Vice President Kamala Harris's husband deleted a Monday Hanukkah post that critics derided as inaccurate.
"The story of Hanukkah and the story of the Jewish people has always been one of hope and resilience," second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, wrote in the now-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter. "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," he continued. "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 these dark times, I think of that story."
He accompanied the post with a photo of Harris and him lighting a candle on a menorah.
Hanukkah and the tradition surrounding the oil that burned for eight days, however, is not about Jews going into hiding. The holiday is about the Maccabean revolt, in which a group of Jews successfully revolted against Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes after he defiled their Second Temple.
Hanukkah celebrates that revolt, as well as the dedication of the Second Temple. In the Talmud, Judas Maccabeus, the revolt's leader, found only one day's worth of proper oil with which to rededicate the temple after the Jews retook it, but the oil miraculously lasted for eight days.
Several commentators slammed Emhoff on X for the post.
"Wait you're telling me Doug Emhoff doesn't know anything about Judaism I can't believe it I'm totally shocked I'm stunn-," wrote the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro.
"The rewriting of Hanukkah as a story of Jews hiding rather than Jews fighting against assimilation is absurd, but also very revealing about the attitude of the left," National Review's Philip Klein said.
Emhoff has spoken out about a rise in anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attacks. At a White House menorah lighting ceremony last week, he criticized the presidents of three elite universities for their controversial congressional testimony on anti-Semitism earlier this month. At the ceremony, he told the Jewish community that members of the administration "have your back."