New York – An otherwise congenial meeting between Jewish organizational officials and Democratic senators apparently turned testy when Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said Orthodox Jews should do more to call out President Donald Trump for failing to confront hate in the United States.
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Schumer, D-N.Y. was singling out what he depicted as a tepid reaction to Trump’s equivocation following the neo-Nazi and white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August.
Members of the Orthodox group present at the meeting on Wednesday, the Orthodox Union, responded by saying that it and other groups had expressed concerns about Trump’s remarks in a timely fashion after the demonstration, participants told JTA.
The annual meeting is an off-the-record forum for Democrats and Jewish leaders to exchange notes on topics of concern. JTA spoke to a number of participants who would not go on the record. The perceived intensification of anti-Semitism was one of several topics. Others included the Trump administration and Israel, and Democratic efforts to protect illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.
The Senate was hours away from passing a critical spending bill, and so a number of issues were raised regarding funding, including for a program that underwrites security protection for nonprofits, and for legislation that would extend disaster relief assistance to religious institutions.
The meeting, which ran over an hour and was chaired by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., attracted 24 Democratic senators, with many of them dropping in for several minutes.
That was the case with Schumer, according to participants. Orthodox Union representatives delivered their reply after Schumer left.
The Charlottesville march turned deadly when a white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators, killing one and injuring at least 20. On the day of the march, Aug. 12, Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence, prompting outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, as well as Jewish groups. Over subsequent days, Trump appeared to walk back his equivocation, condemning the neo-Nazis, and then again insisting there were “fine people” on both sides.
Orthodox groups condemned both the march, which occurred on a Shabbat, and Trump’s equivocation in real time.
“I don’t know if [President Trump] meant to give these groups legitimacy, but that is certainly how [the groups] are taking it, which is a problem,” Rabbi Moshe Bane, the Orthodox Union president, said in an article appearing in Hamodia on Aug. 16, a day after Trump had said there were “fine people” on both sides.
Schumer’s spokeswoman, Marisa Kaufman, sent the following comment, calling for “bold” comment from Jewish leaders in the face of anti-Semitism.
“Steering meetings, like the one Senator Schumer spoke at this week, encourage dialogue and an exchange of ideas between Democratic members of the Senate and community leaders,” she said. “This week, Senator Schumer was pleased to speak with key members of the Jewish community. Senator Schumer used this platform to discuss dreamers, maintaining strong bipartisan support for Israel, the unfortunate rise in anti-Semitism at home and abroad, and the need for Jewish leaders to use their influence by boldly speaking out against words and acts of hate that tear us apart.”
In addition to leaders from the Reform, Orthodox and Conservative movements, groups represented included the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, J Street, the Jewish Council For Public Affairs and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Those present noted that the presidents of AIPAC and J Street, respectively Bob Cohen and Jeremy Ben Ami, sat next to one another and appeared to get along.
Trump has been the best friend in government that Orthodox Jews have had. We should call on Schumer for how many times he has voted against us!
Schumer needs to be dumped. It is he and his fellow left wing Democrats who are the real Anti Semites. That demonstration was about taking down monuments. Some of the demonstrators may have been nazis but many were not. They had a permit and their right to free speech should be protected. The Antifa agitators did not have a permit. It was the Antifa agitators who are funded by George Soros, who were responsible for the violence. It is not clear that the driver drove intentionally into the crowd. One version of events is his car was being attacked and he panicked and was trying to get away. Schumer – did not support Rubashkin,did not support Pollard,did not vigorously oppose the Iran Deal. He has been lying about the phony Russian Collusion – It is he, that has colluded, as evidenced by his chesire cat smile and comment about 6 ways from Sunday that the intelligence agencies will get back at Trump. In my opinion Schumer is not only an Anti Semite, but also a Traitor. I am not advocating for him to be shot, just dumped out of office by the electorate.
Orthodox Jews Should Do More To Call Out Obama For Giving Iran $50 Billion Dollars
The President is more pro Jewish than Schumer is, and that’s a shame.
aj is er gerecht.
Orthodox Jews Should Do More To Call Out Schumer For Failing To Condemn Muslim haters.
