WASHINGTON — Weeks before the election that would make him one of the most prominent Jewish Americans ever in U.S. politics, Doug Emhoff stepped off his wife's vice presidential campaign trail and headed to Pittsburgh to meet privately with those affected by the 2018 synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshippers.

“It was really, really impactful and it was something that stayed with me for the rest of the campaign, and certainly once we took office at the beginning of 2021,” Emhoff said in an interview Wednesday in his office on the second floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, right across a closed street from the Oval Office.

At a time of rising antisemitism across the country, Emhoff, the second gentleman of the United States and the husband of its first female vice president, Kamala Harris, has been given a platform that no other Jew has ever had.

He returned to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, almost five years after the worst antisemitic attack in American history, and laid a memorial stone at the Squirrel Hill building that housed three congregations — Dor Hadash, New Life, and Tree of Life.

“Being the first man in this role being married to the first woman in her role, I thought that would be the biggest deal,” Emhoff told the Post-Gazette. “But as it turned out, I'm the first Jewish person ever married to a president or vice president, the first Jewish White House principal ever. That, as it turned out, was an equally big deal and something that's very important. I feel a great responsibility for being in that role as a Jewish person.”

Steve Irwin, chair of the Anti-Defamation League region that includes Western Pennsylvania, went so far as to liken Emhoff to a modern-day Queen Esther. As queen of the ancient Persian empire, she saved the Jewish people from genocide. Jews celebrate their delivery from destruction every year on the holiday of Purim.

Emhoff traces an increase in antisemitic incidents beginning with the 2017 march by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, an event that led Joe Biden to run for president after then-President Donald Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.” And the ADL's annual audit of antisemitic incidents continued to set new records.

“Coming in,” he recalled, “I realized very quickly that being a Jew, being in this role with the rise in antisemitism and frankly, with a good push from my wife, who said, 'Look honey, this issue is there. It's found you. You've got to lean into it.'”

He said Harris told him: “You've got to be at that table and speak for the millions of people who aren't at that table, some of them aren't around any more. You're speaking for them. You've got to be there for them.”

Through her political career, Harris has been a strong ally for Jews and Israel. She joined Emhoff on one of the three trips he's made to meet with Pittsburgh survivors and family members since the 2018 massacre. (The gunman, Robert Bowers, was convicted and sentenced to death this year.)

As a U.S. senator from California, Harris took Emhoff to Israel — his first and only visit to the Jewish state, he said. There are mezuzahs — small cases containing parchments with Biblical verses — attached to doorposts of the vice president's residence. They celebrate the Jewish holidays there.

Emhoff has used his unique position to write and speak about antisemitism and to meet with Jewish leaders.

“You see the impact. Representation matters,” Emhoff said. “I came in and said, 'We're all different, we come from different political perspectives, different religious perspectives and all over the map, but there's one thing we have in common: We're all Jews and antisemitism affects us all equally. So let's just fight this together. Let's bring this group together and combat antisemitism together.' That was my simple message.”

The ADL reported a record 3,697 antisemitic incidents last year, up 36% from 2021. That included 114 in Pennsylvania, also the highest ever reported and a 63% increase compared to the year before.

“In an era of increased antisemitism, any time we can have a Jewish person in a high-profile position is beneficial,” said Adam Hertzman, an associate vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. “It's kind of a marker of how far we've come.”

Emhoff was there when Biden announced his U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism to mobilize federal and state officials, educational institutions, community and religious organizations, and the private sector to talk about the contributions of Jewish Americans, teach about the Holocaust, and come together to speak out against antisemitism and other hate.

Last month, the Biden administration announced it would apply the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover bias toward Jews.

“You name it, I've met with them to talk about the plan and to advance the goals that are set forth in the plan,” Emhoff said.

He more recently has turned his attention to the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack against Israel by Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government. He bemoaned “the horrific terrorist slaughter of innocent babies and grandmothers and Holocaust survivors and music festival goers” in the interview.

“Like most Jews, I'm in shock. I'm still processing it,” he said. “Since the horrific attack on 10/7, we have seen a marked increase in antisemitism, which means the work we have been doing in the administration to combat antisemitism just takes on more urgency.”

From Oct. 7 to Oct. 23, the ADL recorded 312 antisemitic incidents, 190 of them connected to Israel and its war with Hamas. There were 64 incidents, four of them Israel-related, during the same period a year ago, the ADL said.

The list includes 109 anti-Israel rallies, including one in Pittsburgh, that called for violence against Jews or support for Hamas.

Emhoff said his visit to Pittsburgh on Tuesday was scheduled to mark five years since the shooting and let him meet with people he has been keeping in touch with since his 2020 visit.

“It was really just to check in on everyone,” he said, “and to continue a dialogue that had been ongoing for several years and just to see how everyone was doing. And just to listen.”

The Hamas terrorist attack also was a major topic of conversation, he said.

“What happened in Israel just made the meeting all the more — would say from my perspective — emotional,” he said. “We were able to share with each other how we were feeling.”

The visit was especially meaningful coming from such a high-ranking Jewish official, said Marcia Bronstein, regional director for the American Jewish Community.

“Doug Emhoff being there gives a lot of solace to the community,” Bronstein said. “It means everything. It means they're not forgotten. It means the victims who have passed on are not forgotten. It means their legacies are not forgotten.”