Zohran Mamdani has won over many progressive Jewish voters with vows to make the city more affordable and equitable.
New York City’s Jewish community — the largest in the United States — abounds with anxiety and friction a day ahead of an election that could give the city its first Muslim mayor.
That candidate, Zohran Mamdani, has won over many progressive Jewish voters with vows to make the city more affordable and equitable. Yet he has alarmed many other Jews — in New York and across the U.S. — with harsh criticism of Israel, including saying its military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.
The tensions within the politically diverse community were illustrated Friday in a sermon by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads Central Synagogue in Manhattan, one of the country’s most prominent Reform synagogues.
She pointedly criticized Mamdani’s words about Israel, yet declined to endorse either of his opponents, Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, and pleaded for New York’s Jews to minimize virulent political infighting.
“It endangers all of us: It’s the way we are trying to impose a litmus test on other Jews, essentially saying you’re either with us or you’re against us,” she said.A local election in the national spotlight
Buchdahl has faced some criticism for not signing a statement endorsed by more than 1,000 Jewish clergy members nationwide denouncing Mamdani. She said that on principle, she doesn’t endorse candidates or sign joint statements, but she interrupted her sabbatical schedule to return to her pulpit the weekend before the election.
In the sermon, Buchdahl said Mamdani has “contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism” with words that she said were not only “demonizing Israelis, but echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews across the world are the root cause of our problem here.”
Mamdani has made overtures to Jewish voters throughout the campaign, promising to increase funding to investigate antisemitic incidents in New York and repeatedly condemning violence in the Middle East.
