Schumer condemns anti-Semitism and warns the left against complicity in it

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, warned Wednesday that some liberals and young people were “unwittingly supporting and encouraging anti-Semitism” in the name of social justice, fueling a dangerous rise in intolerance against Jews amid Israel’s war against Hamas. .

In a deeply personal speech from the Senate, largely aimed at members of his own party, Mr. Schumer, the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, delivered a more than 40-minute explanation and condemnation of the anti-Semitism in America that has been on the rise since Israel flared up. began retaliating against Hamas for the October 7 terrorist attack on defenseless Israeli civilians.

In the aftermath of the attack, he said, many Americans had skipped any expressions of sympathy for the victims and instead attacked the Israeli government’s previous actions against the Palestinians.

“Can anyone imagine that a horrific terrorist attack in another country would be so well received?” he asked, noting that the long sweep of history had taught the Jews a painful lesson: “in the end, we are alone.”

Mr Schumer’s warning came as anti-Semitic hate crimes have skyrocketed and pro-Palestinian protests, some with anti-Semitic signs and slogans, have increased across the country, while civilian casualties in Gaza have soared. These events have fueled a bitter debate over the war and exposed a sharp divide within the Democratic Party.

Many progressives have taken up the Palestinian cause an extension of the racial and social justice movements who have recently dominated Democratic politics, while more mainstream members of the party have continued to offer unequivocal support for Israel’s actions and response to Hamas’ attack.

But the vitriol against Israel in the United States, Mr. Schumer said, has spilled over into widespread anti-Semitism, “the likes of which we have not seen in this country for generations — if ever.”

“Antisemites are taking advantage of the pro-Palestinian movement to embrace hatred and bigotry against the Jewish people,” Mr. Schumer said. “But instead of calling out this dangerous behavior for what it is, we see many of our friends and fellow citizens – especially young people eager for justice – unknowingly supporting and encouraging their cause.”

He spoke of the deep sense of betrayal, isolation and fear that he and many Jews have felt as they witnessed the response from the left, people he said were “most liberal Jewish Americans.” previously felt like their ideological fellow travelers.”

“Not long ago, many of us marched together for Black and brown lives,” Schumer said. “We stand against anti-Asian hatred. We protested bigotry against the LGBTQ community. We fought for reproductive justice, recognizing that injustice against one oppressed group is injustice against all.”

But, he added, “in the eyes of some, that principle apparently does not apply to the Jewish people.”

In an interview after his speech, Mr. Schumer said he had been eager to speak out on the issue for weeks because he felt he was uniquely positioned to deliver a sharp message to his party.

“I am progressive; “I have had a lot of good relationships with all the people who are protesting, but I also feel the urgency: the Jewish people are tormented,” he said. “I had an obligation in many places: to the Jewish people, to my fellow progressives.”

Of the liberals he addressed, he said: “I had to say it because I don’t think they know. I don’t think she has any ill will.”

He noted the delicate message he was conveying, which he began with a careful disclaimer that he was not trying to label all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism or direct hatred toward any group. But Mr. Schumer also made it clear that he felt compelled to highlight this, pointing out during the interview that his last name is derived from the Hebrew word for “guardian.”

In the speech, Schumer implored Americans, especially young people, to “learn the history of the Jewish people,” who he said have been “isolated and left alone for generations to fight anti-Semitism.”

“Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable, just 80 years after Hitler wiped out half the Jewish population around the world, while many countries turned their backs?” he said. “Can you understand the deep fear we have about what Hamas could do if left to its own devices?”

He explained the visceral reaction of many Jews to the charged phrase “from the river to the sea,” a pro-Palestinian slogan embraced by Hamas that many see as a call for the eradication of the Jewish state, which lies between Jordan and the Jordan River. Mediterranean Sea. It has become a mainstay of pro-Palestinian protests across the country in the past two months and was featured in a video distributed by Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan and the only Palestinian member of Congress, who was voted into law this month House of Representatives was censured for using.

Mr. Schumer said that “a lot of people” sing it “not because they hate Jewish people, but because they support a better future for Palestinians,” but he added that Hamas and terrorist groups have used it to call for it extermination of Jews.

“Given the history of oppression, expulsion and state violence that is practically embedded in the Jewish DNA, can you blame the Jewish people for hearing loud and clear a violently anti-Semitic message every time we hear that chant?” he asked.

Mr. Schumer argued that the rise of this type of language stemmed in part from the fact that many Americans, especially young people, did not fully understand how the Jewish people have been persecuted throughout history.

“Because some Jewish people have done well in America, because Israel has increased its power and territory, there are those who believe that Jewish Americans are not vulnerable,” he said. “All Jewish Americans carry the scar tissue of this generational trauma, which directly informs how we experience and process today’s rhetoric.”

For his family, Mr. Schumer said, this included the story of a great-grandmother in what is now Ukraine who was shot by the Nazis on her porch along with about 30 relatives ranging in age from 3 months to 85 years old — a chilling parallel to the stories of what happened during the October 7 attack on Israel.

Mr. Schumer said that Americans, especially young people, need to understand why Jewish people defend Israel — “not because we wish harm on the Palestinians,” he said, “but because we fear a world in which Israel is forced into groups like Hamas that want to wipe out all Jewish people from the planet.”

He called on Americans, regardless of where they stood in the war in Gaza, to “condemn anti-Semitism with complete clarity as soon as we see it, before it metastasizes into something even worse.”

Jews, he said, view the rise of anti-Semitism as “a crisis, a five-alarm fire that needs to be put out,” while many of his non-Jewish friends see it “just as a problem, a matter of concern.”