Kushners host members of Trump Cabinet for Shabbat dinner
Published January 29, 2017
(JTA) — Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump hosted several members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet for a Shabbat dinner.
The London-based Daily Mail published photos of food and caterers, flowers and a makeup artists arriving at the Kushner’s new home in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington DC. Local Chabad rabbi Levi Shemtov also was photographed outside of their house on Friday afternoon.
Photos showed Secret Service agents inspecting boxes of food as well as floral arrangements, and the delivery men who brought them, that arrived to the couples’ home.
Photos taken clandestinely by the Daily Mail also showed guests arriving including: Department of Commerce nominee Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Geary Ross; Trump Strategic Communications Director Hope Hicks; Ivanka Trump’s unofficial adviser Dina Habib Powell also joined the celebration; former president of Goldman Sachs and top economic policy adviser Gary Cohn; and Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin and his partner Louise Linton.
The gathering is the first indication of how the Kushner-Trump power couple will combine their White House roles with the demands of Shabbat.
Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism before her marriage to Jared Kushner in 2009.
The couple reportedly was given rabbinic permission last week to ride in a car to and home from inaugural balls that took place on Friday night after the start of Shabbat.