Chuck Schumer
official U.S. Senate photo of Chuck Schumer in 2002
Birth Name: Charles Ellis Schumer
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: November 23, 1950
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Chuck Schumer is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been a U.S. Senator from New York, since January 3, 1999, Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, since January 3, 2017, and Senate Majority Leader, since January 20, 2021. He was previously a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York, from January 3, 1981 to January 3, 1999, and Senate Minority Leader, since January 3, 2017 to January 20, 2021, among other duties. He is the first Jewish person to serve as Senate Majority Leader.
Chuck is the son of Selma (Rosen) and Abraham J. Schumer, who ran an exterminating business. He is married to academic and commissioner Iris Weinshall, with whom he has two children. Irish is also Jewish.
Chuck is a second cousin, once removed, of comedian and actress Amy Schumer. Chuck’s paternal great-grandparents, Abraham Schumer and Joder Ida/Edith Wizman, were also Amy’s paternal great-great-grandparents.
Chuck’s paternal grandfather was Jakob/Jacob Schumer (the son of Abraham Schumer and Joder/Ydea Ida/Edith Wizman/Weisman). Jakob was born in Buchach, Buchats’kyi district, Ternopil’s’ka oblast, Ukraine. Abraham was the son of Kalmen Schumer and Yetta Margulies.
Chuck’s paternal grandmother was Mina/Minnie Schächnar/Schachner (the daughter of Hyman Schächnar/Schachner and Rema Reiss). Mina was born in Chortkiv, Chortkivs’kyi district, Ternopil’s’ka oblast, Ukraine.
Chuck’s maternal grandfather was named Robert Rosen. Robert was born in Russia.
Chuck’s paternal grandmother was Theresa “Tess” Prichep (the daughter of Charles Prichep and Yetta Speiser). Theresa was born in New York, to parents from Austria. Yetta was the daughter of Samuel Speizer and Frieda.
Sources: Genealogies of Chuck Schumer – http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com
http://www.geni.com
Jewish needs to be removed. Jewish is a religion, not a race. His parents were Ukrainian.
I am really confused at this point. @TheHelper says Schumer is ethnically Ukrainian, @Follers disagrees and says Ashkenazi Jews are mainly Roman converts, and my Jewish friends say they are mainly descendants of ancient Israeli tribes? I always believed it was mainly a mixture of @Follers and my friends theories being that during the diaspora’s in ancient Israel (with the latest being in 70 A.D.) the Roman’s enslaved the Jews. Once the Roman Empire ended up falling in 476 that was the point where Jewish groups split and started communities in Eastern and Central Europe (and became Ashkenazim) and others in Spain/Portugal, along with Middle East and North Africa (Sephardim).
“mainly”? I never said that.
I forget have I weighed in on this subject on another profile’s page yet? O well if I did I’m sorry. Time to copy and paste a response I typed up a while ago for another board. If it’s deemed unnecessary it can be deleted without question –
Bearboy –
Outside the Mizrahi and Maghrebi Jews, who basically stayed in the Middle East and North Africa since the Hebrews became a monotheistic religion, the pattern of colonization was pretty consistent everywhere. Jewish men, mostly merchants, would travel to new territories, and take local wives. Then communities would pop up.
The Jews that settled in Italy had a very large population. In fact Italian Jews had been in Italy for a few centuries even before the Diaspora of the first century. So they had well established genetic links to the area. For many reasons, scores of Italian Jews moved north to the Rhineland. The earliest, est. circa 300CE, well established community was in Cologne. From that focal point, the Ashkenazi Jewish population can be traced. Ashkenaz, and subsequently Ashkenazi/Ashkenazim, were terms used by Jewish scholars, historians, etc. to describe the Jewish communities rooted in Germany, because they were trying to correlate communities to biblical terms. Spain and the Jews from Spain/Portugal, were denominated Sepharad for example.
Breaking things down simply, Ashkenazi Jews have distant roots in the Middle East, then a definitive strong link to Italians, and then residuals links to Germans and Slavs. Those descendants of the people from Italy and the Rhine spread all over Europe going in every direction on the compass. Ashkenazi merchants even made trips to East Asia and took local brides and brought them back to Europe, that’s proven genetically.
So there’s really no country of origin for Ashkenazi populations, because of the Jewish people’s nearly nomadic nature. However once Jewish communities are established, and this accounts for almost any and every Jewish population, they become mostly endogamous. Common genetic markers are established and they become distinctive from their host populations. That’s how genetic testing can claim someone is Ashkenazi by heritage/ethnicity.
A typical modern Ashkenazi Jewish person’s genetic composition barely reflects their original roots. On autosomal tests the percentages range, typically, from small, under 5%, down to tenths of a percent. At that point it’s only the haplogroups that give any indications that the Ashkenazi ethnocentric population is not wholly European, and their origins lie in the Middle East/North Africa/East Africa.
Technically Ashkenazi Jews are, simply, Europeans with Middle Eastern/North African/East African roots. You cannot accurately label them as a people of any one country.
thanks for explaining. so if I am understanding correctly Ashkenazi Jews have the most closely related roots/connection with the people of the Middle East/Levant, then Italy/Italians, then Germans and Slavs?
There was a sizable German Jewish population for a while but most of them disappeared over the centuries and because of the events of WWII. There’s smaller traces from most corners of Europe but it’s literal trace amounts.