WASHINGTON (AP) – The first Jewish individual to be married to a nationally elected U.S. leader, Doug Emhoff is the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris. He expressed his shock at the killing of American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other Israeli prisoners kidnapped by Hamas on Tuesday.
Speaking at a vigil for the hostages at his synagogue in Washington, Emhoff said, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Hersh and his parents, or about the five others and their families.” He added: “This is hard. I feel raw. I’m gutted.”
In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, Emhoff—who would become the country’s “first gentleman” if Harris wins the presidency in November—has been a well-known administration ally with the Jewish community and a vocal opponent of antisemitism. During the attack, some 1,200 people—at least 40 of whom were Americans—were slain, and another 250 were taken prisoner.
“How you feel right now is how I feel,” Emhoff said at the event at the Adas Israel Congregation organized by local and national Jewish groups. “And how we all feel is something Kamala hears directly from me.”
He added: “Hersh’s loss feels personal to the two of us. We’re both grieving.”
A day after Israeli forces found Goldberg-Polin’s and Harris’s bodies in a tunnel beneath Gaza, Emhoff described their conversation with the parents of the deceased. He claimed that despite their grief at their son’s passing, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jonathan Polin were keeping Harris updated on the status of their efforts to secure a cease-fire agreement that would rescue further prisoners.
“Part of Rachel and Jon’s world had just ended, and they somehow are still looking forward and looking out for others,” Emhoff said.
He continued: “Jon and Rachel’s hearts have room to hold everyone. They are not giving up, and neither can we. Not on this 333rd day. Not ever. Not until every hostage is reunited with their family.”
Emhoff added that Harris and President Joe Biden are working “around the clock to get a hostage and cease-fire deal done.” He said, “The time to bring them home is now.”
Goldberg-Polin and Polin addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month as part of their family’s international journey to draw attention to the hostages’ situation. Emhoff acknowledged that “we have no hope of ‘never again,’ unless we tell the story again and again,” and that the Jewish community needs to keep telling the hostage stories.