Silly man. neo nazis are just a small fringe group that every now and then makes trouble. Sure they are dangerous and should be montioried and in fact outlawed. But it pals in comparison to the threats that muslims pose. Far more jews across the world died in the hand of Muslims than a few disturbed neo nazis.
But hey in the USA we are OK? you geniuses you think it takes much for the USA to turn into Paris? We must look at it as a world wide threat that can spread here. Furthermore, last time it was 9/11 and BH we only lost a few yidisha neshomes (Nothing to really BH about) But if they can do 9/11 I am scared to say what kinds of destruction they are capable of in similar 9/11 fashions. And i fear the next time frum jews can be the target. Don’t get complacent with muslims. They are very dangerous people. Chucky should concern himself with the real threat.
Taking into account the strength of the Klal’s reaction to Jesse Jackson’s reference to NYC as “hymie town,” and to the heated reaction to Rev, Wright’s apparently anti-Semitic comments…
…I think it fair and accurate to label as weak and tepid, at best, the Klal’s reaction both to Trump’s Charlottesville comments, and to Trump’s refusal to clearly disavow the white supremacists among his supporters.
Trump did condemn neo Nazis . Just because they like him , doesn’t mean he likes them
Shumer always talks no action. Enough of these h…..
Shame on him. No need to say one word more!
yet Aguda will have him as guest speaker once again I am sure, aguda what do you stand for? $$$$$$$
Chuck Schumer should resign immediately. He has blood on his hands. All these immigrants that have come in because of the chain and then go on to murder people are all thanks to him and his legislation. He is a disgrace to his people but more so to all Americans. How dare him not respect the office of the presidency of the United States. Chuck has to be chucked.
Orthodox Jews shld not do anything to upset our President when hes an absolute oihev Yisroel. The last time I checked, it was Trump that commuted the sentence of Rubashkin while Schumer didnt even sign onto the bill. Schumer is a total unaffiliated Jew and an ardent Zionist so he thinks hes like one of us. Hea not. He shld be the last man standing to lecture us.
You see, this is the problem with politicians like Chuck today, they think their opinion means something, it does not.
They forgot that they are in Washington to REPRESENT US THE PEOPLE, and it’s our opinions and thoughts that they should be speaking.
They should come to such meetings to hear what WE have to say and NOT lecture us, what chutzpa!
We are the boss, they work for us and since people like Shutdown Schumer don’t know that, we need to FINALLY fire him at the ballot and put him into a permanent retirement from politics.
I still don’t find what trump said offensive. Freedom of speech is the basis for our rights in this country. He just stated the facts. And these guys lie.
Schumer is a shame to us all, he has done nothing for Jews and for our community AT ALL! The only pro Schumer comment on this site, is by people that benefit from him personally ( like the rebbe’s son) shamfully!
It certainly is sad when the Jews fight among themselves and align with the Nazis.
Why didn’t Chuck the schmuck do more to stop the Iran deal which gave Iran billions of dollars to fund the murder of Jews in Israel
To #10 - “Educated Archy”- You had the gall to write “On 9/11, we only lost a few Yiddisha Neshomes, nothing to say BH about”. Are you insane, or what? There were almost 200 Jews killed at both World Trade Towers (including Jews on the two planes which struck the towers), on 9/11/01. There were also Jews killed on the Shanksville, PA flight, which crashed. I guess that 200 Jews mean nothing to you, especially if they were not frum.
Regarding Schumer, to this day, he has never called Al Sharpton out, for his role in the 1991 Crown Heights Pogrom; yet, he has the gall to criticize Trump for what occurred at Charlottsville. Also, Schumer refused to be on the record to support the commutation of the excessive sentence of Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin. He claimed that the Chassidim “don’t support him”. Schumer is essentially a phony.
Lets shumer appeal to blacks
What a phony. He’s buddies with Keith Ellison and Obama. Never speaks out against BDS. Wouldn’t sign letter for Rubashkin. We got to get Shumer and Nadler out of office, but I know it’s almost impossible with all the lefty liberals out there.
79% of republicans support Israel vs 27% of democrats
81% of conservative republicans support Israel vs 5% support palestinians
19% of liberal democrats support Israel vs 35% support palestinians