Who Is Jerry Nadler? Judiciary Committee Chair And Talmud Scholar
Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) Image by Getty Images
By Aiden Pink December 4, 2019
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler will begin overseeing the latest chapter of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, when he will hear testimony from four constitutional law experts about the nature and requirements of impeachment. Here’s what you need to know about Nadler:
He’s one of the longest-serving members of Congress:
Nadler, a Democrat, has represented New York City in Congress since 1992. Before that, he served in the New York State Assembly for 15 years.
He has serious Jewish yichus:
Nadler, a graduate of the Crown Heights Yeshiva, is the only member of Congress with a yeshiva education. He showed off his Talmud skills earlier this year at the inauguration ceremony for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, where he explained to a Jewish activist what time the Shema prayer should be said in the morning.
Nadler’s district, which stretches from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Borough Park in Brooklyn, has the most Jews out of all 435 Congressional delegations, according to the Berman Jewish Databank.
He’s been cautious about impeachment:
Nadler was less gung-ho about impeachment than many of his Democratic colleagues, resisting calls from as early as February 2017 to begin inquiries.
“It is too early to talk about that intelligently,” he said in January 2019 after Rep. Rashida Tlaib said that she wanted to “impeach the motherf—-er.”
But his mind was changed after reports emerged that President Trump had allegedly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Nadler has made clear that he won’t have any patience for Republican shenanigans: “I’m not going to take any shit,” he told committee members Tuesday, according to Politico.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
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