Doug Emhoff Stresses a Personal Push Against Antisemitism
The New York Times (archive.ph)
By Aurelien Breeden
2024-08-10 03:36:17GMT
Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, ordering lunch at a falafel restaurant in Paris on Friday. He has emerged as the Biden administration’s most visible face in the struggle against antisemitism.Credit...Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
When Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, landed in Paris this week, the Summer Olympics were naturally on the schedule. He watched the U.S. men’s basketball team rally against Serbia, attended track and field events and is to lead the American presidential delegation at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
But Mr. Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of an American vice president or president, also used his trip to focus on an issue that is far more sobering and also deeply personal: a surge of antisemitism in the United States and around the world since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October.
“It is a poison coursing through the veins of democracy and democratic ideals,” Mr. Emhoff said on Friday at a commemoration of a deadly 1982 attack on a storied Jewish deli in Paris. Six people were killed in that attack, including two Americans, and 22 were wounded.
“Part of fighting hate is living openly and proudly as a Jew and celebrating our faith and our culture,” Mr. Emhoff said as helicopters buzzed overhead, a reminder of the tight security that France has imposed during the Olympics. “I love being Jewish, and I love the joy that comes with being Jewish. And I’m not going to let anyone tell me how to be Jewish.”
Mr. Emhoff has emerged as the Biden administration’s most visible face in the struggle against antisemitism. He has convened Jewish leaders at the White House, called former President Donald J. Trump “a known antisemite,” and drawn on his faith to offer comfort to Jewish Americans anguished by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
He is also, of course, the spouse of a presidential candidate. And to that end, he attended a private fund-raiser in Paris for Ms. Harris’s campaign, though he made no direct mention of her presidential bid in his public statements — even to the scores of journalists who watched him grab lunch at L’As du Falafel, a celebrated falafel spot, on Friday.
Mr. Emhoff said only that Ms. Harris had encouraged him to embrace his role as one of the Biden administration’s main advocates for Jewish people. “She and I knew that somebody had to speak out, and she knew that I had to take on this fight, no matter how difficult,” he said.
A day earlier, Mr. Emhoff attended a brief discussion on antisemitism and Holocaust education at the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, where he said the Biden administration was working with Congress on a $2.2 million grant for the agency’s program to advance teaching about the Holocaust and genocide. The money will fund training for educators on how to prevent antisemitism and how to react when it occurs in schools, UNESCO said.
During that event, Mr. Emhoff recalled visiting Poland in 2023 and learning about his family history. His great-great-grandparents fled antisemitic persecution, he said, while other family members were killed.
“This is not just some concept in the history books,” he said.
Mr. Emhoff’s visit took place just over a year after the United States rejoined UNESCO, which it had stopped funding in 2011 under the Obama administration after the agency voted to include Palestine as a full member, and then withdrew from completely in 2017 under Mr. Trump.
Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s director general, said the United States’ decision to rejoin had been key in supporting programs to stop antisemitism, racism and hate speech. “We now have this opportunity to further strengthen our actions in this regard, something which would have been impossible without your return,” she said.
Given the heightened emotions around the war in Gaza, Ms. Harris has walked a fine line on Israeli and Palestinian issues. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited Washington last month, Ms. Harris condemned pro-Hamas demonstrators as “despicable” and voiced support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism. But she also said she would not be silent about the suffering and destruction caused by the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza.
At the commemoration for the 1982 attack, Mr. Emhoff and French officials lit candles and laid wreaths for victims of the lunchtime assault in a crowded deli on the Rue des Rosiers, a narrow, lively street in the heart of the French capital’s old Jewish quarter. The four attackers threw a grenade into the restaurant — which is now a clothing store — and fired at customers before fleeing.
No group ever formally claimed responsibility for the attack, and for decades the case remained unsolved. Then, in 2015, the French authorities said they had identified three suspects, all of whom lived abroad and were accused of being tied to a small Palestinian terrorist organization that had been blamed for deadly attacks in several countries.
One of the suspects, Walid Abdulrahman Abou Zayed, a Norwegian citizen of Palestinian origin, was extradited to France and has been held there since 2020. In February, the Paris Appeals Court rejected an appeal by his lawyers to have the charges against him dropped, but it is unclear when a trial might take place.
A correction was made on Aug. 9, 2024:
An earlier version of this article misstated where Doug Emhoff met with the champion sprinter Noah Lyles. It was in Oregon, not in Paris this week.
