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Andrew Cuomo said antisemitism was his ‘most important issue.’ What does his record say?
At an Upper West Side synagogue in April, Andrew Cuomo pronounced “the most important issue” in his campaign for mayor of New York City: antisemitism.
The former governor has centered an appeal to Jewish New Yorkers as he seeks to defeat the race’s frontrunner, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a staunch critic of Israel. In the same speech at the West Side Institutional Synagogue, Cuomo declared a belief that has defined his attitude toward Israel and antisemitism for decades.
“It’s very simple,” he said. “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
Cuomo proceeded to lose the Democratic primary to Mamdani and relaunch his campaign as an independent in the general election. Now polling second but far behind Mamdani, he contends that his vow to defend Jews lies at the heart of his bid to lead the city with the largest Jewish population in the world. He himself has two Jewish brother-in-laws and a Jewish son-in-law who joined his family last year.
Here is a breakdown of Cuomo’s history, rhetoric and policies surrounding Jews, Israel and antisemitism.
(Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images)
Tackling antisemitism
Cuomo has long touted deep ties to Jewish New Yorkers. In a 2002 interview with New York Jewish Week, he described being “raised in a community in Queens with Jewish people,” and he often references his Jewish in-laws.
While he was governor from 2011 to 2021, New York saw a string of attacks on Jews. In 2019 alone, those included assaults on Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, the stabbing of five people at a rabbi’s house in Monsey, and a shooting that killed four people at a kosher supermarket just over the border in Jersey City.
Cuomo responded with several public measures. He formed a hate crimes unit in the state police, allocated $45 million to protect religious-based institutions and upped policing in Jewish neighborhoods. In 2020, he passed a law that made New York the first state to define “hate-fueled” murder as domestic terrorism, punishable by up to life in prison without parole.
During his mayoral bid, Cuomo has honed in on fighting antisemitism, often in the same breath as calling himself a stalwart supporter of Israel and a pillar against pro-Palestinian activism. He warned the crowd at the West Side Institutional Synagogue, “The forces of antisemitism and pro-Palestinian policies are organized, well funded and mobilized, and have significant political strength, even right here in the city of New York.”
At the center of Cuomo’s pitch to Jewish voters is the alternative of Mamdani, whom he has accused of “fueling antisemitism.” Mamdani says that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and supports a boycott against Israel. Cuomo says his opponent’s positions have contributed to a breeding ground for hatred and violence against Jews, while also acknowledging that Mamdani has many younger, pro-Palestinian Jewish supporters.
A long relationship with Israel
For decades, Cuomo has emphasized his “hyper aggressive” support for Israel. He visited during the 2014 Gaza War, touring a tunnel that Israel said was built by Hamas and expressing “total solidarity” with Israel.
In 2016, he passed a controversial order that banned state agencies from investing in companies and organizations that promoted or engaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The order also required the state to create a public list of businesses aligned with BDS.
“If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you,” Cuomo said at the time. “If you divert revenues from Israel, New York will divert revenues from you. If you sanction Israel, New York will sanction you.”
The measure was praised by pro-Israel groups, who hold that BDS seeks to harm or destroy Israel. Critics, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the order infringed on First Amendment rights because boycotts are a form of free speech. Some activists also compared the public list of companies with McCarthyism. Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports BDS, protested outside Cuomo’s office.
In November 2024, Cuomo volunteered to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal defense against a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, which charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Cuomo said at the time, “This is the moment that true friends stand up, shoulder to shoulder and fight for the State of Israel.” But by August, Cuomo said he had not been involved in defending Netanyahu since his mayoral campaign began.
During the mayoral primary, Cuomo criticized progressive candidates beyond Mamdani for their stances on Israel — including Brad Lander, the Jewish city comptroller and Netanyahu critic who cross-endorsed Mamdani. Cuomo accused Lander and City Council speaker Adrienne Adams of “aiding and supporting the most aggressive anti-Israel policies.”
Lander responded furiously at the West Side Institutional Synagogue, the same congregation where Cuomo spoke. “Somehow, we Jews have become political pawns,” said Lander. “See something or someone you don’t like? Call it antisemitism, in a cheap, craven attempt to lure in Jewish support.”
Andrew Cuomo speaks at the town hall hosted by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council, in Midtown Manhattan, May 22, 2025. (Michael Priest Photography)
Clashing with Jews
Cuomo cultivated strong ties with Jewish leaders while he was governor, but some of those relationships hit rocky periods.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Cuomo restricted gatherings and closed schools in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. He singled the community out for spreading infections “because of their religious practices” during a press conference, setting off street demonstrations among Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn.
