ivanka attend, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan. Rabbi Emeritus Haskel Lookstein released this this statement, along with his successors Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz and Rabbi Elie Weinstock:
To the KJ/Ramaz Community,
loading...
On the day of the funeral of Heather Heyer, the 32 year old woman who was murdered by a vicious, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, we are all shaken by this human tragedy and all the horrible scenes from last Saturday’s riot in Charlottesville and the frightening message and fallout that have consumed us since then.
We condemn the monstrous act of murder that took the life of Heather Heyer.
We are appalled by this resurgence of bigotry and antisemitism, and the renewed vigor of the neo-Nazis, KKK and alt-right.
While we always avoid politics, we are deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation President Trump has offered in his response to this act of violence.
We pray that our country heeds the voices of tolerance, and stays true to its vision of human rights and civil rights.
Lookstein told the Washington Post is that he was driven to act after Trump made a statement equating the actions of nazis, KKK members and white nationalists with those taking a moral stance against them. He also declined to say whether he had spoken with the couple.
” I respect their privacy very, very much,” Lookstein told The Post, “My colleagues and I felt we had to make a statement that we felt was important for the congregation. And that’s it,” he added. “It was very important to respond to the needs of my community.”
loading...
Trump has refused to back down on his statements even as the controvery and backlash over them continues to grow.
Loading...