WATCH: Antisemitism 'must be condemned,' second gentleman Emhoff says at National Menorah lighting

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff said late Thursday that antisemitism and the targeting of Jews "must be condemned ... unequivocally and without context."

Emhoff made the comments during the lighting of the National Menorah on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Thursday marked the start of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, also known as the "festival of lights."

Emhoff, who is the first Jewish person to be the spouse of a nationally elected leader in the U.S., said he's been speaking to others in the Jewish American community and he said that amid this ongoing war between Israel and Hamas: "The common denominator of these conversations is that we’re feeling alone, we feel hated, we’re in pain."

The second gentleman's comments come after the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology were criticized for their testimony during a House hearing this week. All three presidents are facing backlash for at the time, not directly answering the question of whether an individual calling for the genocide of Jews violated their universities' codes of conduct.

Emhoff added to the criticism, saying "We've seen the presidents of some of our most elite universities literally unable to denounce calling for the genocide of Jews as antisemitic," adding, "that lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable."

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