Biden to host Hanukkah White House reception as anti-Semitism surges
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President Joe Biden will host a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday evening as waves of anti-Semitism continue to rise across the country. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, will light the menorah along with White House staffers who are descendants of Holocaust survivors. In total, the President and First Lady Jill Biden will host about 800 guests to celebrate the fifth night of Hanukkah, the White House said.
Guests will include Holocaust survivors, members of Congress, state and local officials, artists and Jewish religious leaders. The reception came amid some of the heaviest fighting in the war, sparked by a Hamas attack on Israeli border settlements on October 7.
Anti-Semitism in America has risen 388 percent since the war began, Anti-Defamation League Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said earlier this month. Biden will discuss how Hanukkah is a timeless story of miracles and that even in dark times we can find light, a White House official said. Emhoff led the administration’s fight against the wave of anti-Semitism.
Speaking at Thursday’s National Menorah lighting ceremony, Emhoff said there is a “crisis of anti-Semitism” that is preventing many Jews in America from celebrating Hanukkah. He also criticized the presidents of three elite universities for their testimony on Capitol Hill about anti-Semitism on campus, saying it was an example of why many Jews felt “unconfident and scared” by the backlash to Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip.
“To see the presidents of some of our most elite universities literally unable to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews as anti-Semitic — such a lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable,” Emhoff said. – Let me be clear. When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, and Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is anti-Semitism. And this must be condemned and condemned unequivocally and without context,” he said.
The presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania have been criticized for not saying whether students who call for genocide will be punished. Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, has since resigned. The presidents of Harvard and MIT face similar pressures. Biden condemned attacks on both Muslims and Jews. “We reject all forms of hatred, whether against Muslims, Jews or anyone else. This is what great nations do, and we are (a) great nation,” he said in an Oval Office address in October.
Meanwhile, the president and his administration have provided unwavering diplomatic and military support for Israel, even as he has urged his leaders to minimize civilian casualties and further mass displacement. Since the war began, nearly 16,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gazan’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes. With little aid flowing into Gaza, Palestinians face severe food shortages, as well as shortages of water and other essential goods. Some fear that Palestinians will be driven out of the territory altogether.
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