Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and majority leader, addressed fellow members of his party on Wednesday, warning that unintentionally helping promote antisemitism was causing a dangerous surge in bigotry against Jews amid Israel’s war against Hamas.

Speaking from the Senate floor, Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, discussed the substantial uptick in antisemitic hate crimes and pro-Palestinian protests, expressing concern about the impact of these events on his community.

He highlighted the schism in the Democratic Party, with liberal members aligning themselves with the Palestinian cause while more moderate members continued to wholeheartedly support Israel’s actions and response to Hamas’s attack.

Schumer stressed the dangerous rise in antisemitism in the United States and expressed his deep disappointment that many liberals and young people seem to be inadvertently contributing to this concerning trend in the name of social justice.

He urged Americans, especially younger generations, to understand the history of the Jewish people and the ongoing trauma they have experienced, emphasizing the need for unambiguous condemnation of antisemitism whenever it arises.

Regarding Israel’s current conflict with Hamas, he clarified that their concern stems from a world where Israel is forced to tolerate groups like Hamas that seek to eliminate all Jewish people from the planet, rather than a desire to see harm come to Palestinians.

Highlighting his own family’s experience with antisemitic persecution, Schumer emphasized the need for a clear, united effort to combat and extinguish the rise of antisemitism before it becomes an even greater threat.

He wrote an additional opinion essay in The New York Times to underscore the disparity between how Jews and non-Jews perceive the rise of antisemitism, signaling the urgency and severity of the issue that the Jewish community is currently facing.