On November 29, 2023, Senator Chuck Schumer  delivered an emotional speech on the Senate floor detailing and denouncing the waves of antisemitism that had washed over America since October 7.

For more than forty minutes, the Senate majority leader, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history, limned the history of oppression that Jews have suffered for centuries in full detail, speaking of the generational trauma thus embedded in the DNA of the Jewish community and the deep sense of betrayal, isolation and fear he, like millions of other Jews, was experiencing.

“Can you blame us for feeling vulnerable only 80 years after Hitler wiped out half of the Jewish population across the world while many countries turned their back?” he asked. “Can you appreciate the deep fear we have about what Hamas might do if left to their own devices?

“Because the long arc of Jewish history teaches us a lesson that is hard to forget: ultimately, that we are alone.”

Now, in a new book suffused with urgency, Antisemitism in America: A Warning, Senator Schumer amplifies that alarm: about the attacks on synagogues, the harassment of Jewish students, viral conspiracy theories and political debates that veer into dangerous hatred that have become the daily reality of American Jews.

The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is honored to welcome  Leader Schumer to speak about his own and his family’s experiences with antisemitism, his worries about the future of Jewish life in America and what he believes must be done.

A Brooklyn native, Chuck Schumer served in the NY State Assembly for three terms before being elected to the US House of Representatives and, in 1998, to the US Senate. He was chosen minority leader in 2017 and rose to the position of majority leader in 2021. He is the longest-serving US senator from New York. An active supporter of Israel, he is the author of the book Positively American.