Doug Emhoff, husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris, called on Wednesday during an event to fight anti-Semitism to fight an “epidemic of hate” in the United States, at a time the New Justice Yorker announced it had thwarted an anti-Jewish “terrorist attack”.
“I am proud to be Jewish. I am proud to live openly as a Jew. I’m not afraid. I refuse to be afraid,” he said during a White House roundtable with representatives of the Jewish community and officials.
“Our country is facing an epidemic of hatred. Let me make it clear that words do matter. People are no longer satisfied with saying out loud what they think quietly. They literally scream it,” lamented Doug Emhoff, who is playing an increasingly public role in mobilizing against anti-Semitism for the White House.
As the first Jew and the first man in this role as the husband of a Vice President, the “Second Gentleman” attended receptions in the White House on the holidays of Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish Passover.
“For me, the conversation (about anti-Semitism) is not over, it’s just beginning,” he said.
On Friday, President Joe Biden condemned anti-Semitism in the strongest possible terms in a context in which experts say anti-Semitic speech and incitement to hatred by influential figures on social media have been alarmingly downplayed.
“Attack” foiled in New York
In New York — home of the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that a “terrorist plot against the Jewish community” had been foiled and two young men had been charged.
Christopher Brown and Matthew Mahrer, both in their 20s, were arrested at Penn Station in Manhattan in November when they were carrying or had in their home a gun, ammunition, a knife, an armband with a swastika and a balaclava.
Mr Brown was specifically charged with “terrorist crime” and “terrorist threat” after posting threatening messages on Twitter such as “I’m going to ask a priest to marry or shoot a synagogue and die”.
“This time I’m really going to do it,” he wrote again, according to the New York Attorney’s Office.
“Thanks to the diligence, hard work and coordination between my services and our law enforcement partners at the local, state and federal levels, a terrible tragedy was averted,” District Attorney Bragg said in a press release.
According to the American anti-Semitism organization Anti Defamation League, in 2021 the United States experienced a record 2,717 anti-Semitic acts (assaults, verbal abuse, property damage, etc.), an increase of 34% over a year.
And according to a recent report by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), one of America’s oldest Jewish advocacy groups, “39% of American Jews have changed their behavior out of fear of anti-Semitism, including actions to disguise their Jewish identity,” while “24% stated to be the target of anti-Semitism.”
During the White House roundtable, AJC Executive Director Ted Deutch called for the creation of a task force “to create a national plan of action to combat anti-Semitism,” according to a press release from the organization.
Experts are concerned about the downplaying of anti-Semitic rhetoric spread by personalities such as rapper Kanye West, who recently released several times: “I love Hitler. »
For his part, former President Donald Trump sparked outrage for organizing a dinner at his Florida home attended by a white supremacist, Nick Fuentes, who questioned the reality of the Holocaust.