I had no idea Biden has a Jewish family. That’s actually good
Joe Biden doesn’t need to talk about his Jewish family — he’s already proven himself to be a mensch. The fact that he has Jewish grandchildren is merely icing on the cake.
By SOPHIE VERSHBOW/JTA
NOVEMBER 19, 2020
Last Thursday night, 567 days after Joe Biden officially announced his presidential campaign and five days after he won the election, I learned that all of Biden’s children married Jewish partners.
I’ll admit, I was surprised. There I was, gushing over our new Jewish second gentleman-elect, Doug Emhoff, when I discovered there was a gaggle of Jewish grandchildren to coo over, too. But here’s what makes Biden’s extended Jewish family so significant to me: I didn’t need to know they exist in order to believe that Joe Biden supports the Jewish community.
For the past four years, President Trump has used his daughter Ivanka, her husband Jared Kushner and their children as the “I have a Black friend” of Judaism. Any time he’s been accused of antisemitism, he and his surrogates hold them up as proof of his support for America’s Jewish population — with nothing more to back it up.
Case in point: At the vice presidential debate with Kamala Harris in October, Mike Pence deflected concerns that the president failed to condemn neo-Nazis when he told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” because “President Trump has Jewish grandchildren. His daughter and son-in-law are Jewish. This is a president who respects and cherishes all of the American people.”
