Let’s be clear: here at Kveller, we’re definitely kvelling about the possibility of having a first woman president, which will happen if current vice president Kamala Harris — who Joe Biden has endorsed to be the presidential nominee after retiring from the race this weekend — clinches the nomination and wins the 2024 election, defeating Republican nominee Donald Trump. It has been a long time coming, and that glass ceiling deserves to finally shatter.
But we’re also quite tickled by the idea of the nation’s first-ever first gentleman being Kamala’s doting Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff. Emhoff has also done a lot to lean into the historical nature of his role as the nation’s first Jewish second gentleman — especially into the Jewish part. While his two children from his first marriage with Kerstin Emhoff, Cole and Ella, do not identify as Jewish, Emhoff was raised in a Jewish household in New Jersey by two very adorable Jewish parents: Barbara (or Barb, you can see Kamala’s excellent impression of her here) and Michael Emhoff. Doug was bar mitzvah-ed, went to Jewish summer camp, and grew up celebrating Jewish holidays, having shared memories from his family’s Passover seders at his grandma Anne’s Brooklyn apartment.
Emhoff had been an attorney for many years and a divorced dad of two teens when he first met Kamala in 2013. On their first date, the then attorney general of California impressed him with her Jewish “bonafides,” and when the two married the following year they incorporated Jewish rituals into the event, with Emhoff smashing the glass. Kamala soon earned the nickname mamalah from her two stepchildren, an amalgam of “mom” and “Kamala” that sounds a lot like the Yiddish term of endearment “mamaleh.”
And so, when Kamala became vice president in 2021, Emhoff was primed for a lot of ritual firsts — hanging up the first mezuzah at the Naval Observatory, where the VP usually resides, being the first Jewish second gentleman to light the menorah at the White House’s annual Hanukkah party, hosting the first Passover seder in the vice presidential residence. But being the first Jewish person with this historical role was not just about these (admittedly important) feats of ritual representation. Emhoff also took on the mantle of fighting for Jewish Americans and speaking out against antisemitism. He chaired Jewish roundtables to discuss anti-Jewish hate, traveled to Germany and Poland to visit Holocaust and Jewish sites with State Department antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt, co-chaired an April meeting with Jewish leaders to discuss the Gaza-Israel war and spoke at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
And through it all, he reminded his fellow Jews — especially the younger generation of Jewish Americans — to keep reveling in their Jewish identity. “Do not be afraid to be who you are. Live without fear,” he told Jewish teens in February of last year.
There’s still a long and arduous campaign ahead of us before the November 2024 election — one that we really hope will give us some more opportunities to kvell about Doug. But in the meantime, you can read one of our articles delighting in Doug Emhoff’s important, funny, and relatable Jewish representation:
Doug Emhoff Delivers a Moving Holocaust Remembrance Tribute
A Tearful Doug Emhoff Visits Auschwitz
Hear Doug Emhoff’s Moving Speech at the Historic White House Hanukkah Party
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Shares Moving Purim Message
The Second Gentleman Can’t Pass Up a Good Bagel
Doug Emhoff Loves Gefilte Fish and Other White House Passover Seder Highlights
Doug Emhoff Was Extra Grateful to Hang a Mezuzah in the VP House
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Made Matzah With a Bunch of Jewish Kids
Doug Emhoff Is a Cool Jewish Dad With Tattoos
Jewish Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Pays Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg
This Rabbi Gave Doug Emhoff 18,000 Letters of Support from Jewish Kids Around the World
Doug Emhoff Is an Amazing Role Model for Jewish Kids
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Shares Moving Message of Jewish Pride to Teens
Doug Emhoff Thanks His Jewish Parents for Helping Him and Kamala Get Through the Pandemic
Jewish Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Says Recent Rise in Antisemitism Has Him ‘In Pain’
