{"id":375,"date":"2023-10-13T12:38:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T12:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/politics\/second-gentleman-doug-emhoff-leans-into-his-historic-role-as-he-fights-antisemitism-after-israel-attacks\/"},"modified":"2023-10-13T12:38:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T12:38:40","slug":"second-gentleman-doug-emhoff-leans-into-his-historic-role-as-he-fights-antisemitism-after-israel-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"Second gentleman Doug Emhoff leans into his historic role as he fights antisemitism after Israel attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n Second gentleman Doug Emhoff\u2019s role as a leader confronting antisemitism \u2013 and, personally, his historic role as the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president \u2013 has taken new significance this week.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe witnessed a mass murder of innocent civilians,\u201d Emhoff told Jewish leaders Wednesday at the White House, slamming his hand on the lectern as he described images of rockets falling, children sheltering from bullets and bodies lining Israeli streets after the attacks by Hamas.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMany of us feel a deep fear that these attacks will unfortunately \u2013 and already have \u2013 led to a rise in antisemitism. We\u2019re already seeing it,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The attacks on Israel by Hamas over the weekend shocked the world and sent ripples through the Biden administration. Amid concerns about rising antisemitism in the wake of the attacks, Emhoff \u2013 one of the White House\u2019s most effective messengers on the issue \u2013 has stepped up his efforts to speak out and appears set to become a key face of the administration\u2019s engagement with the Jewish community. Internal discussions about Emhoff\u2019s plans to meet with the Jewish community in the coming days and weeks are ongoing, a source familiar with planning told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The attacks in Israel come after the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, which has tracked incidents of US antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault since 1979, found 3,697 antisemitic incidents in the US in 2022, up a significant 36% from the previous year \u2013 and the highest on record.\n <\/p>\n

\n Amid that backdrop, the roundtable \u2013 and Emhoff\u2019s presence at it \u2013 held special significance for the leaders gathered at the White House. Eighty years ago this month, 400 rabbis from across the country marched to the White House, seeking a meeting with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where they hoped to make an appeal to the president to rescue the Jews persecuted in Europe.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey were refused a meeting with President Roosevelt. They were refused entry to the White House,\u201d Nathan Diament, the executive director for public policy at Orthodox Union, told President Joe Biden, Emhoff, and other senior administration officials.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe fact that we are here today,\u201d Diament said in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, \u201cshows what a dramatic distance we\u2019ve traveled in these United States.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n There is no manual for being the spouse of a vice president, but the largely ceremonial role \u2013 one that is unelected \u2013 comes with an automatic global platform.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s no playbook, there\u2019s no job description, there\u2019s, quite frankly, no salary. But what there is, is a way to message and an audience that is sort of ready-made to hear what it is you have to say. \u2026 And in that sense, what feels like a sort of in impotent administration position suddenly feels very important and very powerful,\u201d said Kate Bennett, a former CNN White House reporter who extensively covered first and second families.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sometimes the role is one of a pinch-hitter \u2013 stepping in to lead a delegation on behalf of the president or vice president, to attend an inauguration or perhaps a sporting event. But since his wife took office, Emhoff has crafted a deliberate and timely two-pronged portfolio: advocating for gender equity, and, unexpectedly, fighting antisemitism.\n <\/p>\n

\n Emhoff has held multiple roundtables, met with students, lit the menorah and affixed a mezuzah outside the vice presidential residence. Earlier this year, he traveled to key sites in Poland and Germany to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and meet with special envoys and coordinators on combating antisemitism alongside US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. And in May, the Biden administration unveiled the first-ever national strategy to combat antisemitism.\n <\/p>\n

\n The efforts first intensified last year. Emhoff was \u201cinfuriated\u201d when, after rapper Kanye West posted a number of incendiary antisemitic tweets, someone hung a banner over Interstate 405 near his home in Los Angeles that said, \u201cKanye was right.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt just infuriated me. \u2026 And that was one of the other reasons why I leaned so hard into the plan and the meetings and all the speaking and writing I\u2019ve done \u2013 because it\u2019s everywhere, including my neighborhood. And I have to do more. I have this microphone. I have this incredible platform, once in a lifetime opportunity to actually do something about it,\u201d he said during a Yom Kippur conversation at Adas Israel Congregation in late September.\n <\/p>\n

