On Thursday (yeah, I know, I only caught up with it now), Doug Emhoff castigated Trump as an antisemite. That’s rich coming from a man who doesn’t know what Hanukkah is, whose daughter funds Hamas, and who belongs to the political party that has antisemitism at its heart. Meanwhile, Trump was a huge friend to Israel, not to mention his Jewish daughter and grandchildren (and the son-in-law he made one of his closest aides).

One of the things that’s happened this political season is that Jews—finally!—are abandoning the Democrat party. They’re doing so because they look at the Democrat’s antisemitism, which is apparent on Democrat-run college campuses across America, in Congress (the Squad, anyone?), and in Biden’s and Kamala’s desperate efforts to slow-walk weapons to Israel while trying to force Israel to enter into ceasefires when she’s winning wars against existential enemies.

Image: Doug Emhoff. YouTube screen grab.

They also see that neither Biden nor Kamala are withholding weapons from Ukraine or pushing it into a ceasefire, even though Ukraine has lost hundreds of thousands of people, whether they fled the country or died in the war. The double standard is obvious.

Meanwhile, Jews have also noticed that Trump’s Abraham Accords are working, that the UAE has remained loyal to Israel, that Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem (Israel’s true capital), that Trump’s beloved Ivanka is Jewish, and that Trump’s equally beloved grandchildren by Ivanka are also Jewish. No wonder, then, that polls are showing a massive shift in Jewish voting for the first time since Reagan.

Ten days ago, during a speech to a Jewish audience, Trump, in his inimitable boastful style, bluntly said that he will always be the Jews’ best friend in the White House (which is true). Equally bluntly, he said that their votes matter so much that, if they don’t vote for him, that could lead to his losing:

Trump: My promise to Jewish Americans is this. With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House. But in all fairness, I already am. pic.twitter.com/s3WTU8Cz6F

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 20, 2024

Trump tells a Jewish group the Jews will be to blame if he loses: "I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven't been treated right, but you haven't been treated right because you're putting yourself in great danger." pic.twitter.com/lEr0kcH5iC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 19, 2024

Every word is true, including the fact that Jews can either be the pebble that turns the stream toward Trump or the nail that loses the battle.

Democrats, of course, spun this last point to mean that Trump is preemptively planning to cast Jews into the flames if he loses. That’s what Doug Emhoff ran with, and he did so while pretending to be Jewish:

“What really bothered me a week or so ago was when Trump got up at an event purporting to fight anti-Semitism and he said vile anti-Semitic things, long tropes that are just terrible. We have to speak out every single time when something like that happens. So I’m going to continue not to be afraid, not to be intimidated. Not to live in fear, but to live openly and proudly as a Jewish person.”

Doug Emhoff is genetically Jewish. Before Kamala got into national politics (especially before it became apparent that Democrats are steeped in antisemitism), there is no evidence that Emhoff lived “openly and proudly as a Jewish person.” There is evidence that Emhoff knows nothing about Judaism. He concedes that it was Kamala (presumably for political reasons) who got him to observe some Jewish rituals but—and this is telling—he knows nothing about Jewish history or ritual.

Nothing more clearly shows this than in Emhoff’s bass-ackwards retelling of Hanukkah, a story of a great Jewish victory over an evil enemy more than 2,000 years ago, when the Maccabees overcame tremendous odds (and suffered terrible losses) to defeat the Syrian Greek colonizers. In Emhoff’s perverse retelling (which he later deleted), the  Jews cowered in the darkness, hiding from their enemies:

“The story of Hanukkah and the story of the Jewish people has always been one of hope and resilience,” Emhoff, who is Jewish, wrote on X. “In the Hanukkah story, the Jewish people were forced into hiding. No one thought they would survive or that the few drops of oil they had would last.”

“But they survived and the oil kept burning,” he added.

“During those eight days in hiding, they recited their prayers and continued their traditions. That’s why Hanukkah means dedication. It was during those dark nights that the Maccabees dedicated themselves to maintaining hope and faith in the oil, each other, and their Judaism. In these dark times, I think of that story,” Emhoff’s post concluded.

Aside from this stunning ignorance, one must wonder what went on in the Emhoff home that his daughter disavows her Jewishness and raises money for the Gazans who dream of Jewish extermination. Maybe that has nothing to do with her dad’s influence, but one sure thing is that Ella Emhoff’s attitudes do not reflect a “proud” Jewish dad.

I’ll end with a wonderful joke that Jack Kemp sent me:

What’s the difference between Doug Emhoff and Donald Trump?

Only Donald Trump has (and will ever have) Jewish grandchildren.