Doug Emhoff: What would it mean if the first first gentleman is Jewish?
Doug Emhoff and Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo by Getty Images
By Rebecca Massel July 21, 2024
President Joe Biden on Sunday announced that he is withdrawing from the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
That means that Doug Emhoff, the Jewish husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, could become the first Jewish person to call the White House home. He would also be the first first gentleman. What would it mean to have a Jewish man pioneering the role? A mezuzah on the White House doorpost?
Who is Doug Emhoff?
Emhoff, an attorney who met Harris on a blind date in 2013, grew up attending Temple Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Aberdeen Township, New Jersey, and celebrated his bar mitzvah there.
His previous marriage to film producer Kerstin Emhoff, who is not Jewish, produced their children, Cole and Ella, before their 2008 divorce.
Emhoff and Harris married in 2014. Harris has described a particularly warm first meeting with his parents, Michael and Barbara Emhoff, who took her future daughter-in-law’s face in her hand and said, “Oh look at you. You’re prettier than you are on television. Mike, look at her!”
At their wedding, the couple honored both their respective upbringings. Harris, whose mother was born in India, placed a flower garland around Emhoff’s neck, a tradition in Indian weddings. Emhoff smashed a glass to end the ceremony, per Jewish tradition.
Who is Ella Emhoff?
When Biden ran for president in 2020, Ella Emhoff’s spokesperson said the children were not raised as Jews and only after they were grown did Doug Emhoff embrace his religion “out of an independent search.”
Doug Emhoff’s children gave Harris a Yiddish-inflected nickname. “To my brother and me, you’ll always be ‘Momala,’ the world’s greatest stepmom,” Ella said in a video the day Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president in 2020. “You’re a rock. Not just for our dad, but for three generations of our big, blended family.”
At President Biden’s inauguration, Emhoff, then a student at the Parsons School of Design, impressed watchers with her style and went on to sign a modeling contract.
Months into the Israel-Hamas war, in March 2024, Emhoff urged her Instagram followers to donate to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), even though there are allegations that its staffers assisted Hamas on Oct. 7 when they attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage.
What would it mean to have a first gentleman in the White House?
Although there is no official job description of the first lady, the wife of the president has historically been an important figure in political and social life in the country. Since the 1900s, first ladies have used the office to promote — typically nonpartisan — causes. Michelle Obama, for example, adopted physical fitness.
Hillary Clinton clinching the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 prompted discussions of a title for the first male spouse of a commander in chief. The most popular — “First Gentleman of the United States” is likely what Emhoff would be called if Harris were to win. It also informed his current title as the husband of the vice president: “second gentleman.”
What would it mean to have a Jewish first gentleman?
As the second gentleman, Emhoff has publicly embraced his Judaism. In 2021, he and Harris nailed a mezuzah to their front doorpost, and the couple has hosted Rosh Hashanah gatherings, as well as a Passover Seder, and Hanukkah celebration at their residence.
“I did not expect my Jewish faith to be such a big deal in this role,” Emhoff said in a May 2022 White House event to mark the final day of the Jewish American Heritage Month. “But as I have gone forward in it, you really realize how much this representation matters to people.”
Emhoff also has used his position to speak out against antisemitism. In 2023, he visited Auschwitz and his grandparents’ Polish town (from which they fled to escape religious persecution). Emhoff helped roll out the first national plan to counter antisemitism and hate, which the White House released last May. Last month, he was the guest of honor at the groundbreaking for the new Tree of Life sanctuary, six years after a gunman killed 11 congregants at the Pittsburgh synagogue.
Amid rising antisemitism, Emhoff’s Judaism could help buttress Harris’ campaign promises to counter anti-Jewish bigotry. At the same time, it could provide her some cover if she takes a harder tack against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Earlier than Biden, Harris called for a ceasefire.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
