The Senate minority leader is launching his new book on the rising tide of antisemitism in the United States.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Jewish activists blaming Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for delaying passage of a law against antisemitism will protest Tuesday at a New York event launching his book about Jew hatred in America, The New York Post reported Sunday.
Aliza Licht, owner of a successful multimedia branding and consulting company and a social media influencer, summed up the message they want to give the New York Democrat as, “The only thing Chuck Schumer knows about antisemitism is how to spread it.”
The statement was also on the flyer urging people to come out to “demand the Senate pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act,” with the eye-catching header, “FCK CHUCK AND HIS BOOK!”
“The Jewish community will not allow Schumer to masquerade as the self-proclaimed ‘shomer of the Jews’ when he has fueled antisemitism in America with his double-speak and failure to protect Jewish civil rights,” Licht added.
When speaking especially to Jewish audiences, Schumer, who is the highest-elected Jewish official in the history of the United States, often describes himself by using the play on the Hebrew word shomer, which means “protector.”
The Act directs the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) “clear definition of antisemitism” when investigating antisemitic acts on campus and “determining whether an antisemitic incident on campus crosses the line from free speech into harassing, unlawful, or discriminatory conduct,” said Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Tim Scott (R-SC) when reintroducing it last month.
The bill had been proposed last year in reaction to the explosion of anti-Israel marches, encampments and building takeovers at dozens of college campuses that often incorporated antisemitic violence against Jewish students and violations of the IHRA definition that includes calling Israel a “racist endeavor” or comparing its policies to those of the Nazis.
Many of the universities did little to nothing to protect these students or punish the perpetrators even though the administrations’ Codes of Conduct clearly forbade such actions on campus.
It easily passed in the House of Representatives but got stuck in the Senate after Schumer, a Democrat who was the body’s majority leader and is now its minority leader, disagreed with his House counterpart, Republican Mike Johnson, on how to pass it in the higher chamber.
Schumer reportedly wanted to add it to an existing bill that was required to pass by the end of 2024, such as the National Defense Authorization Act that funds the military, while Johnson said too many unaffiliated riders could sink it, and the bill should be passed separately.
Schumer’s office blamed the Republican leadership for “not tak[ing] yes for an answer” and he is a cosponsor of the current bill along with 36 Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle.
His new book, Antisemitism in America: A Warning, describes the historical, political, cultural, and international forces that have led to the rising tide of Jew hatred in the U.S. in the 21st century but “exploded,” as Schumer told The New York Times in a Sunday interview, on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel and slaughtered 1,200 people, sparking war in the Gaza Strip.
The line between criticizing Israel, which is legitimate, and antisemitism, which is not, has been crossed all too often since then, he said, pointing especially to the charge of genocide being tossed at the Jewish state for its actions when “It was the exact opposite, and Hamas tried to carry out a genocide,” yet “no one blames Hamas, and this is delusional.”