In response to the order limiting religious gatherings, Agudath Israel of America, which represents Haredi Orthodox Jews, filed a federal lawsuit claiming their civil and religious liberties were violated. Agdath won the suit in a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cuomo also came under fire for allegedly disparaging an event celebrating Sukkot, when Jews gather under temporary huts often covered in tree branches, during his campaign for attorney general in 2006. He commented to his team, “These people and their f***ing tree houses,” according to The New York Times Magazine. His spokesperson denied the incident.
His friendship with Jews was also deeply tested by the sexual misconduct probe that toppled his governorship in 2021. A slew of Jewish Democrats called for his resignation, including party leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler. So did several liberal and progressive Jewish groups, such as the New York Jewish Agenda and Jews For Racial & Economic Justice.
Andrew Cuomo speaks outside the West Side Institutional Synagogue, April 1, 2025, New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The Gaza war
Cuomo’s identification as one of Israel’s fiercest defenders has been complicated by the country’s increasingly unpopular war in Gaza.
Despite maintaining in September that he is “100% pro-Israel” and “the most aggressive governor in the country on behalf of Israel,” Cuomo now supplements his condemnations of Hamas with a call to end to the war that he indirectly acknowledges has devastated Gaza. His choice of words, referencing “the carnage every night on TV” and “horrific” violence, could be interpreted as sympathetic to the deaths of more than 66,000 Palestinians — though he never directly names them.
Cuomo has also placed more distance between himself and Netanyahu, whom he once sought to represent in court. “I never stood with Bibi,” he told The New York Times in September, saying that his legal argument was about the ICC’s jurisdiction and he had no alliance with the Israeli leader.
His shift in tone could reflect declining public opinion of Israel in the United States. Across the electorate, Quinnipiac polling shows an all-time low for sympathies with Israelis and an all-time high for sympathies with Palestinians. In New York City, a Times/Siena poll found that voters preferred Mamdani’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over any other candidate’s by a wide margin.
Still, Cuomo has not explicitly criticized Israel’s conduct. After appearing to say in August that he did not support “what the Israel government is doing vis-à-vis Gaza” and “Israel impeding humanitarian aid,” he quickly backed off. He was simply “airing what some people feel,” not giving his own personal opinion, he clarified to The New York Times.
In a recent interview with The Forward, Cuomo said his position on Israel “hasn’t shifted one iota.”
“We want three things: We want killing to stop, because it’s a matter of humanity. We want the hostages returned, and Hamas eliminated,” he said. “If you don’t eliminate Hamas, you accomplish nothing. This will happen again and again.” That, he added, was “the same thing that Israel wants.”
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With the last hostage released, is American Jewish unity over?
When the remains of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza returned to Israel this week, Scott Spindel, a lawyer in Encino, Calif., finally took off the thick steel dog tag he had put on after the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
His friend Lauren Krieger, an orthopedic surgeon, did the same. And he pulled down the last of the names of the hostages remaining in Gaza that his wife, Jenn Roth Krieger, had placed in the window of their Santa Monica home.
During the nearly 28 months that Israeli hostages remained in captivity in Gaza, Krieger, 61, and Spindel, 55, consistently argued over Israel’s war in the strip.
“Lauren would say that we probably were a little too extreme,” Spindel, whose daughter serves in the IDF, told me in a telephone interview. “I don’t think we blew up enough buildings.”
But those differences paled beside their mutual concern over the fate of the hostages.
“Unfortunately,” said Spindel, “it took tragedy to pull us together.”
So it was across the American Jewish landscape. Then, the body of Staff Sergeant Ran Gvili, the 24-year-old Israeli police officer killed on Oct. 7 and taken by Hamas terrorists back into the enclave, was returned to Israel — the last of the hostages to come home.
Jews from across the political spectrum unpinned yellow ribbon buttons from their lapels, removed the hostage posters from their synagogues, and folded up and put away the blue-and-white flags displayed as a symbol of the missing Israelis.
The marches and vigils American Jews held on behalf of the hostages — small but meaningful echoes of the mass rallies that roiled Israel — came to a quiet halt.
Jewish unity is forged in adversity. Without it, we are apt to find enemies among ourselves. And as painful as the hostage saga was, it unified an otherwise fractious American Jewish community in a time of crisis.
Without that common concern, are even deeper rifts our future?
“As committed and connected as we were,” said Spindel, “it doesn’t change the fact that we also were still divided about solutions.”
A family in distress
Across the United States, synagogues of all religious and political bents regularly joined in the same Acheinu prayer for the release and return of the hostages.
“Our family, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress,” the prayer begins — a wholly accurate summation of the totality of Jewish concern.
Surveys showed that the hostages unified American Jews even when Israel’s Gaza campaign divided them. An October 2025 Washington Post poll found that a plurality of American Jews disapproved of Israel’s military actions in Gaza — but a whopping 79% said they were “very concerned” about the hostages.
