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This Hanukkah, Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff will have 3 menorahs that represent Jewish joy and trauma

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For the next eight days, one menorah will be lit in the office of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff; another will sit in the office of his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris; and a third will illuminate their home.
Each menorah carries symbolism, representing the triumphs or tragedies of Jewish history.
The Second Couple two years ago inaugurated a tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles at their residence. This year, both Harris’ and Emhoff’s offices — both in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus — will have the candelabras as well. At least two menorahs will light up each evening: the one in the residence and the one in Emhoff’s office, where he will be joined by his team for the ritual.
Each of the three melds joy and grief, a nod to a year which included both the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter and Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
The menorah in the residence is on loan from the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the site of the 2018 shooting, which was the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history. It is one of two designed for the site of the massacre by Daniel Libeskind, the renowned architect who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
Libeskind presented the menorahs to the reconstituted synagogue, museum and memorial center this year on Oct. 27, the fifth year anniversary of the attack. Emhoff met Libeskind when he toured Berlin earlier this year, and he has twice visited the Tree of Life synagogue.
The menorah in Emhoff’s office is designed by Erwin Thieberger, a Holocaust survivor and coppersmith who lived in Washington’s Maryland suburbs and who modeled his menorahs after those he had made out of flattened nails and scrap metal in the concentration camps.
This menorah is on loan from the recently inaugurated Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. It was donated to the museum by Thieberger’s late rabbi, Tzvi Porath of Ohr Kodesh Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Another Thieberger menorah featured in the Hanukkah lighting ceremony at the White House in 2015, when Barack Obama was president.
A menorah sits on a table at the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office, Wednesday, December 6, 2023, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House.
(Official White House Photo by Oliver Contreras)
The menorah on display at the entrance to Harris’ office is on loan from the Jewish Museum in New York. Designed by Josef Haller, it was presented in 1935 to Kahilath Jakob, a small prayer room in Vienna, one of 60 or so Jewish places of worship in the city to survive the Nazi occupation of Austria.
“The Vice President and I want to thank the Jewish Museum in New York, Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, and the reimagined Tree of Life for lending us such special and historic menorahs in celebration of Hanukkah,” Emhoff said Thursday in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “These menorahs are incredibly meaningful and deeply impactful. Each one reminds us that we must continue our efforts to combat antisemitism and all forms of hate, while living openly, proudly, and with joy as Jews.”
Emhoff spearheaded a panel that shaped the Biden administration’s antisemitism strategy, which was unveiled earlier this year. He has embraced a role that he has said surprised him, as a positive role model for American Jews.
In 2021, the Second Couple’s menorah came from the home of a businessman, Aaron Feuerstein, who was revered for paying employees for months while he rebuilt a factory destroyed in a fire in 1995. It was a nod to the businesses who sought to keep their staffs employed throughout the COVID 19 pandemic.
Emhoff is lighting the “national menorah” later Thursday on the Ellipse in front of the White House, a decades long tradition administered by the Chabad Hasidic movement. On Sunday, he and Harris will host a formal Hanukkah lighting and party at their residence at the Naval Observatory in northwest D.C.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host their own Hanukkah lighting and party at the White House on Sunday night. A spokeswoman for the First Lady said the menorah in the White House is the same one they inaugurated last year, the first menorah custom-built for White House use.
“It’s made of historic wood from the beams of this house, rescued when President Truman renovated this building,” Jill Biden said at least year’s lighting. “Its hand-hammered silver cups are meant to magnify the glow of the candles, their beauty reminding us both [of] the Hanukkah miracle and the joy it inspired.”
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The post This Hanukkah, Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff will have 3 menorahs that represent Jewish joy and trauma appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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George Washington University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine for One Year

Demonstrators gather at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. on March 21, 2025 to protest the war in Gaza. Photo: Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect.
George Washington University (GW) has suspended the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter operating on its campus until Spring 2026, punishing the group for a series of unauthorized demonstrations it held on school property last month, according to a recent report in The GW Hatchet.
The move marks one of the severest disciplinary sanctions SJP has provoked from the GW administration since it began violating rules on peaceful expression and assembly, as well as targeting school officials for harassment, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Until next May, SJP is barred from advertising and may only convene to “complete sanctions or consult with their advisor,” according to report.
A number of SJP chapters around the country have been disbanded or suspended by university administrators over the past two years.
