Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff visited the Western Wall before the planned hostage release included in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
- Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism after dating her now-husband Jared Kushner.
- Donald Trump highlighted his daughter's conversion during a recent speech to Israel's parliament.
- Ivanka Trump recently traveled to Israel, visiting the Western Wall and speaking at Tel Aviv's Hostage Square.
President Donald Trump put a spotlight on his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner during his Oct. 13 speech to the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
The president traveled to the Middle East to greet Israeli hostages freed as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that the U.S. helped broker.
"Let me also give a very special thanks to someone who truly loves Israel. In fact, loves it so much that my daughter converted," Donald Trump said, referring to his son-in-law. "They have a great marriage, and they get along great. They're best friends."
Ivanka Trump and Kushner were both advisers to President Trump during his first term, but have mostly stayed out of Washington this year. Compared to Trump's high-profile mention at the Knesset, Ivanka is usually guarded about her faith. Here is what we know:
Did Ivanka Trump convert to Judaism?
Yes. Her husband Jared Kushner is Jewish, and she converted before they married in 2009.
In a 2015 Vogue interview, she said she shied away from her faith being a matter of public discussion and instead found it deeply personal.
"We're pretty observant, more than some, less than others. I just feel like it's such an intimate thing for us," she said. "It's been such a great life decision for me. I am very modern, but I'm also a very traditional person, and I think that's an interesting juxtaposition in how I was raised as well. I really find that with Judaism, it creates an amazing blueprint for family connectivity."
In her 2017 book, "Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success," she discussed observing the Jewish Sabbath with her family and using that time to spend time together.
Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner is Jewish
Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner's religion is Orthodox Jewish.
Kushner wrote in his 2022 memoir "Breaking History" that he once broke up with Ivanka Trump over their religious differences. But the two got back together, and by the time Kushner met Donald Trump for lunch in hopes of forming a stronger bond, she was already in the process of converting, he wrote.
Kushner and Ivanka Trump were married at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2009.
"He was respectful of our Jewish traditions, and before he walked Ivanka down the aisle, he asked for a yarmulke to wear," Kushner wrote of his father-in-law in his memoir.
Ivanka Trump took a step back from politics after first term
Ivanka Trump was a senior adviser to the president during his first term, frequently appearing at his side. By the end of his term, she was under attack for taking on something of an unofficial diplomat role in key foreign trips. Kushner was also a senior adviser to the president.
Ivanka Trump is the eldest of the president's two daughters. Her mother was Donald Trump's first wife Ivana, who passed away in 2022. Her two brothers, also by Ivana, are Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who are managing the Trump Organization. Before her father went to the White House for the first time, Ivanka Trump was also an executive vice president at the Trump Organization.
When her father announced his re-election campaign in 2022, she posted on Instagram to say that, while she loved her father, she was prioritizing her three young children this time around. In those years when the 45th president was somewhat of a political pariah, Ivanka Trump was called to testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and in the New York civil fraud case.
"Politics is - it's a pretty dark world. There's a lot of darkness, a lot of negativity, and it's just really at odds with what feels good for me as a human being," she said on the "Lex Fridman Podcast" in July 2022, according to CNN. "And, you know, it's a really rough business. So for me and my family, it feels right to not participate."
While she may be out of the spotlight in Donald Trump's second term, Ivanka Trump has not been completely absent from her father's return to power. In fact, she attended a UFC fight with her father in Newark in June and one in Miami this summer, and photographs show her talking with UFC CEO Dana White alongside the president at the Jersey match.
She is also reportedly helping White organize a UFC fight at the White House for the country's 250th celebration.
Ivanka Trump visited Western Wall with Steve Witkoff
Ivanka Trump traveled with Donald Trump on his first foreign trip as president in 2017, and stopped at Jerusalem's Western Wall. He became the first sitting president to pray at the wall.
"I am grateful to have experienced a deeply meaningful visit to the holiest site of my faith and to leave a private note of prayer," Ivanka Trump posted on social media in 2017. CNN reported it was a rare moment of public religious display for the first daughter, who had been normally guarded about her faith.
She posted a similar photo of herself at the wall on Oct. 10 to her Instagram account. Kushner and Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, also traveled to the Western Wall before the Israeli hostages were released.
"We're very happy. The president is coming and there will be peace, and lots of lives saved," Witkoff said.
The three also spoke to a crowd at Tel Aviv's Hostage Square on Oct. 11, according to Reuters.
"And the president wanted me to share, as he has with so many of you personally, that he sees you, he hears you, he stands with you, always, always," Ivanka Trump said.