• Doug Emhoff mentioned the faculty presidents who testified on Capitol Hill confirmed “lack of ethical readability.”
• The heads of Harvard, MIT and Penn had been requested if calling for the genocide of Jews violates their universities’ codes of conduct.
• They refused to provide solutions that unequivocally condemned the genocide of Jews.

Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, criticized faculty presidents who testified on Capitol Hill this week, saying they “had been unable to denounce calling for the genocide of Jews as antisemitic.”

When requested if calling for the genocide of Jews violates their universities’ codes of conduct, the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the College of Pennsylvania refused to provide solutions that unequivocally condemned the genocide of Jews.

“The dearth of ethical readability is unacceptable,” Emhoff mentioned Thursday. “Let me be clear, when Jews are focused due to their beliefs or identification, and when Israel is singled out due to anti-Jewish hatred, that’s antisemitism and it have to be condemned and condemned unequivocally and with out context.”

Emhoff spoke on the lighting ceremony of a large menorah in entrance of the White Home to mark the primary evening of Hanukkah. He mentioned American Jews are “feeling alone” and “in ache” as he denounced rising antisemitism within the U.S. and overseas, notably amid the continued Israel-Hamas battle.

Emhoff, the primary Jewish particular person to be the partner of one of many nation’s nationally elected leaders, highlighted concern within the Jewish group, moments earlier than the menorah was lit on the Ellipse, simply south of the White Home.

Emhoff mentioned he is held conversations with representatives from throughout the Jewish group to see how they’re holding up amid the battle, because the battle in Israel and Gaza enters its third month,

“The widespread denominator of those conversations is that we’re feeling alone, we really feel hated, we’re in ache,” he mentioned. “Whilst we face darkness in the present day, I’m hopeful,” Emhoff mentioned. “The story of Hanukkah and the story of the Jewish folks has all the time been one among hope and resilience.”

Talking to the Jewish group, Emhoff mentioned Biden, Harris and your complete administration “have your again.”

Emhoff additionally spoke to the Biden administration’s help for Israel’s army effort and its efforts to free hostages held because the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas and different militant teams.

The nationwide menorah has been lit yearly since 1979, with the occasion sponsored by American Pals of Lubavitch.