22 | JANUARY 28 • 2021

W

hen Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris
took office as U.S.
president and vice president on
Jan. 20, they made history in
all sorts of ways — including
Jewish history.
Some of the historical firsts
are obvious: Biden is the old-
est person ever to occupy the
White House, and Harris is
the first woman or person of
color or person of South Asian
descent ever to serve as vice
president.
Their Jewish bona fides are
also notable: Biden’s three chil-
dren who survived into adult-
hood all married Jews, making
him a grandfather to several
Jewish grandchildren. (Biden’s
first wife and infant daughter
were killed in a car accident in
1972.)
Harris’ husband, Doug
Emhoff, is Jewish, and the cou-
ple celebrate Jewish holidays
together. Their 2014 wedding
featured the traditional Jewish
breaking of the glass, and
Emhoff’s two children from his
first marriage refer to Harris
as “Momala” — a mashup of
Kamala and the Yiddishism
“mamaleh.
”

“I love Chanukah because
it really is about the light, and
bringing light where there has
been darkness,
” Harris said,
pronouncing Chanukah with
the guttural “chet” sound —
rather than the Americanized
“hey.
” “
And it is a celebration
of, always, tikkun olam, which
is about fighting for justice and
fighting for the dignity of all
people, and it’s about rededica-
tion.
”
The blended Jewish fam-
ilies who will lead the new
U.S. administration are not an
anomaly — they are emblem-
atic of the story of American
Jewry.
Most American Jews marry
outside the faith — 58% accord-
ing to the most recent national
survey, conducted in 2013
by the Pew Research Center.
However, rather than abandon-
ing Judaism, these interfaith
couples increasingly are rais-
ing their children as Jews or
celebrating Jewish traditions
alongside those of other faiths.
Some 45% of intermarried Jews
are raising their children in the
Jewish religion, according to
Pew, up from 28% in 1990.
While half a century ago Jews

who intermarried were looked
upon as a loss for the Jewish
community, today interfaith
families are part and parcel of
the American Jewish commu-
nity. In the Reform movement,
the largest U.S. Jewish religious
denomination, rabbis officiate
at interfaith weddings, many
synagogues have non-Jews as
members, and certain ritual
roles during synagogue services
are open to non-Jews.
The Reconstructionist move-
ment, which is the smallest of
America’s liberal Jewish denom-
inations with about 100 affili-
ated synagogues, made history
in 2015 when it dropped a ban
against accepting intermarried

students to the movement’s rab-
binical school.
In the Conservative move-
ment, more than one-quar-
ter of all homes include a
non-Jewish family member,
according to the Pew survey.
Even among many Orthodox
Jews, it has become more
common to take a welcoming
approach toward interfaith
couples in the hope that a
non-Jewish spouse ultimately
converts rather than to ostra-
cize intermarried Jews.
By the same token, the pre-
vailing attitudes of Americans
generally toward Jews have
warmed over time. In the
1950s and ’60s, large swaths of

IN
THED
JEWS

All the ways Biden and Harris
(and their families) made Jewish
history on Inauguration Day.

All the ways Biden and Harris

Historic
Presidency

URIEL HEILMAN JTA

President-elect Joe Biden

and Vice President-elect

Kamala Harris at an event to

announce nominees for their

science team in Wilmington,

Del., Jan. 16, 2021.

ANGELA WEISS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES VIA JTA

SCREEN SHOT FROM TWITTER VIA JTA

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and

husband Doug Emhoff send Chanukah

greetings in a video, Dec. 10, 2020.

NATIONAL