第二位先生道格·艾姆霍夫(Doug Emhoff)周三在白宫主持了一场关于反犹太主义的圆桌会议，他说他被迫使用他的“麦克风”来解决这个问题。
“我们的国家正面临着一场仇恨的流行病，”他开始讲话。"我们看到反犹太言论和行为迅速增加。"
“让我说清楚:言辞很重要，”副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯的丈夫、第一位总统或副总统的犹太配偶艾姆霍夫继续说道。“人们不再大声说出安静的部分。他们真的在尖叫。”
圆桌会议由犹太领导人、政要和倡导者参加，是在高调的反犹太主义争议中组织的，包括前总统唐纳德·特朗普;布鲁克林篮网队的明星篮球运动员凯里·欧文;还有叶，说唱歌手兼设计师，原名坎耶·韦斯特。
该国一些地区的警方也注意到针对犹太人的暴力事件不断增加。
上个月，欧文在推特上分享了一部反犹太主义电影，后来在被他的团队暂停后说，“我不支持任何接近仇恨言论或反犹太主义或任何违反人类的事情。”11月，特朗普在他的Mar-a-Lago度假村与叶和白人民族主义者尼克·富恩特斯(Nick Fuentes)共进晚餐。在随后与信息战阴谋论者亚历克斯·琼斯的采访中，叶说，“我喜欢希特勒”，随后在推特上发布了一张纳粹党徽和大卫之星的图片。
11月，执法部门提醒公众警惕针对纽约市和新泽西州犹太人社区，官员们后来说，没有发生任何事件。
纽约警察局(New York Police Department)的数据显示，上个月纽约市的仇恨犯罪也较上年同期增长了70%，主要是反犹太袭击激增，增幅为125%。
Doug Emhoff speaks during a roundtable discussion with Jewish leaders about the rise in antisemitism and efforts to fight hate in the United States in Washington, Dec. 7, 2022.
帕特里克·斯曼斯基/美联社
在周三的圆桌会议上，艾姆霍夫描述了他对反犹太主义的痛苦，并敦促人们大声反对它。
“我现在很痛苦。我们现在都很痛苦。我们的社区很痛苦，”他说。“看到我们现在所经历的一切，我很难过。所有人正在经历的事情。反犹太主义是危险的。我们无法将此正常化。我们都有义务谴责这些卑鄙的行为。”
“我们知道，当人们拒绝谴责这种卑鄙的言论和这些卑鄙的行为……它只会点燃暴力，极端分子之间的暴力，”他说。
艾姆霍夫说，他的曾祖父母在今天的波兰因犹太身份而逃离迫害，并回忆起在爱丽丝岛的船只清单和早期的人口普查报告中看到过他们的名字。
“那些画面，他们一直活在我的脑海里，”他说。
艾姆霍夫还发誓要继续利用他的角色来放大重要的话题，称圆桌会议只是对话的开始。
“只要我有这个麦克风，我就要大声反对仇恨、偏执和谎言，”他说。“我要公开反对那些赞美法西斯谋杀和理想化极端分子的人。我要公开反对否认大屠杀的人。我要把那些不愿意做的人叫出来。”
白宫高级国内政策顾问苏珊·赖斯，监督和打击反犹太主义特使黛博拉·利普施塔特大使也在活动中发言。
赖斯是黑人，在一个以犹太人为主的社区长大，参加过朋友的逾越节家宴，她说，她理解因自己的身份而被人憎恨的感觉，“但没有什么比我们今天看到的更邪恶的了——出自我们的领导人、公众人物、名人和民选官员之口。”
利普施塔特说，“很长时间以来”人们都没有认真对待反犹太主义。
“对犹太人的仇恨被贬低或打折扣，因为犹太人被错误地认为是白人和特权阶层，”她说。“这对犹太人来说是一个非常现实的威胁，仅此一点就值得我们竭尽全力去战斗。”
但是反犹太主义威胁的不仅仅是犹太人，利普施塔特说。它与其他形式的偏见和仇恨联系在一起，是“民主的丧钟”。反犹太主义者认为犹太人控制了政府、新闻、媒体，因此民主是一种幻想。”
“我不会保持沉默，”艾姆霍夫说。“我为自己是犹太人而自豪。我以一个犹太人的身份公开生活为荣，我不害怕。我们不能生活在恐惧中。我们拒绝害怕。”
圆桌会议的开场部分是唯一对媒体开放的部分，没有一个发言者提到叶、欧文或特朗普的名字。
据一名白宫官员称，参加圆桌会议的组织包括保守犹太教联合会堂、校园犹太人、宗教行动中心和反诽谤联盟。这些团体跨越了不同的犹太教派和运动。
Doug Emhoff addresses 'rapid rise' in antisemitism with White House roundtable
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff hosted a roundtable at the White House on Wednesday about antisemitism, saying he was compelled to use his "microphone" to address the issue.
