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A century before Mamdani, this Jewish socialist mayoral candidate divided NYC Jews
A socialist immigrant running for mayor on an anti-war, pro–working class platform divides New York’s Jews over whether his campaign, and potential victory, might stoke antisemitism.
The year isn’t 2025, and the man isn’t Zohran Mamdani. It’s 1917, and Jewish labor lawyer Morris Hillquit is running on the Socialist Party ticket.
While Hillquit fell well short of winning, he received more than 100,000 votes, or about 22% — over four times the Socialist tally four years earlier. He ran again in 1932, receiving about 12 percent of the vote.
Who was Hillquit, and how did his mayoral moment parallel the political currents shaping Mamdani’s rise today?
The economic parallels
Many aspects of Hillquit’s 1917 and 1932 mayoral platforms bear a striking resemblance to Mamdani’s today, according to Shelton Stromquist, emeritus professor of history at the University of Iowa and author of Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers’ Fight for Municipal Socialism.
Hillquit called for public ownership of the city’s transportation, and for the construction of affordable housing to replace substandard living arrangements. He also promised to bring down food prices, pledging to “put the milk profiteers out of business” by buying milk directly from farmers and selling it at cost.
Mamdani’s campaign has echoed many of those ideas, centering on affordability with proposals to make buses “fast and free,” freeze rents for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, and create city-owned grocery stores.
And just as Mamdani has positioned his campaign as fighting big-money influence, Hillquit’s campaigns took on a populist tone.
“Too long have the people of New York been misruled for the benefit of bankers, franchise magnates, realty speculators, landlords, and other capitalists,” read a pamphlet distributed by the Socialist Party endorsing Morris Hillquit for mayor in 1932.
Both campaigns also drew on immigrant pride, according to Stromquist. Mamdani was born in Uganda; Hillquit in modern-day Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1869. Hillquit’s family immigrated to the U.S. in 1896, settling in a Lower East Side tenement. He dropped out of school to help support them, working in garment factories and later helping to start the United Hebrew Trades, a garment workers’ union.
Like Mamdani, “Hillquit’s campaign was singular in many ways, but at the same time, it was very much a part of a broader movement that had been growing and spreading,” Stromquist said.
Mamdani, for his part, cites Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — a fellow democratic socialist — as an inspiration. Sanders endorsed Mamdani and featured him on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, events that often draw tens of thousands of people and highlight other rising democratic socialists, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A recent poll shows socialism is more appealing to college students than capitalism.
Municipal socialism was also gaining traction in the early 20th century. In 1910, Jewish politician and journalist Victor Berger became the first socialist elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a Milwaukee district. In 1913, socialists won a majority on Hamilton, Ohio’s city council and elected the mayor.
And while Hillquit lost the 1917 mayoral race, socialists still made gains in New York City that year: 10 state assemblymen, seven city aldermen, and one municipal judge were elected on the Socialist Party ticket. Of those 18 elected, 16 were Jewish.
A campaign that divided Jews
Mamdani’s positions on Israel have roiled Jews across the country, and he’s often had to defend himself against allegations of antisemitism for: refusing to outright condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada;” reiterating support for Palestinians in his statement on the Gaza ceasefire; vowing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York; and saying he doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He’s simultaneously built a coalition of Jews who support him.
During the 1917 mayoral election, opposition to U.S. involvement in World War I overshadowed economic concerns for many voters, according to Stromquist.
Hillquit, a pacifist, was a principal co-author of the Socialist Party’s resolution opposing U.S. entry into World War I, and he made peace a central plank of his campaign.
His stance drew fierce backlash. Opponents labeled him “a traitor and an agent of the Kaiser,” and the attacks quickly grew personal. A 1917 editorial in this publication, the Yiddish Forverts, noted that Hillquit’s “bitterest enemies wish to see him drown in the Rutger Street fountain, or hanged off a sloop on the East Side.”
Hillquit’s position split the Jewish community. Some feared antiwar sentiment would make Jews appear unpatriotic and fuel antisemitism, according to Gil Ribak, associate professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona and author of the paper “For Peace, Not Socialism”: The 1917 Mayoralty Campaign in New York City and Immigrant Jews in a Global Perspective.”
