Best known outside the Jewish world as the rabbi who oversaw the conversion to Judaism of Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka in 2008, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein withdrew his agreement to give an invocation at the Republican National Convention next week. Ivanka Trump had extended the campaign’s invitation and Lookstein, rabbi of the synagogue in Manhattan she and her husband attend, had agreed.

In an email to his congregation, Lookstein, the rabbi of a synagogue in New York City, said that when his name appeared on a list of speakers that did not say he was giving an invocation,

the whole matter turned from rabbinic to political, something which was never intended.  Like my father before me, I have never been involved in politics.  Politics divides people.  My life has been devoted to uniting a community — Ahavat Yisrael [love for fellow Jews] and ahavat ha-adam [proper self-love].

His agreement had angered many within his own circles, Tablet reported in a story titled “Trump’s Convention Rabbi,” as well as received some support. Graduates of the Jewish day school of which he had been long-time principal called on him not to appear. “Trump’s re-tweeting of anti-Semitic and white nationalist imagery is not an accident; it’s a dog whistle,” said their change.org petition, quoted by Tablet.

So too is his refusal to attend the NAACP convention — something every other Republican candidate in recent years has managed to do. Trump’s callous attacks on our fellow citizens, embrace of violent rhetoric, his encouragement to supporters to beat up protesters — all these should be red flags, chillul hashems [desecrating the name of God] in their own right. But somehow, Rabbi Lookstein, none of this has deterred you from speaking in Cleveland.

The petition warned Lookstein that “all the good work you’ve done in your life — everything you’ve done for your community, for the plight of Soviet Jews — will be flushed down the toilet for ten minutes on stage in Cleveland.  This is the single action history will remember you by, and history will not be kind.”

Trump’s Disappearing Jewish Support

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, another member of Lookstein’s congregation, will be speaking. Many of the biggest Jewish donors to Republican causes and candidates, however, will be skipping the convention.

They’re also skipping giving money to or helping raising money for the Trump campaign. The Wall Street Journal has noted that Republican Jewish Coalition members “have so far contributed a mere $5,400 to Trump’s campaign, compared to at least $16.5 million which they gave to Mitt Romney’s campaign and his super PAC at this time in 2012.”

One told Jewish Insider that “It is sad that so many people who spoke out against Trump are now willing to support him [Trump] just because he’s the nominee.” He urged Republican donors to help vulnerable Republican incumbents in Congress and not vote for an “egomaniac who uses Twitter bullying tactics to communicate his message of division, petty attacks, and lack of policy depth.”

Lookstein’s withdrawal is “the latest sign of disarray in the campaign’s planning of an event that starts in just three days,” The New York Times said. The newspaper reported that Tim Teblow has declined to speak, as have many mainstream Republican political leaders, including four of the last five nominees and the governor and senior senators of host-state Ohio.

The Rabbi’s Prayer

In his email to his congregation telling them that he would not be giving an invocation after all, the rabbi included the prayer he would have offered. It begins with a saying to be given in Hebrew and English: “Rabbi Chanina, the Deputy High Priest said: ‘Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for respect for it, people would swallow one another alive.’” Then the prayer itself would run:

Eternal God:

We thank you for this blessed nation that for 240 years has translated into reality the Biblical command to “proclaim liberty throughout the land for all the inhabitants thereof.”

We thank you for our constitutional government that has created and fostered the American ideals of democracy, freedom, justice and equality for all, regardless of race, religion or national origin.

Almighty God:  We know that we are living in very dangerous times, when all of these blessings are threatened from without, by forces of terror and unimaginable brutality, and from within, by those who sow the seeds of bigotry, hatred and violence, putting our lives and our way of life at risk.

And so we pray, Dear God:

Help us to form a government which will protect us with sound strategy and steady strength; which will unite us with words of wisdom and acts of compassion; and which will thereby bring peace and harmony, safety and well-being to our beloved America and to all of humankind, and let us all say, Amen.