The gatherings in question occurred during GW’s so-called “Palestine Liberation Week,” the Hatchet added. Administrators repeatedly told SJP to “cease” the activity, but it the ignored their directives, choosing instead to charge ahead with a “teach in” and another event to which it denied an administrator access. By the time the group’s leaders were hauled before the disciplinary panel which shut it down for an entire academic year, it had racked up a bundle of additional misconduct charges for, the Hatchet said, “disorderly conduct, discrimination, and non compliance” — of which it was ultimately found not guilty.
SJP will be placed on probation for one year after its suspension is lifted, the paper continued, during which it must request and acquire prior approval for any expressive activity. Additionally, members will be required to attend “teach-ins on university policy” for “ten consecutive semesters.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, George Washington University has been a hub of extreme anti-Zionist activity that school officials have struggled to quell. A major source of the troubling conduct is SJP, which recently escalated its behavior by issuing an ominous warning to a professor who was involved in crafting a proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza.
“This notice is to inform you that you are hereby evicted from the premises of the George Washington University,” SJP wrote in a missive it taped to the office door of international affairs professor Joseph Pelzman, who first shared the resettlement plan with Trump’s presidential campaign in July 2024, according to an account of events he described to the podcast “America, Baby!” the following month.
Denouncing Pelzman as the “architect of genocide,” SJP added, “Pelzman’s tenure is only one pernicious symptom of the bloodthirsty Zionism permeating our campus … The proprietors of this eviction notice demand your immediate removal.”
SJP’s threat to Pelzman, an accomplished academic who has focused heavily on the Middle East region, came as the group served probation for breaking a slew of school rules during the 2023-2024 academic year — a term which saw it heap abuse on school officials, visitors to campus representing former US President Joe Biden’s administration, and African Americans. Earlier this year, SJP held a “teach-in” that commemorated the First Intifada, an outbreak of Palestinian terrorism which began in Dec. 1987 and, lasting for nearly six years, claimed the lives of scores of Israelis.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post George Washington University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine for One Year first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Far-Left Antisemitism Surged 324.8% Around the World in 2024, New Report Finds

A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
Global antisemitism surged by a staggering 108 percent in 2024 compared to the prior year, fueled largely by far-left ideology, according to a new report.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), a coalition of hundreds of organizations that fight anti-Jewish bigotry around the world, has released its annual report of antisemitic incidents, identifying 6,326 total cases last year with the vast majority — 4,329, or 68.4 percent — fueled by far-left ideology, a reversal from the group’s 2022 research in which the far right dominated and the 2023 findings which found a parity between the political spectrum’s two extremes.
“We are now facing the most severe wave of antisemitism since the end of the Second World War, a phenomenon that demands urgent global attention,” the CAM report states in its introduction. “Jewish communities worldwide have been subjected to an unrelenting onslaught of violence, harassment, and systemic discrimination, fueled by a fusion of far-left, far-right, and Islamist extremism. The international failure to combat this resurgence threatens the very security and stability of Jewish life around the world.”
CAM’s researchers found that incidents motivated by far-left beliefs had increased 324.8 percent from 2023 and Islamist-centered incidents (461) jumped 54.8 percent, while far-right-driven incidents (461) had fallen 54.8 percent. CAM attributed “radicalized social movements, media disinformation campaigns, and efforts to target Jewish communities under the guise of anti-Israel activism” as the primary culprits behind the jump in leftist antisemitism. The group also stated that Islamist recruitment tactics specifically target “vulnerable individuals susceptible to radicalization.”
To explain for the drop in right-wing incidents, the report’s authors suggested that “amid widespread and intensive media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and related protests, political activity, and antisemitism – typical of far-left and Islamist circles – relatively less coverage is dedicated to far-right antisemitic incidents.”
While the report documents an increase in anti-Israel antisemitic speech, it also explains that classical antisemitism remains more likely to motivate hate crimes including vandalism, threats, and assaults.
“Far-right incidents are slightly more likely to manifest as violence and much more likely to involve vandalism than far-left incidents,” the report states, noting that 4.6 percent (21 of 461) of far-right incidents included violence or threats, compared to 3 percent (132 of 4,329) of far-left incidents. “Such trends suggest that far-right antisemites have a greater propensity than far-left antisemites to damage property or harm others,” CAM said.
Of the 6,326 total recorded incidents, 4,907 (77.6 percent) involved hate speech, 822 (13 percent) included vandalism, and 597 (9.4 percent) manifested as physical violence or threats.
