White House Convenes Roundtable on Antisemitism

Last year, 2021, saw the most antisemitic incidents on record in the United States since the Anti-Defamation League began recording data in 1979.

Gathered in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, Jewish leaders met with White House advisors and the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, to discuss the rising scourge of antisemitic hate. Among those gathered were leaders of the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League and religious leaders from various Jewish sects, including Chabad, the Orthodox Union, and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, as well as representatives of Jews on college campuses through Hillel.

The roundtable represented the continuation of anti-hate summits and policies that the Biden administration has been pursuing since taking office, including the United We Stand summit earlier this year that gathered community leaders to discuss combatting hate in all its forms.

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Opening up the roundtable, Second Gentleman Emhoff began by discussing his Judaism and his belief in the importance of combatting antisemitism, saying, “I understand the weight of this responsibility…and as Second Gentleman, let me reiterate, I will not remain silent. And I’m proud to be Jewish. I’m proud to live openly as a Jew. And I’m not afraid, we cannot live in fear. We refuse to be afraid.”

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms (right) joined the roundtable discussion in her new role as senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

The roundtable comes only weeks following a slew of antisemitic remarks by Ye, formerly Kanye West, as he espoused pro-Nazi views and denied the Holocaust shortly after meeting with former President Donald Trump. Although Ye only represents a public face of today’s rising wave of antisemitism, it comes on the back of years of antisemitic rhetoric as seen in the Charlottesville white supremacist protests in 2017 and the mass shooting of Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.

Speaking to Jewish leaders at the roundtable, the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, and former Emory University professor, Deborah Lipstadt, said, “I have visited 10 countries, four different continents, to convey the message that the United States government takes antisemitism seriously and expects these other countries to do likewise. However, unlike my predecessors, all very talented and committed people, I can’t go to these countries and say, ‘you have a problem.’ Now we have to say, ‘we have a serious problem’…My remit is overseas, but we all know, it’s harder and harder to separate between domestic and foreign antisemitism; one nurtures the other.”

Previously, the United States had focused on combatting antisemitism abroad, but the roundtable marked another step in a turn towards combatting domestic antisemitism in the wake of growing hatred towards the Jewish community. Second Gentleman Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, condemned antisemitism at the discussion, saying, “Antisemitism is dangerous. We cannot normalize this. We all have an obligation to condemn these vile acts. All of us cannot stay silent. And there is no ‘either or’ on this one. There is no both sides-ism on this one. There’s only one side, everyone, all of us must be against this must be against antisemitism.”

Antisemitism is dangerous. We cannot normalize this. We all have an obligation to condemn these vile acts. All of us cannot stay silent. And there is no ‘either or’ on this one. There is no both sides-ism on this one. There’s only one side, everyone, all of us must be against this must be against antisemitism.

The roundtable, which was open to the press only for opening remarks, was praised by participants for bringing the urgent mission of combatting antisemitism to the highest levels of the U.S. government. American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement, “This roundtable was a resounding statement by the Biden administration of its unwavering commitment to tackling the scourge of antisemitism. It was both inspiring and powerful. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s leadership sent a strong signal that this is a conversation that will continue in the White House.”

Although the roundtable marks progress in organizing against the issue through the Federal government, many believe that further efforts are needed. Even as the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League both praised the discussion, they also called for the White House to support and adopt a “unified national strategy to monitor and combat antisemitism” which over 120 members of Congress have called for.

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff speaks at a roundtable discussion to combat antisemitism in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 7.

Ambassador Lipstadt gave the strongest condemnation of antisemitism, during her remarks, saying, “Antisemitism is Jew hatred. The antisemite doesn’t hate Jews because they did something. They hate Jews because they’re Jews. The antisemite knows that Jews who act badly do so because they are Jews. Antisemitism is a prejudice akin to so many other hatreds…but it’s also a conspiracy theory. The antisemite is convinced that Jews are engaged in a concerted effort to control the world and destroy others by any means necessary.”

Lipstadt continued, “Consequentially, the Jews, the antisemite believes, must be stopped by any means necessary. Antisemites come in all political persuasions, they can also be Christians, they can be Muslims, they can be atheists, and they can be Jews. The time to act is now. We want to hear from you what you need from us. If you care about your fellow Jews, if you care about democracy and human rights in all its manifestations, if you care about the fact that in the lifetime of people still on the face of the Earth, and we wish them to 120 years, that one out of every three Jews in the world was murdered, while the world sat idly by, then the time to express not just outrage, but our commitment to curtailing this surge is now, later will be too late.”