President Joe Biden marked the fifth night of Hanukkah — the Jewish holiday known as the “festival of lights” — with a reception at the White House on Monday night.
At the event, the president condemned the "sickening" rise in antisemitism across the country and around the world while assuring the crowd that he stands firmly with Israel amid its war with Hamas.
Biden told the crowd of roughly 800 guests he recognized that "you’re hurting from the silence, and the fear, and for your safety, because of a surge in antisemitism in the United States of America and around the world — it’s sickening."
"We see it across our communities, and schools, and colleges, and social media, they surface painful scars, from millennia of hate to genocide of the Jewish people," the president said.
Biden called on "all Americans to make clear there is no place for hate in America – against Jews, Muslims or anybody else."
The president also reaffirmed his staunch backing of Israel's right to defend itself, but warned that "the whole world's public opinion can shift overnight."
"My commitment to the safety of Jewish people, and the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is unshakable," the president said, adding that Israel must "be careful" in the face of shifting opinions. "We can't let that happen."
He touted the efforts his administration has taken on both sides of the war, jointly extolling the release of hostages -- "We've gotten more than 100 hostages out and we’re not going to stop till we get everyone on the home," Biden said -- and U.S. efforts to "lead the world in humanitarian assistance to innocent Palestinian civilians."
Attendees included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in U.S. history, roughly two dozen members of Congress, Holocaust survivors and Jewish community leaders.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the Senior Rabbi at New York’s Central Synagogue and a pioneering leader in the Reform Judaism movement, was on hand to lead the traditional menorah lighting. She praised Biden for his backing of Israel amid the war with Hamas, which just entered its second month.
"You’ve been a steadfast supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself," she said of the president. "A trusted and true friend to the Jewish people."
Since the Oct. 7 attack, which killed roughly 1,200 in Israel and launched the war, Buchdahl said, "its only gotten darker, with many around the world justifying terrorism, normalizing antisemitism, with the pain of so many lives lost, Israeli and Palestinian, in this just but tragic war."
Buchdahl, the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi or cantor in North America and the first woman to lead Central Synagogue in its 180-year history, previously visited the White House to lead the menorah lighting in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama.
According to Jewish tradition, the menorah is symbolic of the miracle that occurred after the Maccabes reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem from the Seleucid Empire. There was only enough oil to Temple menorah for one day, but it lasted for eight days — hence the length of the Hanukkah holiday.
The menorah was lit Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president who has led the Biden administration’s efforts to counter antisemitism. It was made, in part, from the original timbers of the White House.
Even before the war in Gaza broke out, the Biden White House has worked to fight back against antisemitism. In May, the administration released a first-ever strategy to combat anti-Jewish hate, which details more than 100 new actions the federal government will take to increase awareness and understanding of antisemitism, protect Jewish institutions and communities, fight against the normalization of antisemitism and build cross-community solidarity aimed at countering antisemitism.
But antisemitism has only intensified in some quarters since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants sparked Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, is the first Jewish person to be the spouse of one of the country’s nationally elected leaders. Last week, he presided over the lighting ceremony of a massive menorah in front of the White House to mark Hanukkah’s first night, saying then that American Jews are “feeling alone” and “in pain.”
In an interview with Spectrum News in September around the Rosh Hashanah holiday, Emhoff discussed his historic White House role. He also reflected on the kind of world he wants to live in, echoing the message of an op-ed he penned a year prior about the focus of the holiday.
“I want to live in a world that's safe. I want to live in a world that's free, that's equitable, that's fair, where we have a rule of law, where people believe in that,” he said. “I wrote that a year ago and one of the things I also committed to do, was do everything I can in my power to help and to fight hate, but also to fight for other people. And I think I've really done that and this year, I'm recommitting myself to do even more.”
On Saturday, Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Universities across the U.S. have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from the war in Gaza.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.