The New York Times (archive.ph)
By Aurelien Breeden
2024-08-10 03:36:17GMT
Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, ordering lunch at a falafel restaurant in Paris on Friday. He has emerged as the Biden administration’s most visible face in the struggle against antisemitism.Credit...Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
When Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, landed in Paris this week, the Summer Olympics were naturally on the schedule. He watched the U.S. men’s basketball team rally against Serbia, attended track and field events and is to lead the American presidential delegation at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
But Mr. Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of an American vice president or president, also used his trip to focus on an issue that is far more sobering and also deeply personal: a surge of antisemitism in the United States and around the world since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October.
“It is a poison coursing through the veins of democracy and democratic ideals,” Mr. Emhoff said on Friday at a commemoration of a deadly 1982 attack on a storied Jewish deli in Paris. Six people were killed in that attack, including two Americans, and 22 were wounded.
“Part of fighting hate is living openly and proudly as a Jew and celebrating our faith and our culture,” Mr. Emhoff said as helicopters buzzed overhead, a reminder of the tight security that France has imposed during the Olympics. “I love being Jewish, and I love the joy that comes with being Jewish. And I’m not going to let anyone tell me how to be Jewish.”
Mr. Emhoff has emerged as the Biden administration’s most visible face in the struggle against antisemitism. He has convened Jewish leaders at the White House, called former President Donald J. Trump “a known antisemite,” and drawn on his faith to offer comfort to Jewish Americans anguished by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
He is also, of course, the spouse of a presidential candidate. And to that end, he attended a private fund-raiser in Paris for Ms. Harris’s campaign, though he made no direct mention of her presidential bid in his public statements — even to the scores of journalists who watched him grab lunch at L’As du Falafel, a celebrated falafel spot, on Friday.
Mr. Emhoff said only that Ms. Harris had encouraged him to embrace his role as one of the Biden administration’s main advocates for Jewish people. “She and I knew that somebody had to speak out, and she knew that I had to take on this fight, no matter how difficult,” he said.
A day earlier, Mr. Emhoff attended a brief discussion on antisemitism and Holocaust education at the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, where he said the Biden administration was working with Congress on a $2.2 million grant for the agency’s program to advance teaching about the Holocaust and genocide. The money will fund training for educators on how to prevent antisemitism and how to react when it occurs in schools, UNESCO said.
During that event, Mr. Emhoff recalled visiting Poland in 2023 and learning about his family history. His great-great-grandparents fled antisemitic persecution, he said, while other family members were killed.
“This is not just some concept in the history books,” he said.
Mr. Emhoff’s visit took place just over a year after the United States rejoined UNESCO, which it had stopped funding in 2011 under the Obama administration after the agency voted to include Palestine as a full member, and then withdrew from completely in 2017 under Mr. Trump.
Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s director general, said the United States’ decision to rejoin had been key in supporting programs to stop antisemitism, racism and hate speech. “We now have this opportunity to further strengthen our actions in this regard, something which would have been impossible without your return,” she said.
Given the heightened emotions around the war in Gaza, Ms. Harris has walked a fine line on Israeli and Palestinian issues. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited Washington last month, Ms. Harris condemned pro-Hamas demonstrators as “despicable” and voiced support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism. But she also said she would not be silent about the suffering and destruction caused by the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza.
At the commemoration for the 1982 attack, Mr. Emhoff and French officials lit candles and laid wreaths for victims of the lunchtime assault in a crowded deli on the Rue des Rosiers, a narrow, lively street in the heart of the French capital’s old Jewish quarter. The four attackers threw a grenade into the restaurant — which is now a clothing store — and fired at customers before fleeing.
No group ever formally claimed responsibility for the attack, and for decades the case remained unsolved. Then, in 2015, the French authorities said they had identified three suspects, all of whom lived abroad and were accused of being tied to a small Palestinian terrorist organization that had been blamed for deadly attacks in several countries.
One of the suspects, Walid Abdulrahman Abou Zayed, a Norwegian citizen of Palestinian origin, was extradited to France and has been held there since 2020. In February, the Paris Appeals Court rejected an appeal by his lawyers to have the charges against him dropped, but it is unclear when a trial might take place.
A correction was made on Aug. 9, 2024:
An earlier version of this article misstated where Doug Emhoff met with the champion sprinter Noah Lyles. It was in Oregon, not in Paris this week.
