Leadership is often judged not by policy papers or floor speeches, but by instinct — by how someone responds in moments that demand basic human gravity.

On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, stepped to a podium to address a series of mass shootings, including a brutal terrorist attack targeting Jews at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia. 

Fifteen people were murdered. Dozens more were wounded. The global Jewish community was reeling.