Ivanka Talks About Her Judaism and ‘Lashon Hara’

 

Ivanka Trump, a Jewish convert and the daughter of President Donald Trump, appeared on the Lex Fridman podcast. It was her first ever podcast interview, a long and in-depth glimpse into her personal feelings and values.

Among the many topics covered, Fridman asked Ivanka how she coped with the enormous amount of attacks she suffered and how she remained stoic.

Ivanka responded that she feels things “very deeply” and she felt both the positive and negative in a deep way. She then discussed how evil the concept of “lashon hara” is in Judaism.

She said: “There’s a concept in Judaism called Lashon Hara, which means evil speech. The idea is that speaking poorly of another is almost the moral equivalent to murder, because you can’t really repair it. You can apologize, but you can’t repair it. Another component of that is that it does as much damage to the person saying the words than it does to the person receiving them. And I think about that a lot. I talk about this concept with my kids a lot, and I’m not willing to pay the price of that fleeting and momentary satisfaction of sort of swinging back because I think it would be too expensive for my soul. And that’s how I made peace with it, because I think that feels more true for me.”

Ivanka also touched on her father’s recent criminal conviction. She began by explaining why she is no longer as involved in politics as some of her other family members.

“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. And, you know, it’s a really rough business. So for me and my family, it feels right to not participate,” she said.

Fridman replied, “I think part of that darkness is just watching all the legal turmoil that’s going on. What’s it like for you to see your father involved in that, going through that?”

Trump reiterated her support. “On a human level, it’s my father and I love him very much, so it’s painful to experience,” she said. “But ultimately, I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”

WATCH MORE CLIPS OF IVANKA:

FULL INTERVIEW: