No, Sen. Chuck Schumer isn’t an Israeli citizen

A recent Instagram post questions the loyalties of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, comparing the New York Democrat with an "enemy combatant" and claiming he is a "dual Israeli citizen." 

But that’s wrong. 

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"He’s not a dual citizen," Schumer spokesperson Alex Nguyen told PolitiFact. 

Schumer, an American citizen who was born in New York, is one of nine senators who are Jewish; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was the tenth until her September death. Some federal lawmakers have been the target of misinformation about their nationality before. In 2019, for example, we debunked a claim that the Jewish members of Congress held "dual citizenship with Israel." 

Aryeh Tuchman, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told PolitiFact then that such lists perpetuate the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish disloyalty. 

"Jews have a long experience of being put on lists with very negative results," Tuchman said. "The implication that you are promoting is that these people are not loyal citizens of the country."

In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rebutted the assumption that he had dual citizenship with Israel. 

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"That’s some of the nonsense that goes on in the Internet," he said at the time. "I am, obviously, an American citizen, and I do not have any dual citizenship." 

Jewish Americans are not automatically granted citizenship in Israel. While Israeli law generally grants immigration visas "to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel," a citizenship certificate is granted only to those who wish to live in Israel permanently. 

U.S. law, meanwhile, requires senators to be U.S. citizens for nine years to hold office, according to Article I of the Constitution.

We rate claims that Schumer is an Israeli citizen False.

CORRECTION, Nov. 14, 2023: Nine U.S. senators are Jewish. There were 10 until Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., died in September. An earlier version of this fact-check was incorrect on the figure.