The White House held a roundtable discussion on antisemitism Wednesday with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (who himself is Jewish) as the host.
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"Antisemitism is dangerous, " Emhoff, husband to Vice President Kamala Harris, said at the event. "We cannot normalize this. We all have an obligation to condemn these vile acts." He warned of an "epidemic of hate" in the US.
Emhoff was joined by White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice who said, "There's nothing more vicious than what we are seeing today out of the mouths of our leaders, of our public figures, of our celebrities, of our elected officials." She urged the US to battle antisemitism "with vigor and passion."
The event was also attended by Jewish leaders and Jewish administration officials, such as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt and White House Jewish Liaison Shelley Greenspan.
Lipstadt stressed that "antisemites come in all political persuasions. They can also be Christians, they can be Muslims, they can be atheist and they can Jews. Antisemitism, the oldest and most consistent hatred, is so deeply based in social beliefs, that (there are) people who don't consider themselves antisemites, and who are not antisemites, but who fall prey to antisemitic ideas."
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