The report also noted an increase of 63.7 percent in antisemitic incidents (712) which analysts could not identify with an ideology. These comprised 11.3 percent of the year’s total.
Incidents on campus also drew special attention from researchers, with 1,069 recorded at universities globally, up 120.8 percent compared to 2023 and by 198 percent compared to 2022. CAM’s analysts identified that periods with the highest incidents took place in mid-April and mid-May, correlating with when student activists’ anti-Israel protests hit their peaks.
Groups named as responsible for these demonstrations include Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). “These groups have systematically targeted Jewish students through social exclusion, harassment campaigns, and the dissemination of antisemitic propaganda disguised as political discourse,” the report states.
Researchers also offered a geographic picture of incidents, finding that 70.6 percent took place in the United States (2,553) and Western Europe (1,916). The states with the most incidents were New York (668), California (329), Washington, DC (157), Illinois (145), and Pennsylvania (142), comprising 56.4 percent of US incidents. Factors cited for these states’ higher numbers include the presence of large cities and universities.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also released an annual audit of antisemitic incidents last month, with its research focused on the US and drawing from direct reports the group had received. Researchers counted 9,354 incidents, a 5 percent increase from 2023’s 8,873 incidents, a 344 percent increase over the past five years, and an 893 percent explosion over the past 10 years.
“The rise of antisemitism in 2024 is not a historical aberration — it is a defining moment in modern history,” CAM said when announcing the report. “Without resolute action now, the world risks entering a new dark era where antisemitism is once again condoned, allowed to fester, and institutionalized. Such a process creates a downward spiral, as hate begets hate, leading to the persecution and violence that have typified the Jewish experience over the millennia.”
The post Far-Left Antisemitism Surged 324.8% Around the World in 2024, New Report Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Vows to Pursue ‘Total Dismantlement’ of Iranian Nuclear Program

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump said his goal to achieve the complete “dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program during a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump made the comments during a sit-down discussion anchor Kristen Welker.
“Total dismantlement. Yes, that is all I would accept,” Trump told Welker regarding Iran’s nuclear program. The comments
The US president cautioned that the “world will be destroyed” if Tehran is able to acquire a nuclear weapon.
“I want Iran to be really successful, really great, really fantastic. The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon,” Trump added. “If they want to be successful, that’s OK. I want them to be so successful.”
The president’s comments come amid increasing pressure by Republican lawmakers to clearly outline his position on whether the US should take a more forceful stand against Tehran’s nuclear program, which Western officials believe is ultimately meant to build nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear activities are only for civilian energy purposes.
Trump indicated that he would accept the creation of a civilian nuclear program for Iran, echoing comments from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the White House would support giving Tehran “a pathway to a civil, peaceful nuclear program.”
Tehran has repeatedly claimed that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes rather than building weapons. However, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported last year that Iran had greatly accelerated uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade.
The UK, France, and Germany said in a statement at the time that there is no “credible civilian justification” for Iran’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
Lawmakers and analysts who wish for a tough US posture toward Iran have expressed concern about the ongoing US-Iran talks to reach a nuclear deal, arguing the Trump administration has seemingly vacillated positions on Iran’s nuclear efforts.
US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff drew backlash last month when, during a Fox News interview, he suggested that Iran would be allowed to pursue a nuclear program for so-called civilian purposes, saying that Iran “does not need to enrich past 3.67 percent.” The next day, Witkoff backtracked on these remarks, writing on X/Twitter that Tehran must “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
Some members of the former Obama administration have expressed cautious optimism that the approach of Trump and his team to the current nuclear talks might mirror the steps they took to reach the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 deal which placed temporary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of major international sanctions. Trump withdrew the US from the accord during his first presidential term in 2018, arguing it was too weak and would undermine American interests.
However, many high-profile lawmakers believe that the Trump administration should aggressively pursue the complete destruction of the Iranian nuclear program, arguing that such a program poses a substantial threat not only to Israel but also to the United States.
“We cannot negotiate with Iran. It’s time to destroy their nuclear program and neutralize the remaining capabilities of its proxies. I remain steadfast with Israel. Provide whatever is necessary to carry this out,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) posted on X/Twitter on Sunday.
Israel has been among the most vocal proponents of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arguing that the US should pursue a “Libyan option” to eliminate the possibility of Tehran acquiring a nuclear weapon by overseeing the destruction of Iran’s nuclear installations and the dismantling of equipment.
The post Trump Vows to Pursue ‘Total Dismantlement’ of Iranian Nuclear Program first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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