Chock Schnorrer, a 73-year-old career politician, can finally sleep at night, having thrown the Jewish state under the proverbial bus last week when he gave a bombshell speech on the Senate floor.
“I speak for myself, but I also speak for so many mainstream Jewish Americans – a silent majority, whose nuanced views on the matter have never been well represented in this country’s discussions about the war in Gaza,” he declared in his unprecedented call for the removal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Notayehud.
“My last name is Schnorrer, which derives from the Yiddish slang for beggar. Of course, my first responsibility is to America and New York. Throughout Jewish history, there have been many schnorrers, and plenty who were far greater than I claim to be. I feel an immense obligation to speak and act.”
“I speak as a member of a community of Jewish Americans that I know very well. They are my family, my friends. Many of them are my constituents, many of them are Democrats and many are deeply concerned about the pursuit of justice, both in New York and around the globe. From the Talmud – Tikkun Olam, the call to ‘repair the world’ – has driven Jews around the globe to do what is right.”
He then spoke of how much Israel means to him as a child of the Holocaust generation, who listened to the Six-Day War from a transistor radio during high school. But then he spoke of the suffering on both sides, of Palestinians undeserving to “suffer for the sins of Hamas,” and the “moral obligation” of Israel to ensure their well-being.
Speaking as a Schnorrer, he defended continuing humanitarian aid to the only population that has a dedicated UN agency that classifies them as refugees regardless of their economic status, and prior to October 7, received electricity free of charge from Israel, along with work permits and medical treatments in Israel, at the same time that they denigrated Israel in international forums where they called for the exclusion of Israel from those same venues.
Demonstrating a complete ignorance of Judaism, this Schnorrer spoke of Tikkun Olam in a way that a teacher would grade as an “incomplete,” for the full phrase speaks of “repairing the world for the kingdom of G-d.” Without that qualifier, it is a subjective humanist shibboleth that could mean anything to anyone.
“What horrifies so many Jews, especially, is our sense that Israel is falling short of upholding these distinctly Jewish values that we hold so dear.” He then added, “We must be better than our enemies, lest we become them.”
Having spoken of the Holocaust experience, Schnorrer drew this logical conclusion, which implies that to be better than our enemies, Jews cannot arrest, imprison, occupy, or kill those who seek our deaths. The idealistic kibbutzniks who provided work to Gazans, drove them to medical appointments, and organized virtual get-togethers, only to end up being murdered by their beneficiaries, were certainly better than our enemies in their humanitarianism.
Outside of his Park Slope apartment building, neighbors praised Schnorrer’s speech for its potential impact on their block. “Finally, the siege will be lifted and we can enter our homes without the harassment from demonstrators,” one neighbor said. “Every evening they’re protesting. We can’t sleep and they accuse us of complicity in genocide. With his call for the removal of Notayehud, there will be peace in Park Slope.”