"There's an epidemic of hate facing our country," he said, kicking off his remarks. "We're seeing a rapid rise in antisemitic rhetoric and acts."
"Let me be clear: Words matter," continued Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. "People are no longer saying the quiet parts out loud. They are literally screaming them."
The roundtable, which was attended by Jewish leaders, dignitaries and advocates, was organized amid high-profile antisemitic controversies including former president Donald Trump; Kyrie Irving, a star basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets; and Ye, the rapper and designer formerly known as Kanye West.
Police in some parts of the country have also noted increasing violence against Jews.
Last month, Irving shared an antisemitic film on Twitter and later said, after being suspended by his team, "I don't stand for anything close to hate speech or antisemitism or anything that is going against the human race." In November, Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago resort with Ye and Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist. During a subsequent interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on InfoWars, Ye said, "I like Hitler" and later tweeted an image of a swastika combined with the Star of David.
In November, law enforcement alerted the public to threats made against theNew York CityandNew JerseyJewish communities, which officials later said were mitigated without incident.
Hate crimes also rose 70% last month in New York City compared to the same month a year earlier, led by a surge in antisemitic attacks, which rose 125%, according to the New York Police Department.
During Wednesday's roundtable, Emhoff described his anguish over antisemitism and urged people to speak out against it.
"I'm in pain right now. We're all in pain right now. Our community's in pain," he said. "It hurts me to see what we're going through right now. What all people are going through right now. Antisemitism is dangerous. We cannot normalize this. We all have an obligation to condemn these vile acts."
"We know when people refuse to condemn this vile speech and these vile acts … it only serves to ignite violence, violence among extremists," he said.
Emhoff said his great-grandparents fled persecution over their Jewish identity in current-day Poland and recalled viewing their names on the ship manifest on Ellis Island and in early census reports.
"Those images, they just live on in my mind," he said.
Emhoff also vowed to keep using his role to amplify important topics, calling the roundtable only the beginning of the conversation.
"As long as I have this microphone, I'm going to speak out against hate, bigotry, lies," he said. "I'm going to speak out against those who praise fascist murders and idealize extremists. I'm going to speak out against Holocaust deniers. I'm going to call those out who won't do it."
The White House's top domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt also spoke during the event.
Rice, who is Black and who grew up in a predominately Jewish neighborhood and attended friends' Passover Seders, said she has understood what it was like to be hated for who you are, "but there's nothing more vicious than what we are seeing today -- out of the mouths of our leaders, of our public figures, our celebrities, our elected officials."
Lipstadt said "for too long" people have failed to take antisemitism seriously.
"Jew hatred has been belittled or discounted because Jews have erroneously been considered white and privileged," she said. "This is a very real threat to Jews, and that alone would make it worth fighting with all our soul and with all our might."
But antisemitism threatens more people than just Jews, Lipstadt said. It is linked to other forms of prejudice and hate and is "the death knell of democracy. The antisemite believes Jews control the government, the press, the media and therefore democracy is an illusion."
"I will not remain silent," Emhoff said. "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."
None of the speakers during the opening part of the roundtable, which was the only part open to press, mentioned Ye, Irving, or Trump by name.
The organizations that participated in the roundtable included the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Jewish on Campus, Religious Action Center and Anti-Defamation League, according to a White House official. The groups spanned across different Jewish denominations and movements.
