WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden hosted a Hanukkah reception at the White House Monday evening, pledging to continue to stand with Israel in his war with Hamas while asserting that a “wave of anti-Semitism” across the world “is sickening.”
Nearly 800 guests filled the East Room, almost full to capacity. The crowd included Holocaust survivors, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and about two dozen members of Congress. Also present were Jewish community leaders and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who was among those who lit a menorah partially made from the original White House antlers.
The husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Emhoff is the first Jewish person to be the spouse of one of the nation’s nationally elected leaders. Last week he chaired the massive menorah lighting ceremony in front of the White House.
A menorah is lit every evening during the eight-day Jewish holiday, celebrated this year from December 7 to Friday. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of New York’s Central Synagogue presided over Monday’s ceremony and told the president: “You have been a strong supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself. A faithful and faithful friend of the Jewish people.
Buchdahl spoke of the darkness of Hamas attack on October 7 in the Gaza Strip, which sparked the war with Israel. But she said that since then, “the situation has only gotten darker, with many people around the world justifying terrorism, normalizing anti-Semitism, with the pain of so many lives lost – Israeli and Palestinian – in this just but tragic war.”
She also drew sustained applause when she called Biden a “beacon of strength.”
The president told the crowd: “You don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. He said that while he did not always agree with Israeli leaders and government policies, “if there was no Israel, there would not be a single Jew in the world.” safe world.”
“We continue to provide military assistance until they get rid of Hamas, but we have to be careful,” Biden said of U.S. support for the war. He added: “Across the world, public opinion can change overnight. We cannot let this happen.
The Biden administration in May announced what it called the first ever national strategy to combat anti-Semitism. Yet anti-Semitism has only intensified in some quarters as criticism mounts in the face of rising violence. Palestinian death toll. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of an imminent “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Biden said of the hostages held by Hamas, whom U.S. authorities have been working to free for months: “We’re not going to stop until we bring every single one of them home.” The crowd also applauded when he spoke of his administration’s efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians caught up in the fighting.
Others, however, have criticized Biden’s stance on the war. Earlier Monday, protesters gathered outside the White House as nearly 20 women describing themselves as “Jewish elders” chained themselves to the fence surrounding the grounds. Wearing black T-shirts reading “Not in Our Name,” they chanted: “Biden, Biden, choose your side!” Ceasefire, not genocide! reading the names of those killed in Gaza.
Authorities took the women away after using bolt cutters to cut the chains that encircled the protesters’ waists. Organizers said they deliberately chose the day of the White House’s Hanukkah celebration to protest.
“As older Jews, we know what genocide looks like. We know what genocide looks like. It’s in our bodies, in our bones,” said Esther Farmer of Jewish Voice for Peace, which organized the protest. “It’s horrible, it’s devastating. Sometimes it’s hard to get up in the morning to see this, and it’s done in the name of the Jews. So we are here – as elderly Jews – to say it, not in our own name. »
U.S. Park Police said they issued 18 citations to protesters and released them.
Biden, at the reception, said he recognized American Jews were “hurt” and “fearing for their safety” because “the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world is sickening.”
“We see it in our communities, in schools, colleges and on social media,” the president said, adding that such cases “bring out painful scars.”
SATURDAY, Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, has resigned following donor pressure and criticism because of her testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say, under repeated questioning, that calls for genocide of Jews on campus would violate the school’s conduct policy. American universities have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students from the aftermath of the war in Gaza.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates declined to comment Monday on Magill’s decision to resign. Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who appeared alongside Magill, also faced criticism. Gay apologized for his comments.
Bates noted that Magill issued a statement retracting his comments.
“It was the right thing to do,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
