Doug Emhoff, husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris, called on Wednesday to fight a “hate epidemic” in the United States, at an event on fighting anti-Semitism, at a time when The New Justice Yorker announced it had thwarted a anti-Jewish “terrorist attack”.
“I am proud to be Jewish. I am proud to live openly as a Jew. I’m not scared. I refuse to be afraid,” she said during a White House panel discussion with Jewish community representatives and officials.
“Our country is facing an epidemic of hate. Let me make it clear that words matter. People are no longer content to say aloud what they think quietly. They literally scream it,” lamented Doug Emhoff, who plays an increasingly public role in mobilizing against anti-Semitism for the White House.
The first Jew and first man in this role as husband of a vice president, the “second gentleman” attended White House receptions for the holidays of Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, or Passover.
“For me, the conversation (about anti-Semitism) isn’t over, it’s just beginning,” she said.
President Joe Biden on Friday strongly condemned anti-Semitism against a backdrop of alarming trivialization, according to experts, of anti-Semitic remarks and hate speech by influential figures on social networks.
“Attack” foiled in New York
In New York City – home to the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced that a “terrorist attack on the Jewish community” had been foiled and two youths had been indicted.
Christopher Brown and Matthew Mahrer, both 20-year-olds, were arrested in November at Penn Station in Manhattan carrying or having at home a handgun, ammunition, a knife, a swastika bracelet and a ski mask.
Mr Brown was notably charged with a “terrorist crime” and “terrorist threat” after posting threatening messages on Twitter such as “I will ask a priest if I should become a husband or shoot up a synagogue and die”.
“I’m actually going to do it this time,” he wrote again, according to New York prosecutors.
“A horrific tragedy was averted through diligence, hard work and coordination between my services and our law enforcement partners at the local, state and federal levels,” Attorney Bragg said, quoted in a news release. .
According to the American organization to combat anti-Semitism Anti Defamation League, in 2021 the United States recorded a record number of 2,717 anti-Semitic acts (assaults, verbal attacks, property damage, etc.), an increase of 34% compared to a year.
And according to a recent report by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), one of America’s oldest Jewish advocacy organizations, “39 percent of American Jews changed their behavior out of fear of anti-Semitism, including adopting measures to hide their Jewish identity, while “24% said they were targets of anti-Semitism”.
During the panel discussion at the White House, AJC Executive Director Ted Deutch called for the creation of a task force “to create a national action plan to combat anti-Semitism,” according to a news release from the organization.
Experts are worried about witnessing a trivialization of anti-Semitic rhetoric, conveyed by personalities such as rapper Kanye West, who for example has recently launched several times: “I love Hitler. »
Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has sparked a wave of outrage after hosting a dinner at his Florida home attended by a white supremacist, Nick Fuentes, who questioned the reality of the Holocaust.
