On Wednesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a remarkable speech from the well of the Senate on the rise of antisemitism in America.
The Democratic senator from New York believed he had to make that speech. He was also surprised at having to — surprised at the antisemitism that has been growing under the surface of today’s Democrat Party.
Schumer spoke with the painful passion of a man who is beginning to understand that his world is being upended, noting, “I stand before you as the majority leader of the United States Senate, the highest elected office a Jewish person has ever attained in the history of this country. Only in America — only in America could an exterminator’s son grow up to be the first Jewish party leader in the Senate.”
Getting to the heart of the matter, Schumer explained that while “Jewish Americans represent 2 percent of the population, yet we are targets of 55 percent of all religion-based hate crimes,” with things getting worse in recent years. After Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, “antisemitism incidents increased nearly 300 percent” with “Jewish Americans feeling singled out,” he added.
Schumer then admitted, “The solidarity that Jewish Americans initially received from many of our fellow citizens was quickly drowned out by other voices, while the dead bodies of Jewish Israelis were still warm.”
And who were those “other voices” that Schumer said “celebrated what happened, describing it as the deserved fate of ‘colonizers’ and calling for
