From Schumer to Shomer to Shlemiel

Senator Chuck Schumer has a line he likes to use in speaking to Jewish groups: his surname is a reference to the Hebrew word “shomer,” meaning “guardian.” He would be, he said, Israel’s guardian, protecting it from the far-left and far-right alike. The German version of that surname, according to FamilySearch.org, means “good-for-nothing.” In the latter years of his career, Schumer was less the former and more the latter, which is why he led his party to defeat.

Schumer has placed his political ambition above every other cause — above Israel, and above the United States. That is why his position on Israel became more untenable over time: he tried to bridge the growing divide between traditional pro-Israel liberals and anti-Israel radicals in his party. Instead of confronting the haters, he appeased them, fearing a loss of support in his caucus, or a primary challenge. In the end, while accepting everything, he stood for nothing.

The first signs of slippage occurred during the controversy over President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. Schumer made a clear and articulate case against the deal, writing in an online essay: “If Iran’s true intent is to get a nuclear weapon, under this agreement, it must simply exercise patience. After ten years, it can be very close to achieving that goal.” He noted that Iran would receive billions of dollars with which to support terror.

But while he knew the Iran deal was bad, Schumer refused to whip fellow Democrats against it. And when the ultimate test came, when the Senate had the opportunity to turn down the deal under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, Schumer and the Democrats filibustered. They would not even allow a vote. China and Russia got a vote, at the UN Security Council; the American people did not. As a result, Obama was able to impose the deal on the world.

When President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Schumer led the so-called “resistance” in the Senate, holding back the new administration’s appointees and threatening Trump that the nation’s intelligence agencies had “six ways from Sunday” to attack him. When it came to Israel, Schumer refused to attend the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem; he and his party even stayed away from a celebration held by the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C.

Schumer also threatened the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you, if you go forward with these awful decisions.” His rhetoric was so inflammatory that Chief Justice John Roberts felt compelled to respond. Later that year, Black Lives Matter riots did erupt — often targeting Jewish businesses and synagogues.

But it was as Senate Majority Leader that Schumer did the most damage to the pro-Israel cause and to the Jewish community. After the October 7 terror attacks, which unleashed a torrent of antisemitism at universities and in cities like New York, Schumer did almost nothing. He gave a widely-praised speech, in which he acknowledged that much of the antisemitism was coming from the left, but he also took gratuitous swipes at the Israeli government.

In March 2024, Schumer took to the Senate floor to demand that the Israeli people oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office — in the middle of a war in which Hamas terrorists, holding hundreds of Israelis captive, were making the same demand. It was a shocking attempt to interfere in Israel’s internal democratic politics, and it earned Schumer a rebuke from the leaders of mainstream Jewish organizations, normally inclined to deference toward Democrats.

Over in the Republican-controlled House, the Education and Workforce Committee held one hearing after another on campus antisemitism, forcing university presidents to explain their inaction. Several were forced to resign after their public equivocations. But in the Senate, Schumer would not allow a single hearing until September, when Democrats tried to lecturethe county about why rampant antisemitism should not be prioritized above other forms of hatred.

Last month, the House report on campus antisemitism included shocking text messages from former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik in which she reported that Schumer had reassured her team that only Republicans cared about the issue. She added that a Schumer staffer had said “that [the] best strategy is to keep heads down” and ignore the antisemitism issue. Shafik was later forced to resign, as were several other senior Columbia officials.

Schumer will now return to the opposition benches. He may try, as Nancy Pelosi once did, to keep control of his caucus even in defeat, but he lacks her political skill and ruthlessness. He is the longest-serving Senator in the history of New York, but there are younger Democrats eying his seat. Perhaps he might, in the past, have counted on the support of the Jewish community. But he wasn’t there for them, or for Israel. Once a “shomer,” Schumer will end as a shlemiel.

Joel B. Pollak is senior editor-at-large at Breitbart News in Los Angeles.