Posted on 12/25/22
| News Source: The Hill
When Doug Emhoff made history as the first second gentleman, he knew another title — first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president — was just as significant.
Emhoff has been at the epicenter of the White House response to the recent rise in antisemitism around the country.
During a Hanukkah party at the vice president’s residence this week — where a Holocaust survivor and rabbis recited the blessing as Emhoff and Vice President Harris lit the candles on the Menorah — the second gentleman used the opportunity to remind those in attendance about the growing threat against the Jewish community.
“We can’t normalize this. We need to speak up and speak out and call it out as well,” Emhoff said at the party. “And anyone who’s not speaking up and speaking out and not taking action will be called out.”
Emhoff, 58, a longtime entertainment lawyer, earlier this month hosted a roundtable with Jewish leaders on combating the “rapid rise” in antisemitism. Last month, he visited a kosher deli in Des Moines, Iowa, where he talked to a rabbi about how much it means to them to live proudly and openly as Jewish Americans.
He wrote an op-Ed in USA Today on Rosh Hashanah about battling antisemitism and posed a question: “What kind of world do we want to live in?”