UNDER THE RADAR

Doug Emhoff Quietly Called Columbia University Jewish Leaders

The move by Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband comes as the White House is under pressure to respond to pro-Palestinian protests.

As the White House faced a growing clamor to respond to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the nation, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, quietly reached out to two Jewish leaders at Columbia University this week. Politico reports that Emhoff, the first-ever Jewish spouse of a vice president or president, called Rabbi Elie Buechler of the Ivy League college’s Orthodox Union-Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus and Brian Cohen, executive director of the campus Hillel chapter to discuss antisemitism. “The Second Gentleman recognized that while every American has the right to freedom of speech and to protest peacefully, hate speech and calls for violence against Jews is both antisemitic and unacceptable,” a White House official said. Emhoff has been one of the White House’s point people on antisemitism and has previously criticized universities for failing to crack down on anti-Jewish rhetoric.