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Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff is the only one of the four principals in the White House who’s known to have personally called Jewish students who’ve felt intimidated or affected by anti-Israel protests, according to a report.
Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday by hosting students at the White House whose grandparents survived Nazi Germany’s genocide of the Jews.
According to Politico, Emhoff has also made two rounds of calls to Jewish students and community leaders who felt “targeted or threatened” by the demonstrations, including at Columbia University, while President Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Harris have not.
The White House and a spokesperson for Harris didn’t return requests for comment from on whether they’d made such overtures.
RABBI SUES ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS, ALLEGES THEY DAMAGED HIS EARS ATTEMPTING TO DROWN OUT PRAYERS
President Joe Biden is joined on stage by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff at an event on the campus of George Mason University in Manassas, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“On Yom HaShoah, we honor the lives of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust,” Emhoff said in a statement, according to Politico. “At a time when antisemitism is surging, including threats of violence against Jews, we are reminded that we must never allow history to repeat itself. We must continue to fight antisemitism and hate and educate others on the horrors of the past.”
Harris also released a statement Monday standing against hate and antisemitism that mentioned her husband’s own personal family connection to the Holocaust.
Under media pressure to speak publicly on the matter, Biden spoke out on anti-Israel protests and encampments that have rocked college campuses across the country last week. The protests have included numerous incidents of intimidation, vandalism and violence.
“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent. The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society and order must prevail,” Biden said at the White House.
The White House released a statement Tuesday announcing new actions to counter what it calls the “abhorrent rise of antisemitism in the United States,” including new methods of countering online antisemitism and a “Dear Colleague” letter to school districts and colleges on examples of antisemitism that could trigger civil rights investigations.
First lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff spotted at President Biden’s second State of the Union address. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This year’s remembrance is particularly sobering, as it comes seven months after the terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the White House said. “Since that time, there has been an alarming rise of Antisemitic incidents across the country and throughout the world—most recently, in instances of violence and hate during some protests at college campuses across the Nation.”
Biden spoke Tuesday on Capitol Hill on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, calling out the “ferocious surge of antisemitism” in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, both domestically and around the world.
“Vicious propaganda on social media. Jews forced to tuck their Jewish stars into their shirts and college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked, while walking to class,” he said. “Antisemitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world’s only Jewish state.”
He added too many people continue to downplay the horrors of the Holocaust and Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7, which included sexual violence in addition to murder and kidnapping.
“Silence and denial can hide much, but it can erase nothing,” Biden said.
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
