Second Gentleman Visits Montgomery County To Mobilize Jewish Voters

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the October 17, 2024, edition of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent:

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff at a Get Out the Jewish Vote event in Narberth on Oct. 13.
(Photo by Aaron Troodler)

With Pennsylvania playing a pivotal role in the upcoming presidential election, each campaign is making a concerted effort to mobilize voters. Montgomery County, with its sizable Jewish population, figures prominently into the equation, and the Harris and Trump campaigns are making their respective cases to local Jewish community members in the hopes of winning their support.

It was against that backdrop that approximately 175 people gathered in the Social Hall in Narberth Borough Hall on Sunday morning, Oct. 13, for a “Get Out the Jewish Vote” event organized by Kamala Harris’ campaign, which featured Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

As attendees munched on bagels and sipped coffee, upbeat music, including “Eye of the Tiger” and “Born in the USA,” played on the sound system as the excitement built while the crowd awaited the arrival of the campaign’s special guests.

Katie and Frank McGlade of Ardmore have been following Kamala Harris’ career since she was elected to the Senate.

“She’s a tough inquisitor and she holds people accountable, and that’s why we’re voting for her,” Katie McGlade said in an interview. “This community is predominantly Jewish, and we feel very strongly that our community needs the right leadership.”

“In a race that’s a statistical dead heat, every single vote counts,” added Frank McGlade.

“I’m honored that they wanted to come and make sure we understand that the Harris campaign is very pro-Israel and is very protective of Israel’s right to exist and defend itself,” said Andrea Deutsch, who is the first Jewish mayor of Narberth, in an interview. “I’m very confident that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz administration will do the right thing on behalf of the people of Israel. As a Jewish mayor and a Jewish citizen, I’m very comfortable with how they would represent us.”

Ellie Goluboff-Schragger, president of the Penn Dems, addressed the audience, as did Eva Wyner, the Harris campaign’s director for Jewish outreach for Pennsylvania, who noted that “the path to the presidency runs through PA,” adding that she attended preschool and had her bat mitzvah at the Kaiserman JCC and graduated from Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy.

Comedian and actor Alex Edelman then addressed the crowd, along with composer Benj Pasek. They were followed by actor Ben Stiller, who exhorted the crowd to get out and vote and to “tell our friends to vote.”

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who wore a yellow ribbon on his lapel in support of the hostages, began his remarks by referencing Oct. 7.

“This has been a very difficult year for the Jewish community … We hope that this will be a good, sweet year where we can find peace and the hostages are returned,” said the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“I very much appreciate what she [Harris] and Doug [Emhoff] have done in bringing our Jewish traditions to the American public to understand our love of Judaism,” Cardin said. “They have taken our Jewish values, tikkun olam, to make this world a better place, and those have been their values.”

Cardin spoke about the efforts of the Biden-Harris administration and Emhoff to combat antisemitism and discussed Harris’ “commitment to the special relationship between Israel and the United States.”

“Since Oct. 7, she’s made it clear that Israel needs the support of the United States and that the United States has Israel’s back. She has said over and over again that Israel will get whatever it needs to defend itself from Hamas in Gaza, or Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the Houthis in the Red Sea, or Iran and its proxies … She recognizes that the United States will stand strong, must stand strong, with Israel.”

Jewish voters show support for the Harris-Walz ticket at an event in Narberth on Oct. 13.
(Photo by Aaron Troodler)

Emhoff’s presence at the event generated a lot of excitement.

“To me, this ticket with Kamala, and Doug being her husband, represents what America is supposed to be like. It’s like the ultimate melting pot,” Adrian Seltzer of Wynnewood said in an interview.

“It’s exciting,” Karin Fox of Narberth said in an interview about the prospect of Emhoff becoming the first Jewish first spouse if Harris is elected. “Of course, it’s exciting to have somebody Jewish in the White House. It’s awesome.”

Emhoff’s appearance at the event came on his 60th birthday, and as he took the stage, the crowd sang “Happy Birthday,” followed by “Yom Huledet Sameach.”

“I stand before you as the first Jewish principal ever in the White House, hopefully going to be the first first gentleman, the first Jewish first gentleman,” Emhoff said before turning to the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7.

“These weeks are heavy, but when you have Oct. 7 fall within the High Holidays for the first time, it just made this time particularly heavy, meaningful, emotional, raw … So many of us still feel this rawness, this rage, these emotions that will never go away,” he said.

Emhoff discussed some of the ways he and Harris marked one year since the Hamas attacks on Israel.

“Very meaningfully, the vice president and I planted a pomegranate tree to honor the victims, the pain, the hostages, but also as an act of hope, an act of resilience, something that’s permanent, something that’s going to stay at that residence [the vice president’s official residence] forever.”

Actor Ben Stiller speaks at the Oct. 13 event in Narberth.
(Photo by Aaron Troodler)

Emhoff spoke extensively about Harris’ connections to, and efforts on behalf of, the Jewish community.

“All the work that I’ve done fighting against antisemitism, which led to a national strategy to counter antisemitism, all the work that I’ve done since Oct. 7 and will continue to do, this is because of her.”

“She goes way back with the Jewish community, including in her childhood, when she used to collect money in those little blue boxes that some of us remember,” he said, ostensibly referring to the iconic Jewish National Fund tzedakah boxes. “She was doing that as a kid.”

“She knows how important Israel is to us and to me,” Emhoff said, noting that Harris “was the one who put the kippah on my head while we visited the Old City [of Jerusalem] for the first time.”

“She has been working relentlessly on the release of the hostages … she’s not going to rest until all the hostages are released and home … She’s always going to support Israel and its right to defend itself, especially as it fights Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and whatever else comes its way. She’s going to be there for them.”

In an interview, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) noted that she has “been up to Pennsylvania a couple of times for multiple days” to campaign for Harris and stated she believes that “the overwhelming majority of Jews will vote for Kamala Harris.”

“The reason I’m here in Pennsylvania instead of in Florida is because I feel so strongly about making sure that she becomes president of the United States because I’m a Zionist, because I’m a Jew, because I represent a district in Congress that has a large Jewish population, and I’m raising Jewish children, two of whom are in college,” Wasserman Schultz said. “So, if I want to make sure that we have someone we can count on in the White House, who’s going to have Israel’s back and who’s truly going to fight antisemitism because she not only talks about it but has done it, then it’s important that we make sure that we commit to, and put skin in the game, to help get Kamala Harris elected.”