\n The rising tide of antisemitism, Emhoff said, is directly tied to threats to democracy \u2013 something Biden staked his 2020, and now 2024, campaigns on.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe really are facing an unprecedented attack on our democracy, which is fueled by hate. And that\u2019s what it is. So, in order to preserve our democracy and live the way we all want to live, we\u2019ve got to deal with this issue. \u2026 It\u2019s all interrelated and that\u2019s the way we have to approach it,\u201d Emhoff said last month.\n <\/p>\n

\n As he navigates a role inside the administration yet outside policymaking, Emhoff\u2019s capacity to build coalitions could be a key tool.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rabbis Aaron Alexander and Lauren Holtzblatt, who were one of the second gentleman\u2019s first calls before he moved to Washington, told CNN in a joint interview that Emhoff can use his position to foster interfaith coalitions and relationships that will be critical in the coming weeks and months.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs the second gentleman, as an American, any place in which he\u2019s going to and meeting with people of faith as an open and proud Jew is good \u2013 feels like it\u2019s good for the Jewish people. And it\u2019s good for America because those relationships matter right now,\u201d Alexander said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTo the extent that the second gentleman is an influential figure in helping create those partnerships, and to foster them, with significant leaders and other faiths who have influence over their people as well, it feels meaningful,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n And the role also conveys influence within the administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople in positions of leadership and influence bring their personal experiences and their personal identities into those roles. And you know, the fact that Doug Emhoff is the first American Jew who is in one of these roles, and the fact that he takes his Judaism seriously and that he\u2019s embraced his role in that way, even before this terrible war broke out, gives it an added dimension of seriousness and attention in the halls of the White House,\u201d Orthodox Union\u2019s Diament told CNN in an interview after Wednesday\u2019s discussion.\n <\/p>\n

\n While Emhoff has said it\u2019s not what he \u201cexpected to be doing\u201d as second gentleman, he views his role amplifying the strategy to combat antisemitism as one of \u201cresponsibility\u201d and \u201caccountability.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI take it very seriously,\u201d he said during the Yom Kippur conversation.\n <\/p>\n

\n And the antisemitism strategy, Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, who was present at Wednesday\u2019s meeting, is \u201call the more crucial\u201d in the context of Israel\u2019s war with Hamas.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe can\u2019t let this crisis derail all of the progress we\u2019ve made and undercut the urgency of this broader effort to protect not just the Jewish community, but so many communities under threat right now,\u201d Spitalnick said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Emhoff, she added, has played a \u201cdeeply important\u201d role in the administration\u2019s response.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe is conveying a lot of the pain and frustration and anger many of us are feeling in this moment. It\u2019s clearly personal to him,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reality right now has conspired to make it more urgent \u2013 and he has really embraced that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n One of Emhoff\u2019s most important messages to Jewish Americans, he said on Yom Kippur, is to take pride in the faith.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBe proud you\u2019re Jewish. And have joy in it, and just live openly and proudly. \u2026 I love it. I think it\u2019s the best thing ever, and everyone needs to have that same pride,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Using his platform to share that message in this moment, Holtzblatt said, \u201cis essential.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff\u2019s role as a leader confronting antisemitism \u2013 and, personally, his historic role as the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president \u2013 has taken new significance this week. \u201cWe witnessed a mass murder of innocent civilians,\u201d Emhoff told Jewish leaders Wednesday at the White House, slamming his hand on the lectern as he described images of rockets falling, children sheltering from bullets and bodies lining Israeli streets after the attacks by Hamas. \u201cMany of us feel a deep fear that these attacks will unfortunately \u2013 and already have \u2013 led to a rise in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nSecond 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