Tag Archives: University of Pennsylvania

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)

Jew of the Week: Anne Heyman

Mother of Rwanda’s Orphans

Anne Heyman with Rwandan President Paul Kagame

Anne Heyman with Rwandan President Paul Kagame

Anne Elaine Heyman (1961-2014) was born in South Africa and moved to the US with her family when she was 15. After doing a year of high school in Israel, she studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and then got a law degree from Columbia University. She was soon Manhattan’s assistant district attorney, focusing on fighting white-collar crime. In 1994, she began devoting her time to philanthropic causes, first volunteering with an organization that assists the elderly, as well as Hillel, Young Judea, and the Jewish Community Centers of America. In 2005, she learned that the Rwandan genocide left over a million orphans. Inspired to make a change, she realized she could apply the same model that Israel used in caring for orphans following the Holocaust. Heyman raised $12 million and convinced the Rwandan government to give her 144 acres of land on which she built a village for orphans (called Agahozo-Shalom). To power the village, Heyman built a solar plant – one of the largest in sub-Saharan Africa – which provides electricity for the rest of Rwanda as well. To help her, she brought in Israeli Ethiopian Jews to serve as councilors and teachers. The orphans, some of whom didn’t even know their names, were given a home, an education, a trade, and a new family. They affectionately called Heyman “Mom”, “Grandmother”, and “Angel”. Over 500 teenagers continue to live and prosper in Heyman’s village today. Sadly, Heyman passed away a year ago in a tragic horse-riding accident. Her husband and children are continuing her important work.

Words of the Week

I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world… as a marvelous example of what can be done… how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.