Friends –

I typically send out a weekly e-mail on Fridays but wanted to share this piece of news as soon as it landed.

Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff affixed a mezuzah on the front door of the Vice President’s Residence at the Naval Observatory, during a private ceremony.

For more information and to see some photos, check out:
The Second Gentleman’s tweet.
This article in the Forward.
This article in JTA.
Thank you, as always, for your partnership.

Best,
Chanan Weissman

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish, recently affixed a mezuzah to the doorpost of the vice president’s residence and have chosen another for the residence’s interior.

A mezuzah, a tiny scroll with auspicious biblical verses ensconced in a decorative case, in Judaism marks the home as a sacred space. It was attached to the front door frame of the vice president’s official home, on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory about three miles from the White House, during a private ceremony on Oct. 7, Emhoff confirmed on Thursday.

Link to tweet

Harris and Emhoff decided to put a mezuzah on their official residence in the spring when they moved into it, after it had undergone renovations, a White House official said.

The second gentleman’s parents, Barbara and Michael Emhoff, attended the ceremony to attach the mezuzah during their first visit to Washington, D.C., this year. It was officiated by Rabbi Peter S. Berg, senior rabbi of The Temple, a Reform synagogue and the oldest Jewish congregation in Atlanta, which loaned them the mezuzah. Berg first discussed it with Harris during her visit to Atlanta in June on a nationwide tour to urge people to get vaccinated.