By Marc Rod – Jewishinsider.com
A parade of lawmakers sounded off on issues from the separation of church and state to the Iran deal at the opening event of the Living Legacy Conference hosted by American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) on Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ted Cruz (R-TX); House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) all delivered remarks. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) attended, but left before he was able to speak at the event, which marked the 120th birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The event was hosted by Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) of Washington, DC.
In his remarks, Booker argued for a role for religion in governance.
“A lot of people think this country’s about separating church or religion from government. I say no,” Booker remarked. “I say this is a time more than ever that we need our faithfulness. We need to understand that God has a calling for us. And if we do that I promise you we will heal. We will have a better day not just for America but for the whole world.”
Booker, who described himself as an “unofficial shaliach to the goyim,” said he studies Torah “every Friday morning” and is “in love with” it.
“It has made me a better person,” Booker said. “Unlike the other two Abrahamic faiths, [Judaism] is not trying to convert me. What it’s really trying to do is heal the world.” He added, “I am here today because Jewish Americans [in the civil rights era] saw the injustice and could not sit still and joined the cause.”
Hoyer emphasized that America is “one nation under God,” adding that “we believe that [unalienable rights] are not gifts of the state, not gifts of the Constitution, not gifts of a majority of our people, but the gift of God, endowed by our Creator.”
Schumer discussed his own family history — his grandfather was a well-known rabbi, and many of his relatives were killed in the Holocaust.
“When people ask me why I’m for the State of Israel… I say, ‘I’d have a lot more uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews if there was a State of Israel back then,” he said. He also touted recent legislative accomplishments, including the passage of funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system and legislation bolstering the Abraham Accords, and said that he pushed to eliminate family size limits on the Child Tax Credit in response to concerns from a New York rabbi.
Cruz, whose state was the location of the Congregation Beth Israel hostage standoff earlier this year, decried the antisemitic ideas espoused by the hostage-taker.
“It says something about the perniciousness of antisemitic lies that he believed the first synagogue he encountered was responsible and had the ability to control what’s happening,” he said, referring to the attacker’s demand that the synagogue help facilitate the release of an imprisoned convicted terrorist.
