Jewish Senator Eric Schneiderman “proudly” accepted Al Sharpton’s endorsement last week. To win Sharpton’s support, Schneiderman promised that Al Sharpton’s organization would have an “annex” in Schniederman’s Albany office if he is elected to Attorney General (Primary Day is Tuesday, September 14th). Sharpton, of course, is the famed activist who, after the 1991 car-accident in Crown Heights “famously complained about ‘the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights,” a disparaging reference to the Brooklyn neighborhood’s Orthodox Jewish population,’ according to Slate Magazine. The subsequent riots were termed by one historian as “the most serious anti-Semitic incident in American history” and caused the death of yeshiva student Yankel Rosenbaum who was murdered in an act of vengeance for the earlier car accident.

Of course, Sharpton is most famous for his defense of Tawna Brawley, a young black woman who claimed to have been assaulted by several white police officers and a prosecutor. Ms. Brawely’s claims were proven untrue, yet Mr. Sharpton has to this day refused to apologize for leading the charge against those innocent officers and the innocent prosecutor.

More recently, Sharpton led the boycott of a Jewish owned business in Harlem. The boycott ended when one of the protesters burned the Jewish owned business down to the ground resulting in the death of seven employees. This time Sharpton did apologize, but only for describing the Jewish business owner as a “racial interloper.” He denied responsibility for the deaths.

Fast forward a few years later – Sharpton will be rewarded for his activism with prime office space if Senator Eric Schneiderman is elected as NYS Attorney General – in the Democratic Primary, Tuesday, September 14, 2010. Mr. Schneiderman and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice are considered to be the two front-runners in the race. Mr. Schneiderman has the support of much of the liberal Democratic establishment including the endorsement of the New York Times. While Ms. Rice has the support of the centrist wing of her party including the endorsement of the New York Daily News. Political Newcomer and Former Prosecutor Sean Coffey is believed to be in third place but won a significant endorsement yesterday in the form of the New York Post. Also running are Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and Former Insurance Commissioner Eric Dinallo.

Read the full statement from Senator Eric Schneiderman regarding Al Sharpton’s support below:

“It is an honor to have the Good Housekeeping seal of approval from the man from the House of Justice in a campaign that seeks to talk about justice and elevate the dialogue in this state about the most fundamental principle to me. I’ve worked on American justice my whole life. Equal justice under law is essential for the functioning of our government, for the functioning of our economy, and that will be the most important theme throughout my tenure as attorney general. We have to stand together and understand that a justice system that only works for some people works for no one. And I am proud to be here with Rev. Sharpton, who has stood with me when we fought for years to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws. And I’m proud to have stood with him when he was fighting against cases of police misconduct and on the issue of stop-and-frisk. I am proud to be here because we stood together, as he said, to end the unfair practice of prison gerrymandering where they counted prisoners and to artificially inflate the population of prison districts. And just this summer he and I were working together to raise the visibility of the epidemic of shootings of young people in our communities all across the state of New York. I was in Buffalo at the funeral of two young women this last week, shot, eight people shot, four killed on a main street in Buffalo. This is the man who goes where — not goes where the action is — he goes where the problems are. This is a man who fights for justice in the most direct, immediate sense. I will seek to follow that model as attorney general. I will seek every day to do equal, independent and progressive justice for everyone in this state, and I’m very proud to have this endorsement today along with the support of all of the leaders who are before you. This is going to be a great campaign. I’m confident that we’re going to prevail. And the House of Justice will have an annex in Albany for the first time in the history of this state.

(Dov Gordon – YWN)