One newspaper editor wrote to his readers as “a Jew to Jews,” asking them if they wanted “to give a chance for our neighbors to say that we are not loyal enough to America?”
Even Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis weighed in, telling his colleagues at a private meeting of Zionist leadership in 1917, “I cannot help feeling myself that the pacifistic attitude of some Jews is a danger to all Jews, and some form of a pogrom would not be at all unlikely.”
Others dismissed such concerns as fearmongering and rejected the idea that Jews had to vote a certain way to prevent antisemitism. As Forward founding editor Abraham Cahan argued in this publication, “Well, if we are destined, heaven forbid, to have the antisemitic bear come at us, then let’s not give our vote to a corrupt gang.”
Ultimately, the attacks on Hillquit did not deter Jewish voters. Though he fell well short of winning office, according to Ribak, turnout for Hillquit was especially strong in Jewish neighborhoods with the socialist candidate winning more than 60 percent of the Jewish vote in some areas of the Lower East Side.
Chana Pollack contributed research. Jacob Kornbluh contributed writing.
The post A century before Mamdani, this Jewish socialist mayoral candidate divided NYC Jews appeared first on The Forward.
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Yad Vashem says it has identified 5 million Holocaust victims: ‘Behind each name is a life that mattered’
Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, says it has reached a major milestone in its efforts to uncover the identities of all of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust, crossing the 5-million name threshold with the help of AI.
That leaves 1 million names still unknown from the tally of 6 million murdered Jews that is synonymous with the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II.
Two years ago, Yad Vashem inaugurated a 26.5 foot-long “Book of Names,” which included the names of 4,800,000 victims of the Shoah, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Since then, researchers deployed AI technology and machine learning to analyze hundreds of millions of archival documents that were previously too extensive to research manually, according to Yad Vashem. In addition to covering large amounts of material quickly, the algorithms were taught to look out for variations of victims’ names, leading to the new identification of hundreds of thousands of victims.
Yad Vashem estimates an additional 250,000 names could still be recovered using the technology.
“Reaching 5 million names is both a milestone and a reminder of our unfinished obligation,” said Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, in a statement. “Behind each name is a life that mattered — a child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice that was silenced forever. It is our moral duty to ensure that every victim is remembered so that no one will be left behind in the darkness of anonymity.”
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New York Mayoral Race: Jewish Rabbis Who Ignore History Are Still Doomed to Repeat it
Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS
When more than 1,000 rabbis across the political spectrum and from all denominations came together to write a letter opposing New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for failing to condemn calls for violence against Jews, denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, accusing Israel of genocide, and more — it seemed only a matter of time until an opposing action letter penned by agenda-driven radicals would emerge.
Indeed, a group of far-left rabbis calling themselves “Jews for a Shared Future” has come forward with a letter of their own. In the letter, they defend Mamdani, mainly by claiming to know what is in his heart and mind rather than confronting the things that he has said and done.
The letter attempts to gaslight legitimately concerned and frightened New Yorkers of all religions, divining to somehow know that Mamdani’s positions and beliefs “stem not from hate but from his deep moral convictions.”
Abhorrently, and with no evidence provided, the letter goes on to accuse New York Jews expressing concern for their community’s safety as being “built on Muslim vulnerability.”
It is telling that the Jews for a Shared Future letter could muster only around 30 signatures from New York City area rabbis, while the self-described “The Jewish Majority” rabbis who authored the initial letter includes well over 100 NYC rabbis, all clearly concerned for the well-being of their Jewish constituencies.
And well they should be.
While Jews for a Shared Future focuses on unfounded, uncited, and libelous claims that accuse Jews of putting Muslims in harm’s way — and claiming to know what is in Mamdani’s heart — the Jewish Majority letter provides links to uncontested public statements and positions taken by Mamdani that raise well-founded and serious concerns for all New Yorkers, including Jews.
Mamdani’s resistance to condemn language including “Globalize the Intifada” and his continued use of false antisemitic tropes that refer to Israel as an “apartheid” and “genocidal” state are well documented and raise sufficient concern. These blood libels and calls for violence have repeatedly led to harm and attacks against Jews across the country.
