Guest
Brooklyn, NY - A group of community leaders from Brooklyn got a rare glimpse into the personal life of U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer at a fund raising breakfast Sunday morning in the home of Abe Biderman in Borough Park. Schumer spoke warmly about his heritage and explained how the family name, Schumer, is actually an anglicized version of the Hebrew word Shomer, guardian, as his fathers family guarded the ghetto wall in their European hometown. Schumers paternal grandfather, Jacob, one of eighteen children, came to America in 1890 as a young child and as a teenager, became involved in the labor movement, eventually becoming a union organizer, who ultimately assisted many Jews in upstate New York by organizing those who worked in the paper mills. Schumers maternal grandfather came to America in 1860 and was a builder in Borough Park, in addition to being president of Temple Emanuel in Brooklyn Schumers father, a World War II navigator, flew dangerous supply missions over the Himalayan Mountains and later ran an exterminating business in Bedford-Stuyvestant. Schumer recollected that his parents, who have been married for sixty years, hoped he would pursue a career in law, but his first love was politics and he was elected to the New York State Assembly in Flatbush at age twenty three, the youngest person elected to the legislature since Theodore Roosevelt. Schumer continued his family legacy of being a shomer, by being tough on crime, and in his long career as a public servant, has enforced the three-strikes-and-youre-out policy, wrote the federal death penalty law in Congress and enacted legislation to ensure that convicted felons actually serve the majority of their sentences. Ezra Friedlander, CEO of The Friedlander Group, a New York City and Washington DC based public affairs consulting group, who was present at the fundraiser told VIN News that hearing Schumer speak, the audience realized the importance and value of having Senator Schumer in the US Senate, serving as the “shomer“ on issues of concern to the Jewish community. His passion and commitment was very reassuring to those assembled, that when decisions at the highest level will be made, a Senator of the stature of Senator Schumer will be advocating on our behalf. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America, who was also in attendance told VIN News, Chuck Schumer occupies an important position in the U.S. Senate today, and he may occupy an even more important one in the not too distant future. It is essential that we maintain open and ongoing lines of communication with him in these challenging times.
