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.”
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.”
The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America, articulates and advocates for public policy positions based upon traditional Jewish thought.
(Unedited Press Release)
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10 Responses
CJV should change their name to RFT Rabbis for Trump. The CJV is a political pro-Trump outfit.
Yet so many so-called orthodox Jews continue to help send Jerk Schumer back to D.C. every six years. I’ve yet to hear a plausible explanation for how any orthodox Jew can be a registered Democrat. There must be something in their drinking water.
Obviously Schumer calculated that he’ll gain votes by bullying the Orthodox community.
Hey crazykanoiy,
Are you still making those stupid comments? Take your psych meds and go back to sleep.
Schumer is a left wing loony liberal whose religious belief is to oppose those who have religious beliefs.
He is an ousvorf and a menuval.
Schumer supports Israel/Jew hater Keith Ellison though. He chooses his friends carefully.
Schumer’s foot in mouth disease will contribute to his undoing. Like Hillary’s “deplorables” moment, which she immediately acknowledged was an own goal.
crazykanoiy, the Coalition for Jewish Values attacked trump, for Trump’s renominating the lesbian leftist Chai Feldbaum to the EEOC.
Chai Feldbaum said that gay rights always trump religious rights, and trumps renominating her shows that trump is just like Obama a left winger.
arizona, every single jew in New York should be a REGISTERED democrat, if a few more people where registered as democrat we could have a put in the NY assembly Conservative Democrats. right now we get stuck with liberal democrats because the Jewish community can only effect a primary for many races, but in a general election the district will go democrat, no matter what we do.
registration has nothing to do with values, if the jewish community had intelligence, knowledge, and moral convictions we would all be registered democrats vote in democrat primaries against the liberals, and the general election against liberals regardless of party. I know many examples where the democrat was more conservative than their republican opponent, but Stupid people voted republican without thinking.
Arizona – there is almost no justification left for any Jew of any denomination to align themselves with the Republicans. The Republican party has shown themselves to be against absolutely against any value that Jews hold dear. Orthodox Jews are becoming way to cavalier about the denial of civil liberties, forgetting about how much we rely on that freedom for the basic practice of our religion.