Matthew Diebel

USA TODAY

Donald Trump’s diary just got even busier.

When the mogul and presidential candidate’s daughter Ivanka gave birth to a baby boy last Sunday, it immediately set a new date in their calendars – the bris, or ritual circumcision, of the billionaire’s eighth grandchild.

That’s because, as Trump described the then-impending birth to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention in Washington last week, his daughter just had “a beautiful Jewish baby." Ivanka converted to Judaism when she married her husband, real estate scion Jared Kushner.

According to Jewish tradition, the circumcision, also known as brit milah, which is seen as a covenant with God, takes place eight days after a boy’s birth. In baby Theodore James Kushner’s case, that would be Sunday, April 3. Repeated email and phone requests for comment to Trump and his daughter were not returned.

Trump, if he can pull himself away from his crazy campaign schedule, could have a role in the ceremony for young Theodore (not, presumably, named after Trump’s arch rival, Ted Cruz).

However, according to Jewish tradition, he cannot have the role of the “sandek,” the person, often a grandfather, who holds the child while it is being circumcised by a mohel (pronounced like “royal”). That job must go to a practicing Jew, said New York City-based Dr. Emily Blake, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who now works full-time as a mohel.

“So unless he’s going to convert very quickly,” joked Blake, “I don’t think he’ll be doing it. He doesn’t want to lose that Christian vote.”

But, she says, he could perform the role of the “kvater,” the person who carries the baby into the room. “The rules on that are a little looser,” she said.

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“Generally, the bris will begin with the baby outside of the room,” Blake explained, “and the parents and the family and the mohel and the sandek are all inside the room, and … the kvater carries the baby into the room and hands over the baby to the sandek.”

“The mohel would then ask permission of the parents, do a blessing and do the circumcision itself and the parents say a blessing that follows that.”

Blake stressed that most mohels take steps, such as topical anesthetics, to eliminate pain and make the baby comfortable. “From the time of (12th century Jewish philosopher) Maimonides,” she said, “it’s been clearly stated that pain is not necessary.”

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The ceremony then shifts to giving the baby a Hebrew name, which is usually done with a blessing over a glass of wine. “A sweet wine for a sweet moment,” Blake said. Presumably Trump, a teetotaler, won’t join others in taking a sip following this particular blessing.

Blake, who performs circumcisions for Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform families – but not for more orthodox movements, who use only male mohels – says she makes a big effort to welcome family and friends from other religions.

“When the family is mixed, everybody there should really feel included,” she said. “You shouldn’t have that sense that somebody is outside,” she said.

The Torah, the five books of Moses that make up the Jewish Bible, "tells us that we need to welcome the stranger," Blake said. “It might be good for Donald to take that in while he’s at the ceremony.”