WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, picked a favorite memory from the last year for a reflective Thanksgiving-themed tweet on Thursday, he didn’t turn to the day in January when his wife was sworn in or mention their first diplomatic trip together this week.
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Instead, he shared pictures from the day his family affixed a mezuzah on the doorframe of the vice president’s mansion.
Mezuzahs are tubes containing the text of the Shema prayer that Jews traditionally attach to their doorposts. Emhoff is the first Jew to reside in the vice president’s house.
One picture shows him in the process of affixing the family’s mezuzah, which is narrow, white and mounted against what appears to be a pink hamsa. Another offers a close-up.
“For us, and for everyone, Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the past year,” Emhoff wrote. “One of my favorite memories was when our family visited and together we hung a mezuzah on the front door of the Vice President’s Residence.”
That event took place Oct. 7, nine months after Emhoff and Harris moved into the residence and after it had undergone renovations, the Forward reported. Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple, a Reform synagogue in Atlanta, was present at the event. (Rabbis are not required to put up a mezuzah, which traditionally observant Jews mount inside their homes as well as on the front doors.)
The Temple has made other political appearances this year. Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff borrowed a book of Jewish scripture from the synagogue, where he celebrated his bar mitzvah, for his swearing-in ceremony in January. The Bible had been used by the synagogue’s former rabbi who played an active role in forging relationships between Jews and Blacks in Georgia.
Every mitzvah has an independent positive effect. Let him start with a mezuzah and other good deeds will come (mitzvah goreres mitzvah).
This fellow is so confused.
Puts up a mezzuah but marries out of faith..
The fact that he married a non Jew and is far from Torah and Mitzvas doesn’t disqualify him from doing a mitzvah and in the process making a kiddish hashem.
Spreading awareness that there’s a G-d and that we ought to recognize that every time we walk into our homes is a perfect example of bringing more godliness into this world.
Despite any political differences, it should be celebrated.
oy
The image of a Jew that married a goy putting up a mazzah is pure theater. Dems are in for a major defeat Jewish money must be drying up snd they need this for the secular jews
This world is full of darkness, poor guy doesnt know the beauty of a jewish home. Chanukah is upon us let us light up the world with the light of Yiddishkeit
Wait until you hear which menorah they’re using
Is there even any parchment inside the mezuza case?
I always say, when a Yid isn’t frum, he will have א שווארצע סוף.
No self respect!