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Schumer Promises to Protect Jewish Way of Life

BROOKLYN, New York – Incoming Senate Minority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, promised to protect Torah values and religion freedom as he visited the Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg on Tuesday.

In a brief appearance at the annual Satmar (Aharonim) “Kaf Alef Kislev” celebration (the day the late Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum escaped from the Nazis during the Holocaust in 1944) at the State Armory in Brooklyn, Schumer told the crowd of thousands that his surname, which, in his words, come from the Hebrew word ‘Shomer’ (guardian), was given to him for a reason. “I know Hashem (God) gave me that name for a reason to be a ‘Shomer’ for this great Chasidishe (Hasidic) community here and for Yiddishkeit (the Jewish way of life) throughout the world. I promise you I always will try to live up to my name – to be a Shomer Yisrael.’’

The New York Senator praised the education system in the growing Hasidic community in New York as a combination of Torah values and American values. “I want to praise the [United Talmudical] Academy for teaching our young boys the great Torah values that have been so important to our people for so long,” Schumer said. “And I want to say this: the combination of American values, which says you can practice your religion as you choose; which says that if you work hard, you can achieve success; which says that we are a land of opportunity, and Torah values, which talks about great things such as ‘mishpucha’ – family, the so many rules that govern our lives, and Tzedakah. The combination of those two things – American values and Torah values – produces the great community that we have here tonight.” 

Schumer also attended the dinner of the other Satmar sect (Zalis) in Downtown Brooklyn.

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