Chuck Schumer, the Democrat United States Senator from New York, has for years proclaimed that he is the leader, guardian,  and protector of the Jewish people.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Schumer has been the Majority Leader of the Senate since 2021, and has served as a U.S. Senator since 1999. 

As such, he could have been a vocal advocate for Judaism, but he hasn’t. 

Democrats have falsely described Schumer as a 'shomer,' perhaps due to the similarity of the words.

'Shomer' is a Hebrew word for guardian or keeper, in that one guards the synagogue or the Jewish people as a whole.

'Schmuck' is a Yiddish word that has lost most of its ‘bad word’ connotation. Initially, and some decades ago, it was used to describe a man’s genitals. It was forbidden for a female to utter the word lest she be branded as loose and immoral. But over time, the word has more commonly been used to define a major jerk. Schumer is all that and more.

Here's why:

The GOP-led Education and Workforce Committee issued a 325-page report regarding what went wrong in higher education during the recent anti-Israel protests on campus, preceded by years of antisemitic indoctrination and activity.

Following the horrific crimes perpetrated on Israeli soil on Oct. 7, 2023, these protests exploded. But rather than condemn them as the result of years of flourishing antisemitism on campuses, Schumer said it was not a big deal.

He went to the heads of Columbia University, not as a guardian to excoriate them for the evil they were allowing on their campuses, but to tell them not to worry -- the incubating antisemitism and the Jew-hating protests would all blow over. More infuriatingly, he told them that the Democrats didn’t care and that it was only the Republicans who did.

Actually, that is an accusation that we Republican Jews have been muttering for some time. And we have mused for decades why and how any Jew could vote Democrat.  With notable exceptions such as John Fetterman and Richard Torres, the Democrat party has not been best friends with American Jews.

Dov Hikind, a former Democrat Brooklyn state Assemblyman, who is now a Republican heading the advocacy group, Americans Against Antisemitism, calls Schumer a ‘kapo traitor.’ 

"He is a traitor to America. He is a traitor to the Jewish people. Shame on him! This is what the Democratic Party has become."
 

It is impossible to disagree with Hikind. The Hamas attack on Israel was the worst catastrophe to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The anti-Israel/anti-Jewish protests in the United States were a systemic shock to American Jews. Antisemitism or Jew-hatred as it is also now defined, hadn’t reared its ugly head in decades.

But what did the Jewish politicians in the Democrat party do to protect American Jews?  Absolutely nothing. Schumer’s absence was more egregious because he has in the past referred to himself as the Shomer. His arrogance is only rivaled by his hypocrisy.

Our protectors in the Republican Party are too numerous to individually name. But two come immediately to mind. We all saw and heard U.S. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik bravely skewer three arrogant ivy league presidents. Her cross examination of the three dunces, revealing their moral equivalancies, was epic.

Donald Trump is a true Shomer. During his first presidential term he moved the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem -- something many of his predecessors had promised to do, but didn’t. Trump proclaimed that Jews born in Jerusalem were Israeli -- thereby reversing Obama’s odious ruling that they were not.  And he brokered the far-reaching and super successful Abraham Accords which brought peace between Israel and four Arab countries -- a peace that has held to this day and through the terrible war.

If Schumer had one ounce of shame he would resign and attempt to atone for the harm he has caused. But he doesn’t, and he won't.

Image: Center for American Progress Action Fund, via Flickr // CC BY-ND 2.0