What Doug Emhoff’s Rewrite of Hanukkah Says about the Left’s Attitude toward Judaism

Progressives are more comfortable with the idea of Jews as victims than as people who fight back.

Doug Emhoff, the Jewish husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was deservedly lampooned when he was forced to delete a social-media post that botched the story of Hanukkah. As embarrassing as it was, the mistake was quite revealing about the progressive attitude toward Judaism and modern Israel.

In what should have been an easy “Happy Hanukkah” post on X, Emhoff attached a photo of himself and Harris lighting a menorah with the following message:

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. 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 dark times, I think of that story.

But the actual story of Hanukkah is not about Jews hiding; it’s about Jews fighting back in the face of overwhelming odds against those who wanted to force them to assimilate. It also didn’t take just eight days but years for the Maccabees to win religious freedom.