Report: Ivanka Trump gets pass to travel on Shabbat for inauguration

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have received rabbinic permission to travel by car on Friday evening following the inauguration of her father, Donald Trump, as the next president of the United States, according to a Kol Barama radio interview with Mark Zell, the chair of the Republican party in Israel

Traditionally, traveling in a car on Friday evening or Saturday is a violation of the Jewish Sabbath. Jared Kushner is Jewish, and Ivanka converted to Judaism. In a November Jerusalem Post piece, Shira Schmid noted that Ivanka "took on observance of Shabbat, holidays and kashrut, and adopted the Hebrew name Yael."

"We observe the Sabbath. From Friday to Saturday we don’t do anything but hang out with one another. We don’t make phone calls," Ivanka told Vogue in March 2015.

Ivanka praised the way that Shabbat provides a "blueprint for family connectivity," in that it protects time for her to spend with her family, including her eldest child, Arabella. “It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected, to really sign off," said Ivanka. "And for Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week? We don’t do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family!”

According to Zell, the special permission to travel by car was granted in order to protect the couple's safety. Life-saving measures, such as the work of surgeons or soldiers, are permitted on Shabbat under the rule of pikuach nefesh, or protection of life, which overrides other commandments in the Torah.

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