There have been other moments in recent Jewish history when calamity created unity. The 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, for instance, brought together the vast majority of American Jews in mourning, even those who opposed his policies.
And, of course the brutal Oct. 7 attack, which claimed almost 1,200 lives, created a near-universal sense of shock and sorrow.
But the hostage crisis may have had an even deeper emotional — and perhaps political — impact.
“Even for people who were not affiliated Jewishly, those hostages struck a deep, deep chord,” Krieger told me. “It felt personal. I don’t think we’ve had that level of collective trauma in our lifetimes in that same way.”
And a family divided
The hostage crisis bonded American Jews to one another, and to their Israeli counterparts, at a time when enormous political rifts were opening within their communities.
In the U.S., as in Israel, there were sharp disagreements over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war and whether he was even prioritizing the hostages’ safety.
And the encampments and protests against the war at college campuses — in which many Jewish students participated, and to which many others objected — created even deeper divisions over support for the Jewish state.
But if the hostage issue didn’t erase such differences, it muted them. Krieger and Spindel could frustrate each other in conversations about the conduct of the war, or American support for it. But in the end, they were both in that 79% that the Washington Post poll identified.
What will hold them — and the rest of us — together, now?
The hostage crisis provided something history unfortunately bestows upon Jews with regularity: an external enemy that transcended ideological differences. With it gone, American Jews return to what they’ve always been — a community bound by tradition, and riven by politics.
Krieger and Spindel have already resumed their arguments. But even though the dog tags are gone, they’re both still wearing Jewish stars on silver chains around their necks. When someone admires Krieger’s, he takes it off and gives it to them. He buys his metal stars in bulk on Amazon, and has given away dozens since Oct. 7.
“I want people to feel like I do,” he said, “like we’re a peoplehood worth cherishing.”
Worth cherishing — even though we can’t agree on much else.
The post With the last hostage released, is American Jewish unity over? appeared first on The Forward.
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Iran President Says Trump, Netanyahu, Europe Stirred Tensions in Protests
Amnesty International Greek activists and Iranians living in Athens hold candles and placards in front of the Greek Parliament to support the people of Iran, in Athens, Greece, January 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that US, Israeli and European leaders had exploited Iran’s economic problems, incited unrest and provided people with the means to “tear the nation apart” in recent protests.
The two-week long nationwide protests, which began in late December over an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and rising living costs, have abated after a bloody crackdown by the clerical authorities that US-based rights group HRANA says has killed at least 6,563, including 6,170 protesters and 214 security forces.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told CNN Turk that 3,100, including 2,000 security forces, had been killed.
The US, Israeli and European leaders tried to “provoke, create division, and supplied resources, drawing some innocent people into this movement,” Pezeshkian said in a live state TV broadcast.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced support for the demonstrators, saying the US was prepared to take action if Iran continued to kill protesters. US officials said on Friday that Trump was reviewing his options but had not decided whether to strike Iran.
Israel’s Ynet news website said on Friday that a US Navy destroyer had docked at the Israeli port of Eilat.
Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Europeans “rode on our problems, provoked, and were seeking — and still seek — to fragment society,” said Pezeshkian.
“They brought them into the streets and wanted, as they said, to tear this country apart, to sow conflict and hatred among the people and create division,” Pezeshkian said.
“Everyone knows that the issue was not just a social protest,” he added.
Regional allies including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have been engaging in diplomatic efforts to prevent a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
The US is demanding that Iran curb its missile program if the two nations are to instead resume talks, but Iran has rejected that demand.
Foreign Minister Araqchi said in Turkey on Tuesday that missiles would never be the subject of any negotiations.
In response to US threats of military action, Araqchi said Tehran was ready for either negotiations or warfare, and also ready to engage with regional countries to promote stability and peace.
“Regime change is a complete fantasy. Some have fallen for this illusion,” Araqchi told CNN Turk. “Our system is so deeply rooted and so firmly established that the comings and goings of individuals make no difference.”
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CBS News Chief Weiss Touts Commentator Push, Draws Mixed Reaction in Newsroom
FILE PHOTO: Bari Weiss speaks at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
Three months into her tenure, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss presented a vision this week to revitalize the nearly century-old broadcaster, in part by applying the same formula that fueled the rise of The Free Press – recruiting commentators who offer observations about news, politics and culture.
From adding 19 new commentators, including some drawn from The Free Press ranks, to introducing new podcasts, newsletters and live events, employees were variously energized or skeptical of the ideas presented by CBS’ new boss. Weiss’ notions about how to thrive in a post-Walter Cronkite era struck some as in conflict with the stated mission of doing great journalism, according to seven current and former CBS News employees and industry insiders.
