Ultimately We Are Alone -- Schumer

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New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Jewish Democrat who is the majority leader, delivers a speech on antisemitism in the U.S. Capitol, Nov. 29, 2023:

“Jewish Americans are left alone at least in our eyes to ponder what this all means, and where it could lead,” Schumer, the Jewish New York Democrat, said in opening Wednesday’s Senate session. “Can you understand why the Jewish people feel isolated when we hear some praise Hamas and chant its vicious slogan?”

The slogan he was referring to, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is one embraced by a member of his own party, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American who advocates for a single Israeli-Palestinian state. She is also among a growing group of progressive lawmakers calling for a permanent ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Schumer started out, as he often does, by proudly noting his status as the most senior Jewish elected official in U.S. history. But he articulated what many Jews — who vote overwhelmingly for Democrats — have said over Thanksgiving meals, Shabbat gatherings and after synagogue services: After years of alarm at the rise of antisemitism on the right, many fear that the left is also becoming inhospitable, with some progressives praising the Hamas attack.

“In some cases, people even celebrated what happened, describing it as the deserved fate of ‘colonizers’ and calling for ‘glory to the martyrs’ who carried out these heinous attacks,” Schumer said. “Many of the people who have expressed these sentiments in America aren’t neo-Nazis, or card-carrying Klan members, or Islamist extremists. They are in many cases people that most liberal Jewish Americans felt previously were their ideological fellow travelers.”

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https://www.jta.org/2023/11/29/politics/ultimately-we-are-alone-schumer-calls-out-antisemitism-on-the-left-in-a-speech-on-the-senate-floor?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-65295-20856