Great Jewish Women: Maharats, Ivanka . . . or Rebbetzins?
Something special happened to me last week – I experienced what it means to “go viral”. As measured by “hits” on this blog, some of my essays have proven more popular, and some less, in ways I could not have predicted. But nothing prepared me for the reaction to my recent essay The Miracle that is Ivanka Trump , which received close to 20,000 hits in a few days. Not much perhaps, compared to some popular sites, but an enormous reaction for me. I sought to understand, why; hence today’s essay. I believe there were two major reasons. (1) Because of the celebrity of Ivanka Trump, and my statement drawing a relationship between her and Queen Esther, and (2) Because it touched on the role of prominent women in the Orthodox world in general. Let’s take them one at a time. Ivanka Trump and Queen Esther The week after publication, I learned that in the Queens Jewish Link , where I regularly publish, my fellow columnist Warren S. Hecht, took me to ta...