For the past four years, America had its first-ever Jew in the pivotal role of second gentleman, and the majority of American Jews cast votes in November that could have made him the first gentleman for the next four.
Had US Vice President Kamala Harris been elected president, her husband, Douglas Emhoff, could have become the first Jew married to the leader of the world’s greatest superpower since Queen Esther.
Ahead of the election, Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Zvika Klein described the seriousness of the moment for American Jewry.
“Douglas Emhoff stands at the crossroads of history, poised to become not just the first male spouse in the White House but the first Jewish one – a milestone that carries the weight of generations,” he wrote. “The potential first gentleman brings with him more than a charming smile and lawyerly poise; he holds the hopes, fears, and aspirations of millions of American Jews. This man, who often introduces himself simply as ‘Doug,’ could become the most influential Jew in the world.”
Only now is it becoming clear how important it is that what Klein wrote did not and will never come to fruition. The danger the Jewish people and the State of Israel avoided by the results of the election returning Donald Trump to the White House and defeating Harris cannot be overstated.
Following the horrible October 7 attacks, US President Joe Biden entrusted Emhoff to lead America’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
He was given unprecedented power to take steps to protect the Jewish people at an extremely sensitive time.
The dismal failure of Doug is clear for anyone with eyes to see. America degenerated into the most fraught time for Jews in its history.
Antisemitism skyrocketed, college campuses became scourges of Jew hatred, and Israel was threatened with arms embargoes while fighting a seven-front war for the continued existence of the Jewish state.
Our problems are greater now than ever before, after having a vice president married to a Jew.
That is the exact opposite of what happened under Esther in Shushan, where the Jewish people hung their would-be annihilators and slaughtered antisemites. This article should be the last that makes the Esther-Doug comparison.
Trump will fix it
AS SOON as President-elect Trump takes office, the hard work will begin to fix the damage done by Doug. What the new administration must do for Israel I’ve written in recent columns for this newspaper – from massively increasing aid to bombing Iran in order to stop its nuclearization.
So now I will focus on what should be done domestically. I recommend appointing a domestic antisemitism “czar” who will lead a commission of experts, as well as a liaison to the American Jewish community, who should be empowered to enhance Jewish American heritage.
The first step the antisemitism commission should take is to prevent universities from accepting money from terror-sponsoring states like Qatar. Hamas’s sponsor will no longer be able to influence which professors get hired and who gets patents. If the transfer of money cannot be prevented, it must be heavily taxed and punished to disincentivize universities from taking it.
In his first term, Trump announced an executive order that was to deny federal funding to colleges and universities that do not sufficiently combat discrimination against Jews. The order clarified that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and therefore the hatred of Israel is hatred of Jews. But Biden and Emhoff did not take steps to ensure its implementation.
To stymie the plague of antisemitism that spiraled out of control on campuses while Biden and Emhoff were in office, university presidents must be held accountable to enforce their own rules. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism must be the standard, defended strongly by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
As The Forward reported last month, Biden’s antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, convinced 39 foreign countries to rely on the IHRA definition, even as her own government dragged its feet implementing it at home and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer blocked the Antisemitism Awareness Act that endorsed IHRA. The report said Emhoff never spoke clearly about his position on the obvious intersection of Israel and antisemitism.
Jewish enrollment at top universities, including Ivy League schools, used to exceed 25%. Now, it’s less than 5%. This is clear discrimination that must be eliminated and stopped forever.
Universities should no longer bring in tens of thousands of students from Arab countries and China. American universities should educate American kids to help America thrive, not students from enemy countries who learn how to harm Israel and defeat the United States.
But, of course, education must begin well before Jewish students get to campus. Schools must be mandated to teach the dangers of antisemitism and its history going back to Abraham being thrown into a fiery furnace.
If mandatory Holocaust education is not having the desired effect, it must be expanded to include teaching about the antisemitism occurring locally right now nearby, where schools are located.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum must also expand to cover what happened after the Holocaust, including Israel’s founding as a haven for Jews and the antisemitism that has occurred since then in Israel, Europe, and the US. There are already exhibits in Israel that teach about October 7 with videos and recovered Hamas documents and weapons. Washington should have the same, and the Holocaust Museum is the right place for it.
President Trump was a strong proponent of the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, which is tasked with identifying and reporting on cemeteries, monuments, and historic buildings in Eastern and Central Europe that are associated with the heritage of US citizens, particularly endangered properties.
While Trump’s appointee to chair the commission stopped malls from being built on graves, Biden’s appointee, Star Jones, has been busy serving as the host of the syndicated reality TV show Divorce Court.
Jones once ignited what the New York Post called a “holy war” during a debate on the TV show The View, after Barbara Walters interviewed a Palestinian extremist who said anyone who is not Muslim will go to hell. She is clearly not a proper representative of Judeo-Christian values who should be appointed to such a sensitive post.
Trump administration appointees should be people who enhance those values and understand that America was and is exceptional. They should also be people who have been loyal to the president through thick and thin.
That includes top appointees in the State Department, down to smaller roles integrated in the system. There are enough qualified and talented people who have been loyal to the president who should be rewarded for coming to his defense when he was being severely criticized and prosecuted.
It is time for those loyalists to lead and to play key roles in undoing the damage of Doug.
The writer is chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, president of the Culture for Peace Institute, and a committee member of the Jewish Agency. He currently serves as a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council appointed by Donald Trump during the president-elect’s first term. The views expressed are his own. Martinoliner@gmail.com