Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Who Is Jerry Nadler? Judiciary Committee Chair And Talmud Scholar

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 [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.