Summary

Kamala Harris was born in 1964 and is currently serving as the U.S. Vice President.

In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. After earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, in 2010 Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s Attorney General.

In the 2020, then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris as his running mate. Biden-Harris won the 2020 presidential election against then-President Trump and Vice President Pence.

Below is Vice President Harris’s voting record and public positions on issues important to the Jewish Community. 

In April 2024, when a U.S-led international alliance helped defend Israel from Iran’s direct missile attack, Vice President Harris tweeted that “Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad.”

In December 2023, she stood at a global climate conference in Dubai to declare, “President Biden and I have been clear: Israel has a right to defend itself. And we will remain steadfast in that conviction.”

Vice President Harris hosted an event at the White House on June 17, 2024, with the participation of former hostages, to emphasize the need for continued attention to the victims of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas. She stated that, “We cannot look away and we will not be silent. My heart breaks for all these survivors and their families, and for all the pain and suffering from the past eight months in Israel and Gaza.”

Another issue on which she has been vocal is the humanitarian situation in Gaza. In March 2024, she called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the fighting, adding that “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid.”

In response to Israel’s decision to ban the entry of Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, then-Senator Harris criticized the decision, and tweeted: “I don’t believe any nation should deny entry to elected Members of Congress, period. It’s an affront to the United States. Open and engaged foreign relations are critical to advancing U.S. interests. Trump is playing politics as he weakens our global leadership.”

Vice President Harris has been vocal about the dangers of antisemitism and has called to not become “complacent in the face of hate and antisemitism.”

Although not a Senator at the time and did not vote on it, Harris expressed support for the Iran nuclear deal. She suggested that she would reenter the Iran deal, but added that she “will want to strengthen it, and that will mean extending the sunset provisions, including ballistic missile testing, and also increasing oversight.” 

Vice President Harris has expressed her support for the State of Israel and argued that Israel should never be a partisan issue. She has condemned anti-Israel bias at the UN. The first resolution she cosponsored as a member of the U.S. Senate was a resolution that objected to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which claimed that Israel’s settlements have no legal validity. Senator Harris is a supporter of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has opposed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and argued that it “seeks to weaken Israel, but it will only isolate the nation and steer Israelis against prerequisite compromises for peace.”

In 2019, then-Senator Harris was one of the Democratic Senators who voted against the Strengthening America’s Middle East Security Act which, among other things, strengthens Israel’s security and allows a state or local government to adopt measures to divest its assets from entities that boycott Israel. Nevertheless, she stated that she “strongly supports security assistance to strengthen Israel’s ability to defend itself.”