Leo Rosten, the late Jewish American humorist, offers a most powerful and accurate understanding of Yiddish words used in English; a shandah, “a disgrace, one who brings embarrassment through mere association,” is one such illustration.
Some context. For almost 40 years, I was senior rabbi at Temple Adath Yeshurun in Syracuse, N.Y., one of the largest synagogues outside the New York metropolitan area. For many years, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) served as my senator. I was in his presence numerous times as he reassured the Jewish community that he was not “just” an elected office holder, but he was mishpachah, “family,” and he understood our vulnerabilities and legitimate concerns. I heard his “stump speech” often, his playful rhetoric; “My last name is Schumer, shomer, a ‘guardian.’ I am shomer Yisrael. I am the guardian of Israel.”
These last several years—and the last few weeks and days, in particular—Schumer has been anything but.
He is a political opportunist, a moral fraud, and an unreliable friend to Israel and the Jewish community. He has failed to “take on” the Jewish-haters and Israel-bashers in his political universe—the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omer (D-Minn.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), and N.Y. State Assemblyman and now Democratic Party nominee for New York City mayor, Zahran Mamdani.
And on June 21, almost immediately after a much-needed attempt to eliminate/degrade the Iranian nuclear existential cloud, Schumer was unable to acknowledge the importance of such a military engagement in protecting Israel, Jews worldwide and America. As has been his narrative lately, it was all about retaining power, his political loyalties and chameleon persona.
That is a shanda!
Ten years ago, I moved “back home” to Philadelphia. Downtown, in “Old City,” there is a remarkable and impressive museum, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History. I have visited the museum numerous times, and I have officiated at weddings in its breathtaking, even-blessed space overlooking the most iconic institutions in American history.
The Liberty Bell is just steps from the museum. And on that bell are proclaimed words from Leviticus, a part of our book: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.”
The late Leonard Fein, a celebrated social scientist and friend, shared a story about his father, a Jew from Binder, when seeing the Liberty Bell for the first time.
“As it happened, I did come to America, and I chanced to Philadelphia and I went to see the bell, and yes, indeed, there were the words, our words. But the bell was cracked … . You honor me tonight for my life as a teacher, I prefer to think of myself as a person who has tried to live his life as a bell-mender.”
Dear Mr. Schumer, we need more bell-menders and fewer charlatans.