PITTSBURGH — Commemorating the Tree of Life massacre‘s sixth anniversary Monday, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff failed to reassure Jewish voters Kamala Harris will fight antisemitism and support Israel if she wins the White House — with some telling The Post they’re casting their first-ever Republican votes.
“It’s easy to call out antisemitism. What’s hard is to actually take action,” attendee Ilan Gordon told The Post.
While he wouldn’t reveal his vote, the University of Pittsburgh senior wants to see a bipartisan effort to combat antisemitism after a man wearing a keffiyeh attacked him and another Jewish student with a glass bottle on campus at the semester’s start.
Emhoff was there to show solidarity with Pennsylvania’s Jews — whose 400,000 votes could swing the state — as the community shows its lowest support for Democrats in decades as Jews feel betrayed by a party they once called home.
Below chandeliers in a chair-filled University of Pittsburgh ballroom, Emhoff assured the assembly of 100 or so Jewish Democrats his wife feels “in her soul” for the hostages and their families taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
“And to tell you the truth, it’s not because she married a nice Jewish boy,” the entertainment lawyer joked to warm up the subdued room, noting Harris donated money to plant trees in Israel as a girl, prosecuted antisemitic hate crimes in California and helped develop the Biden administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism — released last spring as antisemitic incidents spiked and left-wing encampments protesting Israel as a genocidal, apartheid state spread across college campuses.
Some of those in attendance heard the same spiel when Emhoff came for the groundbreaking of the Tree of Life complex in June.
“Voters are waiting to hear what Harris is going to do as president,” said one veep voter at the event who wished to remain anonymous.
“I was hoping for a policy speech from Doug that said something new.”
Instead, Emhoff verbatim quoted Harris’ pledge to “always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” while he emphasized his wife’s push for humanitarian aid in Gaza and Palestinian statehood.
And he blasted Trump for supposedly “praising Nazis behind closed doors.”
“I can’t imagine the event persuaded anyone in the room or anyone watching to support Harris,” the unnamed Jewish Democrat said.
He’s voting for Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in large part because Democratic Sen. Bob Casey won’t rescind his endorsement of Rep. Summer Lee after the Squad member released a statement on Oct. 7’s first anniversary blaming the terrorist attack on Israel.
Many Jewish Democrats have told The Post this election they’re voting Republican for the first time.
“It’s the seeming hesitancy to call out the antisemitism on the left,” Marjorie Mann, a Harris volunteer at the event, explained, admitting she knows a number of people considering voting for Republicans — even Trump.
“With her, it’s the fear of the unknown,” Mann added of Harris, as Jewish voters fear Iran’s existential threat to Israel.
Mann pointed out Trump is also an unknown.
“He is an isolationist. Why is Israel the exception for him?” she said, fearing Trump might abandon the Jewish state on a whim.
But still, she sighed, “Trump has a record.”
The Trump administration normalized Israeli-Arab relations with the Abraham Accords, recognized the disputed Golan Heights as part of Israel, moved the US embassy to the ancient city of Jerusalem and pulled America out of former President Barack Obama’s Iran deal, which released billions of dollars to the Islamic state bent on Israel’s destruction.
Mann thought Emhoff’s speech helped reassure the community Harris supports Israel and the Jewish community.
“He can speak to the lived experience of being a Jew in America,” she said.
“The roots in Pittsburgh are very liberal and in Israel,” said Joel Rubin, a Pittsburgh native and Obama national security adviser. “Jewish voters are going to come home.”
But shortly after Emhoff left, many Jewish Democrats rushed over to a hotel on Pittsburgh’s South Side to hear Jewish podcaster and former Mitt Romney national security adviser Dan Senor champion Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
“The message was very clear: Let Israel fight its war,” said one Jewish Dem who went to both events and is considering voting for McCormick, who’s challenging Casey, and Trump.
“Given the Democrats have been in office, and we’ve seen this spike in antisemitism, what will [Harris] really do to fight?” she asked.
“Universities not protecting Jewish students should be held accountable,” she added, liking what McCormick said about threatening universities’ tax-exempt status if they fail to crack down on antisemitism.
And though Gordon said he’d have to look more into McCormick’s proposals, the victim of campus antisemitism said, “I like the idea of taking action.”
Waiting to hear McCormick speak, Nathan Diament, a national representative of the Orthodox Jewish community, said Emhoff’s speech was “heartfelt and sincere.”
“The Jewish vote will be critical this election. And that was an effort to persuade Jewish voters. We’ll see if it works.”
