‘I have long said that Israel has a right to defend itself and that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.’ Schumer added

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during 'March For Israel' at the National Mall on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stood strongly behind Israel in his first public comments on its strikes on Iran and its nuclear program on Friday afternoon — a response that was notably more forceful in its support for Israel than those of many prominent members of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
“The United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and defense must be ironclad as they prepare for Iran’s response,” Schumer said in a statement first shared with Jewish Insider. “The Iranian regime’s stated policy has long been to destroy Israel and Jewish communities around the world. I have long said that Israel has a right to defend itself and that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Ensuring they never obtain one must remain a top national security priority.”
Schumer, who has recently been critical of President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Iran, said “the preferred path to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and for supporting security and stability in the region has always been a strong, unrelenting diplomatic effort backed by meaningful leverage, and every effort must be made to move toward the path of a diplomatic solution.”
Schumer noted that Iran was just censured by the International Atomic Energy Agency “for systematically deceiving the world about its nuclear program,” that it is “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism” and it “has sought to expand its influence in the Middle East, exporting terror and violence across the region.”
He said he is “praying for the safety of American citizens and servicemembers in the region and for enduring stability and security in the region.”
Senate Minority Leader: ‘We're witnessing — unfortunately, in real time — the resurgence of collective blame against the Jewish people’

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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to the media during a weekly press conference in the Capitol Building in Washington DC, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will announce on Monday that he is launching “an all-out push to shore up” $500 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program in response to a spate of recent antisemitic terrorist attacks, he revealed to Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday.
He said that key Senate Republicans have appeared amenable to that request and called the administration’s proposal for flat funding for the program a nonstarter.
“The attack in Colorado, the shooting in Washington, the arson in Pennsylvania [of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home] have one thing in common: they have cited anti-Israel sentiment as a justification for their violence. In other words, they’ve used the actions of the Israeli government they don’t like to justify violence against Jewish Americans here at home,” Schumer said.
“We’re witnessing — unfortunately, in real time — the resurgence of collective blame against the Jewish people,” he continued. “Collective blame is traditionally one of the most nasty, dangerous forms of antisemitism, and so if we don’t confront it clearly, unequivocally together, we risk opening the door to even darker days.”
Schumer emphasized that criticism and peaceful protest of the Israeli government is not antisemitic, “but there’s a profound and dangerous difference between criticizing a government and condemning an entire people,” he continued.
He told JI that he had spoken to key Republicans about the funding level, and they seemed amenable. He argued that enhanced security provided through the grants could “stop a lot of these attacks.”
“We’ve had discussions with the members of the Appropriations Committee,” Schumer said. “They seemed open to it. The NSGP has always had bipartisan support, and our leading Republican has been Sen. [James] Lankford of Oklahoma.”
Lankford was the lead Republican on a recent bipartisan Senate letter requesting $500 million in funding. Thirty-two other senators, including one other Republican, also signed that request.
A Schumer spokesperson told JI that the Democratic leader believes $500 million should be attainable under the current administration. Schumer had initially pushed for an additional $1 billion for the program in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
The administration’s flat funding request for $274.5 million, which Schumer called “unacceptable” in the interview, would amount to an effective funding cut, given that funding was supplemented in 2024 by $180 million provided through the national security supplemental bill, the senator argued. An additional $220 million in supplemental funds remain in limbo — institutions applied last year, but have not yet been notified if their applications were accepted, — on top of the $274.5 million that will be available through regular appropriations this year.
The top Senate Democrat said threats against synagogues and Jewish day schools have surged further following the attacks in Washington and Boulder, Colo. He said he had been in contact with the FBI about the potential for “copycat” attacks.
“This is not new. In Boulder and in so many other places there have been threats against synagogues, against Jews, etc., and if it is not confronted strongly and directly, it then leads to even death, to people being killed,” Schumer said.
He said the FBI was “very open” to his warning and had clearly received the message.
In 2024, when the program had a total of $454.5 million available, just 43% of funding requests were fulfilled. Supporters of the program in the House and Senate have urged Appropriations Committee leaders and the administration to allocate $500 million for the program, while Jewish groups asked for $1 billion in the wake of the D.C. murders.
In addition to the $500 million for FY 2026, Schumer will push for the 2026 funding bill to include funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages NSGP, to provide technical assistance to smaller institutions to apply for grants, a process some lack the expertise or staff to navigate.
“They don’t have the consultants or the wherewithal on their own,” Schumer said.
Schumer told JI he also wants the administration to promptly open applications for the 2025 cycle, which usually open in May. “We passed this last year and the deadline was May 14, but now the money has to start flowing,” he said.
And he called on Americans broadly to “confront and disavow antisemitism … across the nation.”
All of the Senate minority leader’s events this week, to promote his new book ‘Antisemitism in America,’ were postponed because of security concerns

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on October 31, 2023 in Washington, DC.
A tour around Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) upcoming book, Antisemitism in America, has been postponed as the New York Democrat faces blowback over his recent vote to avert a government shutdown.
An event for Schumer moderated by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), slated for Tuesday night at New York’s Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, was removed from the center’s events calendar over the weekend. A staffer for the Manhattan venue confirmed the event’s postponement to Jewish Insider on Monday morning.
A spokesperson for Schumer told Punchbowl News later Monday morning that the tour was postponed, citing security concerns.
The first event, originally scheduled for Monday night at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, was set to face protests organized by the far-left group Jewish Voice for Peace. An event at Washington’s Sixth and I synagogue on Wednesday was canceled Monday morning.
The postponement of the gatherings comes days after Schumer argued against forcing a government shutdown as a negotiating tool, saying it would further empower President Donald Trump and White House advisor Elon Musk.
Nine other Democrats joined Schumer in voting for a procedural cloture motion to break a filibuster of a GOP government funding bill and prevent a government shutdown. House Democrats vehemently opposed the move.
After the Senate vote, Torres criticized the Democrats who voted in favor of cloture, saying they “are making a strategic miscalculation that we as a party will live to regret.”
The event was removed from the Streicker Center’s website over the weekend. An archived version of the page saved on March 15 indicates that the event was posted through at least midday Saturday.
The event was also set to face protests from Jewish activists frustrated by Schumer’s failure to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act in the last Congress.
Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed to this report.