Emhoff visiting Poland, Germany in Biden administration push to combat antisemitism

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is set to visit Krakow, Poland, and Berlin this month as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism.

Emhoff will travel to Krakow on Jan. 26 and visit the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, communications director Liza Acevedo announced early Thursday. At the museum, he will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony and attend the annual commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The trip builds on Emhoff’s work to condemn upticks in hateful rhetoric against Jewish people in the U.S. He hosted a roundtable last month at the White House, during which he warned of an “epidemic of hate facing our country.”

Emhoff, who is Jewish, will be joined by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, on his trip to Krakow and Berlin.

The Berlin leg of the trip will start on Jan. 30, and Emhoff will attend a meeting of special envoys and coordinators working to combat antisemitism.

In Krakow and Berlin, Emhoff will also engage with local Jewish communities and civil society representatives, as well as visit historical and cultural sites, Acevedo said.

Emhoff increased his focus on combating antisemitism after concerns over it rose following former President Trump’s dinner with rapper Ye and Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist and Holocaust denier, at his Florida home in November.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, also went on Alex Jones’s right-wing radio show and espoused antisemitic rhetoric attacking Jewish people and expressing appreciation for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.