Community Responds to Kamala Harris as Biden’s Vice Presidential Pick

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced on Aug. 11 that California Sen. Kamala Harris would be his vice presidential running mate. The 55-year-old Californian is the first Black female to be named to a major party ticket in U.S. history. (She is biracial; her mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica. She also is married to a Jew).

The Journal reached out to local community members immediately after the announcement. Here’s what they had to say: 

Biden made a perfect choice in Kamala. She is tough, indefatigable, principled, smart and ambitious. As a Black woman and a first generation American, Kamala is aligned with many issues at the core of our Jewish and American democratic ideals and values. She was a consistent supporter of Israel during her Senate tenure. As a prosecutor, Kamala also understands law enforcement and can be instrumental in helping our country come to grips with systemic racism and to re-think the way we deal with inequities in our policing and criminal justice systems. As a Jew, as a feminist, as a Democrat, and simply as an American, I feel that Kamala was an excellent choice.
Janice Kamenir-Reznik, chair, Jews United for Democracy & Justice, co-founder, Jewish World Watch

I laughed. I cried. She’s from my state. She’s from Oakland, where I have family and sports teams I root for. She’s fierce. She’s strong. She’s so smart and she’s fearless. I am so excited. And also I am nervous because there is still so much hate — against women, against women of color. I pray our need for change is stronger than that hate. And I worry that she might be seen as “too” liberal. Is she “too” all of the things people on the fence are already worried about? I don’t know. I’m over the moon, essentially. Let’s turn this ship around!
Mayim Bialik, actress and neuroscientist

Sen. Kamala Harris is an excellent choice. She’s smart, articulate, willing to speak truth to power. That she is a woman of color makes the case for her candidacy even stronger. Her policy choices may not be progressive enough for some (and too progressive for others), but what is clear is that Sen. Harris brings to the office strong government experience, will fight to bring our country back to the democratic values we hold dear and is a true friend to those communities whose rights have been under attack for far too long, including the Jewish community and communities of color. 

Her sensitivities to racism and anti-Semitism are keen and will guide her choices. My daughter and I have been fans of Kamala Harris from the beginning and I could not be more excited to share the experience with her of voting for a Black woman for vice president of the United States.
Tzivia Schwartz Getzug, community activist

She is smart, charismatic, energetic and strategic. She has principles but she is not rigid. She understands that politics is the art of the possible. The one time I met her, at a reception during her campaign for attorney general, we got into a serious conversation about the importance of Jewish community support for public education. When I tried to end the conversation, so she could go meet people who could donate to her campaign, she instead stayed focused on a one-on-one conversation with me —  an under-paid civil rights activist — because the issue at hand was more critical than chasing dollars. 

In addition to caring about issues that matter, she has an important virtue at this moment in our history: as a Black, Southeast Asian woman, the child of immigrants, married to and raising children with a white Jewish man, she understands something fundamental about America and the ways that, at its best, it embraces and honors the aspirations of diverse peoples. 

As a multiracial person myself, I know how that  impacts one’s understanding of American realities and American possibilities. With friends and relatives of different racial, religious and cultural backgrounds, her selection is a statement of optimism about our open, inclusive, multiracial American future, not the harsh, fear-driven, white supremacist past that Donald Trump is appealing to. A deeply held American principle is “E Pluribus Unum” — out of many, one. She understands that because she has lived that.
Eric Greene, civil rights activist, diversity consultant and board member of Jewish Multiracial Network

My views about any political candidate are always considered through the prism of their attitude toward Israel. Nowadays, that is the real barometer of anti-Semitism, and I was therefore pleased to read that Sen. Harris has been a strong supporter of AIPAC, and that unlike some on the left-wing of her party, including other presidential candidate hopefuls, she has never suggested conditioning aid to Israel as a way of leveraging Israel to change its policies. Sen. Harris also firmly opposes U.N. votes against Israel or any kind of strong public criticism targeting Israeli policy.
Rabbi Pini Dunner, senior rabbi, Beverly Hills Synagogue

I’m thrilled that Sen. Kamala Harris has been selected and I cannot wait to see the first woman and first person of color elected as vice president of the United States.

Sen. Harris is a progressive powerhouse woman of integrity and a good friend of the Jewish and pro-Israel communities, and I am immensely proud of her service to the people of California. Being on the presidential campaign trail with Kamala, I got to experience that rare combination of brilliance and conviction, fearlessness and focus.

Kamala will continue to fight for equity and justice and the rule of law. The Biden-Harris administration represents a new day for America and I am inspired to make that a reality.
Naomi Goldman, IKAR and Heart of LA Democratic Club Board member

Sen. Harris is an inspired choice. As a fellow lawyer and activist for workers and immigrants, I have long admired Sen. Harris’ dedication to protecting our most vulnerable. In our conversations, she also has shared with me her commitment to a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, which began for her as a child collecting donations for JNF boxes to plant trees in Israel, and continued to her first act as a U.S. senator, sponsoring a bipartisan resolution objecting to U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 that wrongfully deemed the Western Wall as illegally occupied. And, as a fellow child of immigrants, Sen. Harris’ nomination renews my faith in the American Dream, where, to paraphrase Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in America, the only difference between an immigrant and the vice president is a generation.
Sam Yebri, President, 30 Years After