Tag Archives: Madison Avenue

Jew of the Week: Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump

Yael Ivanka Marie Trump (b. 1981) was born in New York City and is the daughter of famous billionaire Donald Trump. After earning an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and working for a couple of firms, she started her first big venture, a jewellery line and Madison Avenue store (called ‘Ivanka Trump’). She then joined the family business and is now an Executive Vice President at the Trump Organization, one of the world’s largest real estate development companies (with over 22,000 employees). In 2012, she was voted ‘Businesswoman of the Year’. Meanwhile, Trump was also a model for over a decade, both on fashion runways and magazine covers, and has appeared on a number of TV shows. In 2009 she published her first book. Shortly before this, Trump formally converted to Judaism (taking on the name ‘Yael’) through the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Ramaz in New York, after a long and difficult period of studies with Rabbi Elie Weinstock. Soon after, she married businessman Jared Kushner, with whom she has two children. Trump has said she learned to cook just for Shabbat, and compares each Friday night dinner to Thanksgiving. She’s described it as a day to spend with family, “No email, no TV, no Internet from Friday night to Saturday night. It’s incredibly restorative… It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected to really sign off.”

Words of the Week

A man must always observe the honour due to his wife, because blessings rest on a man’s home only on account of his wife.
Rabbi Helbo, Talmud (Bava Metzia 59a)