Over a century after his great-grandparents fled Europe to escape religious persecution, second gentleman Doug Emhoff is returning to the sites of some of the Holocaust’s greatest atrocities.
Emhoff, the first Jewish person to be married to a U.S. president or vice president, aims to reassure Jewish communities in Poland and Germany that the Biden administration stands with them in the fight against antisemitism following a spate of high-profile incidents in the U.S. involving former President Donald Trump and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Emhoff, 58, has used his historic role to take an increasingly vocal stance against anti-Jewish hatred and will convey to leaders in other countries the U.S. commitment to combating antisemitism while encouraging them to step up their own efforts.
