The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) expressed pain and offense at comments by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) which targeted the Orthodox Jewish community, calling his remarks “a nasty swipe against other Jews, bordering on bigotry.”
In a meeting between Democratic Senators and leaders of several Jewish organizations last week, according to news reports, Schumer singled out “Orthodox Jews” for what he considered to be their failure to adequately condemn President Trump for criticizing violence and hate “on many sides” last year, after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia turned into a violent melee with members of Antifa. Schumer then apparently left the meeting before giving members of the Orthodox Union, the sole Orthodox organization present, the opportunity to respond.
“It is ironic that Mr Schumer singles out an entire community as he calls on them to combat racism elsewhere,” commented Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, Vice President of the CJV and Queens resident. “It looks like he has his own scale to determine what is acceptable discrimination. This was a nasty swipe against other Jews, bordering on bigotry.”
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The CJV welcomed the comments of NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who called Schumer’s comments “the height of political hypocrisy” and “distasteful, shameful and arrogant.” Responding to Schumer’s remarks, Hikind said, “if the Senator was genuinely concerned about confronting hate and anti-Semitism, he wouldn’t have given President Obama a pass when the Obama administration did everything possible to marginalize Israel. Where was Schumer when Linda Sarsour showed support for terrorists and undermined the existence of Israel? Or when Black Lives Matter adopted anti-Israel platforms? Has the Senator held press conferences confronting the racist BDS movement, which seeks to isolate and starve innocent Israelis? The best candidate who Senator Schumer saw fit to lead the DNC was Keith Ellison, a friend of Louis Farrakhan who called Hitler ‘a great man.’”
“That took courage, to confront New York’s senior Senator, a fellow Democrat, so vocally,” said Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, Chairman of the CJV Rabbinic Circle and a resident of Upper Manhattan. “And Assemblyman Hikind is right across the board. Sen. Schumer was silent when President Obama nastily snubbed Israeli PM Netanyahu, called the latter a ‘liar,’ and orchestrated the UN condemnation of the State of Israel. Instead of hypocritically attacking a different Jewish community, perhaps it is time he put his own house in order.”