Kamala Harris and the Jews

Kamala Devi Harris, 59, was born in Oakland, California. After her parents divorced, she moved to Montreal with her mother, a medical researcher from India.
Harris returned to the United States to attend Howard University and then UCLA Law School. In 2002, she was elected district attorney of San Francisco on a platform emphasizing her staunch opposition to the death penalty.
In 2004, Harris was part of a delegation of elected officials from northern California who visited Israel as guests of the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council. In an interview at the time, she spoke in general terms about how the trip helped her “appreciate the complexity of the issues.”
In the years to follow, Harris’ political career took off. She was elected attorney general of California in 2010, then United States senator in 2016.
Just two years into her first term in the Senate, Harris announced her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. But her campaign quickly fizzled, and Harris dropped out even before she had competed in any of the primaries. Joe Biden rescued her political career by choosing her as his running mate in 2020.

The Second Gentleman
In the meantime, while Harris was still attorney general, she met and married a Jewish corporate lawyer, Douglas Emhoff. It was her first marriage, his second.
Emhoff grew up in central New Jersey and attended a Reform synagogue. He has two adult children (who are not Jewish) from his previous marriage.
Emhoff’s daughter, Emma, has been at the center of controversy over her fundraising for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), despite revelations that more than 400 UNRWA employees in Gaza are members of Hamas or other terrorist groups. In addition, some Israeli hostages have been held in the homes of UNRWA staffers.
When Harris became vice president, Emhoff assumed the title of “Second Gentleman,” a novelty in American life. If she is elected president, he will become “First Gentleman.”
Shelley Greenspan, formerly an aide to Hillary Clinton, is the official White House liaison to the Jewish community. But Emhoff has been unofficially used in that role with increasing frequency in recent months. He often serves as the administration’s representative at Jewish ceremonial events and as a de facto spokesman for the president’s policies concerning anti‑Semitism.

October 7 and Beyond
Emhoff is often presented or quoted when the administration wants to be seen as empathetic to Jewish concerns. Thus, Vice President Harris’ tweet responding to October 7 began, “Doug’s and my prayers are with the victims…,” even though it was a foreign policy matter in which Emhoff is not involved.
That tweet from Harris, and President Biden’s strong early support for Israel, encouraged American Jews to believe the administration would remain steadfast as Israel confronted Hamas in Gaza.
But by December, there were hints that a change was in the offing—and that the vice president would be in the thick of it. That’s when White House national security spokesman John Kirby told Jewish Insider that Harris was going to be taking a more active role on the Gaza issue.
“She’ll certainly be making it clear [that] we believe that Palestinian people need a vote and a voice in their future, and that they need governance in Gaza that will look after their aspirations and their needs,” Kirby said.
Soon there were signs that US support was beginning to erode. The vice president frequently was the first and most vocal voice indicating a shift away from Israel.