it came to our attention that this historic mezuzah that survived a fire apparently at the temple. so my parents, both kids, and their others were able to be here and participate in the ceremony. and i got to tell you there were tears. it was very emotional to be able to do this. i m sure. and it s the first ever on the vice president s residence or the white house. being with my parents who are in their 80s, think about their lifetime, they were born in the 30s and 40s, and what they ve seen and experienced to be able to have their son be the first jewish person married to a vice president or a president, and then to just live openly as a jew. proudly. proudly and openly, which is how i m doing this. and it just when they saw that, it just really hit them hard. that was very emotional. what does it mean to you that
stuff, so when she s there, i ll maybe sit here and look at my stuff, once in a while i ll nod and say hi. how you doing over there, not a bad place to unwind. emhoff isn t just the first second gentleman, he s the first jewish spouse of any president or vice president. american jews everywhere, and everyone else around the world watching, it is such an honor to be here tonight as the first second gentleman of the united states. this is a first. this is a mezuzah. it is a fix to entrances of jewish houses to fulfill the commandment of writing the word of god on the door of their home. this particular one has a lot of historic significance. it came from a temple in atlanta, a temple in which martin luther king preached at. i knew when we moved here, we were going to have a mezuzah, we did some research.
mezuzah existed, survived a fire apparently at the temple. so my parents, both kids, and others were able to be here and participate in the ceremony affixing this. and i got to tell you, there were tears. it was very emotional to be able to do this. and it s the first mezuzah ever on the vice president s residence or the white house. being with my parents who are in their 80s and think about their lifetime, they were born in the 30s and early 40s, and what they ve seen and experienced. to be able to have their son be the first jewish person married to a vice president or a president and then to just live openly as a jew, a sense proudly. proudly and openly, which is how i m doing this. and when they saw that, it just really hit them hard. that was very emotional. what does it mean to you that you are the first jewish person
sit here and look at my stuff, once in a while and say hi. what you doing over there? not a bad place. emhoff isn t just the first second gentleman, he s the first jewish spouse of any president or vice president. american jews everywhere and everyone else around the world watching, it is such an honor to be here tonight as the first second gentleman of the united states. [ cheers ] this is a first. this is a mezuzah. a mezuzah is affixed to entrances of jewish houses to fulfill the commandment of writing the word of god on the door posts of their home. and this particular mezuzah has a lot of historic significance. it came from a temple in atlanta, a temple in which martin luther king preached at. i knew when we moved here we were going to have a mezuzah. we did some research and came to our attention that this historic
and more importantly his wife are presenting or making history with. by being in these roles. one of them is the fact that doug emhoff is the first jewish person in any of sort of the four roles, president, vice president, first lady or now second gentleman. and they put a mezuzah on the door post of the naval observatory where they live. it is something that jews put there as a way to commemorate or remember god s commandments. and he wanted to do that to make a point for a lot of reasons. one of which is that there is a rise in anti-semitism in america. and he wants to use his platform to speak out. he did release a statement most recently about certainly the kanye west controversy saying that hate has no and anti-semitism has no place in america. so that is one of many things, erica, he and i spoke about as we walked around the naval