By Ben Sales
Doug Emhoff arrives before President Joe Biden takes part in signing the infrastructure bill at the White House, Nov. 15, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Joe Biden’s decision to end his presidential campaign and endorse Kamala Harris could make American Jewish history: If Harris is nominated and wins, her husband Doug Emhoff would be the first Jewish spouse in the White House.
A Harris victory, of course, would make her the first woman president. It would make Emhoff the inaugural first gentleman. He’s embraced being second gentleman and has been a visible presence in Harris’ campaigns.
Since he came into the role in 2021, Emhoff has especially leaned into his position’s Jewish aspects, from lighting a menorah in the official residence to focusing on antisemitism and Holocaust remembrance.
“I didn’t realize what a big deal it would be not only to the Jewish community and to faith communities but to myself,” Emhoff said in 2022. “It’s actually driven me closer to faith. It has opened my eyes to a lot of things.”
The spouse of the president takes an even more prominent place in the public eye and is expected to choose a set of issues to focus on. Jill Biden has focused on education and health care as well as bringing Americans together. Donald Trump, who is running for another term, also has a Jewish immediate family member, his daughter Ivanka, who served as an adviser during his administration.
As second gentleman, Emhoff has been at the front and center of the Biden administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism, including the unveiling of its national plan on the issue last year. In 2022, he chaired a roundtable of Jewish organizations to discuss rising antisemitism, which has spiked further in the months since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, according to watchdogs. In April, he co-chaired a meeting of Jewish leaders to discuss Biden’s support for Israel in the war.
In 2023, Emhoff took a five-day working trip to Holocaust and Jewish heritage sites in Germany and Poland along with Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy. They visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, met with Holocaust survivors and Jewish leaders, and toured Emhoff’s ancestral village in Poland, Gorlice. Emhoff called the conversation with survivors a “real emotional and intense way to finish the trip.”
Last year, Emhoff’s guest at Biden’s State of the Union address was Ruth Cohen, a Holocaust survivor, then 92, from the Washington, D.C. area. This year, he spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the site of the worst antisemitic attack in American history.
Emhoff and Harris light a menorah in the vice president’s official residence each year. Last year, they lit three: one designed by a Holocaust survivor, one salvaged from a community ravaged by the Nazis and one that was on loan from the Tree of Life synagogue.
Along with recalling Jewish historical tragedy and fighting anti-Jewish bigotry, Emhoff has sought to emphasize the joys of being Jewish.
“I want to remind you all that’s it great to be Jewish!” he said to cheers at a Rosh Hashanah reception last year.
Emhoff was raised in a Jewish family in New Jersey, where he attended Cedar Lake, a Jewish camp, and excelled in tennis and soccer. He has frequently described wearing a three-piece brown velour suit to his bar mitzvah. And as an early-career attorney in California, Emhoff was involved with Bet Tzedek, a Jewish legal services organization.
Emhoff was divorced when he and Harris met; he has said she “reeled off her Jewish bonafides” on their first date, including trips to Israel, fundraising for the Jewish National Fund as a teenager and the fact that her mother worked for the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, where Harris spent her teenage years.
Emhoff and Harris married in 2014, when Harris was California’s attorney general. Her adult children refer to Harris as “momala,” a term some Jews have likened to the Yiddishism “mamaleh.” (Emhoff’s children from his first marriage do not identify as Jewish; one, the Brooklyn fiber artist Ella Emhoff, drew criticism in March when she encouraged her social media followers to donate to UNRWA, a United Nations agency that aids Palestinians and that was penalized by the United States for its alleged ties with Hamas.)
Emhoff’s first trip to Israel came in 2017, when he traveled with Harris.
Harris has already declared her candidacy for president. In his own post on X yesterday, Emhoff focused on thanking Biden and first lady Jill Biden, whom he hopes to succeed.
“President Biden is a true patriot who leads our nation with honesty, decency, and integrity,” he wrote. “Alongside @VP, they have fought tirelessly for families and communities, delivering for Americans across our nation. I am so proud of their accomplishments and thankful for their leadership.”