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

