Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and the first Jewish second spouse, warned on Monday that another term for former President Donald J. Trump would gravely threaten American Jews, as he also vouched for Ms. Harris’s commitment to a community on edge over rising antisemitism.
“She feels what you and I and Jews across America are feeling today,” he said. “She gets it.”
Mr. Emhoff’s speech, given in Pittsburgh eight days before Election Day, unfolded amid a series of grim milestones.
Sunday was the sixth anniversary of the shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. This month, Jewish communities have observed the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
And throughout the presidential campaign, many American Jews have been alarmed by what they see as antisemitism on the far right — as recently as at a Trump rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York — as well as on the far left.
“This has been a heartbreaking year to be a Jew in America,” Mr. Emhoff said on Monday, speaking about two miles from the Tree of Life synagogue. “The question is: Will next year be even harder for us and for Americans of every background, for all of us who believe in freedom? And that answer is in our hands.”
While Jewish Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic — and many are sharply critical of the Israeli government and in some cases uneasy with its devastating military response in Gaza — both Democratic and Republican Jewish strategists say there are signs of potential erosion this year in the community’s traditional support for the Democrats.
Mr. Emhoff, who has made combating antisemitism a central part of his mission as second gentleman, tried at every turn on Monday to emphasize that Ms. Harris grasped the anxiety and pain of many in the Jewish community: the fears about antisemitism on college campuses and the sense that “in the rooms where you used to feel safe, you no longer feel welcome.”
Twelve years after President Barack Obama faced skepticism from some Jews about how deep his support for Israel was — known in some circles as the “kishkes test,” a Yiddish term for “gut” — Mr. Emhoff ran right at that subject.
“Let me be direct and answer the question that Jews have asked for generations: Yes, she feels it in her gut,” he said, going on to describe Ms. Harris’s support for Israel’s security — a difficult subject for her to navigate, as her position has also received tremendous backlash from Arab Americans. “Kamala feels it, as we say, in her kishkes.”
Onstage before a room of community activists and supporters, Mr. Emhoff argued that Mr. Trump was making the nation less safe for American Jews, and cast him as an unreliable ally.
“Whenever chaos and cruelty are given the green light, Jew hatred is historically not far behind,” he said. “Donald Trump is nothing if not an agent of chaos and cruelty.”
A day earlier, the Trump rally at the Garden descended at times into displays of overt racism and bigotry, beginning with a comic who opened the rally by mocking and denigrating Hispanic people, Jews, Palestinians, a Black man and Puerto Rico. And some of Mr. Trump’s advisers worry that the warnings from John F. Kelly, his former White House chief of staff, that Mr. Trump made admiring statements about Hitler while in office could repel Jewish undecided voters.
“We should never have to wonder whether our leaders are praising Nazis behind closed doors,” Mr. Emhoff said. “When Donald Trump says something unhinged, do not roll your eyes. Roll up your sleeves.”
Mr. Trump himself has also repeatedly suggested that American Jews could cost him the election and are insufficiently grateful for his support of Israel.
In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, accused Democrats of “fear mongering and spreading lies because they know they are losing.”
“President Trump did more for Israel than any American president in history,” she said, adding, “When President Trump is back in the Oval Office, Israel will once again be protected and the bloodshed will end.”
Mark Mellman, who leads the group Democratic Majority for Israel, emphasized that there was little credible polling available of Jewish voters, much less of those who live in the battleground states. But, he acknowledged, “the weight of the flawed evidence we have is that there’s been a little erosion.”
“There’s tremendous concern about antisemitism, there’s tremendous concern about Israel,” he said. “This has been the most pro-Israel administration in history, and it’s certainly been the strongest opponent of antisemitism we’ve had in the White House. But not everybody feels that way.”
When asked about his level of concern, he said, “Worried enough that we’re spending a lot of money to help try and put it all back together.”
He said there was a seven-figure independent expenditure effort underway in battleground states.
The campaigns and allied groups are also engaged in outreach. For instance, in a twist on guides to fraught Thanksgiving political discussions, the Harris campaign last month held a video call titled “How to talk Harris-Walz over the Rosh Hashanah table.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition is spending $15 million across five battleground states to appeal to Jewish voters this campaign cycle, according to Matt Brooks, the group’s chief executive. (One ad, filmed at Hymie’s, a famed Jewish deli in the Philadelphia suburbs, incited a backlash among some in the local community who thought it leaned into stereotypes. The ad’s gist: Voters don’t have to approve of Mr. Trump’s personality to embrace his policies.)
Mr. Brooks said in an interview, “You don’t have to like Donald Trump to vote for him, to understand that the Jews are the most unsafe and insecure that we have been in several generations in America.”
The Tree of Life shooting did happen during Mr. Trump’s presidency, as did a deadly white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., after which Mr. Trump claimed that there were “very fine people on both sides.” Mr. Brooks, noting that Mr. Trump has Jewish grandchildren, cast him as a supporter of the community, saying he had a pro-Israel track record to run on.
Don’t count on that, Mr. Emhoff warned.
“Donald Trump demands loyalty, but he is loyal to nothing or no one but himself,” he said. If the former president thought it was in his interests, Mr. Emhoff added to applause, “Trump would turn his back on Israel and the Jewish people on a dime.”
Jewish voters make up a small part of the national population, but in closely divided states any slight movement could be consequential. There are significant Jewish communities across the battleground states, especially in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But complicating Ms. Harris’s challenge, especially in Michigan and Georgia, is the backlash among Muslim and Arab American voters to the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
On Monday, Mr. Emhoff emphasized Ms. Harris’s often-stated support for a cease-fire in Gaza that she has said would include the return of those taken hostage from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. And he sought to find other common ground.
“Those who hate Jews often hate Muslims, people of color, L.G.B.T.Q. people,” he said, and anyone else who “doesn’t look or pray or think like they do.”
In the audience were a few Michiganders showing their support. Michigan State Senator Jeremy Moss, who recently held an event with Mr. Emhoff in suburban Detroit, is strongly supportive of the Democratic ticket and hopeful that Jewish voters will hold the line with his party this time around.
What happens afterward, though, is a different question.
“I am concerned about the future of the party,” he said. “I’m concerned about the day after the election. After the dust settles, which side blames the Jews most?”
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