Recently, though, video has re-emerged from a 2021 Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Zoom meeting, in which Mamdani revealed much greater detail about his political intentions.
In the video, Mamdani proudly refers to bringing “radical legislation” to the fore and of working to bring the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to New York. He speaks in detail of his goal to “overturn” New York’s anti-BDS executive order and about his “fight to stop the study abroad at universities in Israel.”
He even boasted of his involvement with the antisemitic Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group while in college, and of his desire to “dismantle” the US relationship with Israel.
Mamdani has been clear that “it was Palestine that brought me into this movement.” This statement leaves little doubt as to how his expressly stated agendas will be implemented as mayor, and that it is likely to cause harm and discrimination against the overwhelming majority of NYC Jews who support the existence of Israel.
Mamdani’s pledged support for BDS and his promise to overturn anti-BDS laws could very well lead to the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses and to all sorts of discrimination against Zionist Jews, horrifyingly reminiscent of what happened in 1930s Germany. The Jewish Majority letter is right to warn the public of Mamdani’s language and agenda. Never again must mean never again.
Mamdani’s grotesque threat to block Jewish students from studying in Israel also raise serious concerns. Furthermore, in a public school system already rife with antisemitism, Mamdani has only compounded these concerns by hinting that former Congressman and anti-Israel activist, Jamaal Bowman, could be his choice for NYC’s next schools chancellor. Along with his lengthy resume of anti-Israel activity, Bowman has referred to Israel as being founded on “White Supremacy,” leading many Jews to shudder at how curriculum based on such tropes could forge not only misinformation and pedagogical dereliction, but poison a generation of children against Jews and Israel. This, too, has already been a serious problem in the city’s public schools.
Jews for a Shared Future apparently shares none of these concerns about Mamdani, his expressly stated agenda, his antisemitic tropes, or the already fragile state of Jewish people in New York City. “Don’t believe what he says or does,” they tell you. Instead, believe what they purport to know about what is true in his heart.
The sad irony of this is that so many Jews simply refuse to learn from our shared history. The discriminators, harassers, and attackers of Jews who become radicalized under Mamdani will not care one bit about whether you are one of the Jews who supported Mamdani’s antisemitic vision or not. To them, even a Mamdani-supporting rabbi is, after all, just another Jew.
Jeffrey Lax is a professor of law and chair of the business department at CUNY, and a co-founder of S.A.F.E. Campus.
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Trump calls on Orthodox Jewish voters in NJ to vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate
President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Orthodox Jewish voters in Lakewood, New Jersey, to vote for the Republican candidate in the state’s gubernatorial race.
“I need ALL of my supporters in the Orthodox community in Lakewood and its surrounding towns to vote in HUGE numbers for Jack Ciattarelli,” wrote Trump in a post on Truth Social. “Jack needs every single Vote in the community, including all the Yeshiva students who turned out to vote for me last year.”
Ciattarelli received a joint endorsement last week from Orthodox Jewish leaders in Lakewood as well as the neighboring towns of Jackson, Toms River, Howell and Manchester, according to the Lakewood Scoop.
But Ciattarelli also faced backlash from his opponent, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, last month after his Muslim relations advisor said he wasn’t “taking money from Jews” at a campaign event.
In his post, Trump also touted his fierce backing in Lakewood, a center of haredi Orthodox life in the United States, during the 2024 presidential race. He boasted that Lakewood was “one of our biggest Wins anywhere in the Country with more than 90% of the Vote.” In fact, 87.8% of voters in the town cast their ballots for him.
Democrat Kamala Harris won New Jersey in 2024 with 52% of the votes, Ciattarelli is currently hoping to flip the governor’s mansion red. Sherrill is leading in polls, but some show a very tight race, according to an aggregation published by the New York Times.
Several top Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, visited campaign events in New Jersey over the weekend to rally behind Sherrill, in a sign that the party is concerned about the possible outcome of the election.
“Your Votes in this Election will save New Jersey, a State that is near and dear to my heart,” wrote Trump, before exhorting everyone to the polls in all caps.
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