In her presentation, Weiss also envisioned a galaxy of cross-platform stars, like New York Times columnist and CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, whom she highlighted with a meme: “Sorkining.” The Dealbook founder is the author of several business books, executive producer of the Showtime series “Billions,” and maestro of the New York Times premiere live event, and a Davos fixture.
“It’s like saying ‘Hey, Hollywood. Why can’t you just be like Leonardo DiCaprio?’ If people knew how to bottle that magic and make someone a star, they would do it,” said a former CBS employee.
An industry veteran said the idea suggested a lack of appreciation for the power of television, which has been making stars for generations: among them “CBS Evening News” anchors Dan Rather, Connie Chung, Walter Cronkite and Katie Couric.
The 41-year-old Weiss, who has no broadcast experience and has been described as a distant leader by six current and former CBS News sources, now has to deliver on her promise of capturing new and younger viewers – including political independents who don’t see themselves reflected in mainstream media. It is a daunting undertaking that has hobbled executives across broadcast and cable, including former CNN chief Chris Licht, ousted in June 2023.
One supporter sees the charismatic Weiss as a modern-day Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher of the Washington Post, who was undermined by underlings when she took over in 1963. Graham transformed the paper and led it through its Watergate-era heyday, and generally left editorial decisions to Executive Editor Ben Bradlee.
A current staffer, speaking on background, said, “People are saying, ‘Let’s give her a chance’ … I want to see her succeed. If she succeeds, we all succeed.”
CBS News and Weiss did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PRIORITIES FOR CBS NEWS
Weiss, a former opinion journalist and media entrepreneur, joined CBS after parent Paramount owner David Ellison bought her five-year-old media company, The Free Press, for $150 million in October.
Some see Weiss’ playbook of expanding CBS’s journalism ranks with commentators as conflicting with other initiatives including breaking news and landing deep investigative stories, according to three current and former CBS News staffers and an industry veteran.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” said the former employee. “But is that what a news division is or are they craving something completely different? That’s fine but don’t pretend it’s a news division.”
Another current CBS News staffer talked about past failures to capitalize on new ways of reaching the audience, such as leveraging the power of the Paramount+ streaming service to promote news shows, observing, “We have done a wretched job of being on the internet.”
Weiss is also attempting to change the news network’s political orientation, appealing to a wider cross-section of Americans, according to her remarks Tuesday. Weiss said she wants CBS News to reflect the friction animating the national conversation.
In broadening its perspective to include more diverse viewpoints, CBS News could ultimately lay claim to the uncharted ground for a center-right broadcaster, said Integrated Media Chief Executive Jonathan Miller, a veteran media executive who has held senior positions at News Corp and AOL.
“We need to commission and greenlight stories that will surprise and provoke – including inside our own newsroom,” Weiss said in her address to employees. “We also have to widen the aperture of the stories we tell.”
On that front, CBS has had mixed results so far. Earlier this month, “CBS Evening News” broadcast a widely panned segment featuring U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in various meme-like situations, saluting him as “the ultimate Florida man.”
EARLY SUCCESSES
It has also seen successes, including Lesley Stahl’s interview with Trump son-in-law and Middle East advisor Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, within a week of brokering a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, and Norah O’Donnell’s “60 Minutes” interview with Trump. Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over its editing of an interview with his White House rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
It landed journalistic scoops, including interviewing the man who charged one of two gunmen who attacked a Jewish community gathering in Sydney, and exclusive video of Alex Pretti, the man killed by Border Patrol in Minneapolis, reading a tribute to a veteran who died in 2024.
Weiss announced that the network would bring in contributors with expertise in politics, health, happiness, food and culture, whom she encouraged staffers to use on-air. The roster includes Free Press columnist Niall Ferguson of the conservative Hoover Institution, as well as Casey Lewis, a former Teen Vogue and MTV editor who writes about youth culture.
“It’s great to have younger people, a diverse demographic and diverse ideology represented,” said Kathy Kiely, the chair in Free-Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. “Newsrooms can’t do a good job unless we have that diversity in our ranks. What worries me is the emphasis on opinion over primary-sourced, reported facts.”
Weiss emphasized making content available online before it airs on TV to reach more viewers. CBS has long been in third place behind rivals ABC and NBC and, like most mainstream media, is struggling with audience declines as consumers migrate to social platforms.
Pew Research estimates about one-third of all adults get at least some news from podcasts. CBS News does not appear among Spotify’s or Apple’s rankings of the top 50 news podcasts.
One former employee expects the digital-first goal to be complicated because CBS hasn’t devoted sufficient resources to helping correspondents or anchors curate their social media presence or re-edit television interviews for YouTube or streaming.
Weiss encouraged staffers to think of the news organization as the best-capitalized media startup in the world.
“We are in a position, with the support of all of the leadership of this company, to really make the change we need.”