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How Mamdani became New York’s next mayor, with Jews divided between fierce opposition and fiery support
Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose campaign was powered by youthful energy, a surge of new voters, and a promise of unconventional change, completed his yearlong journey with a decisive victory — to be elected the 111th mayor of New York City and the first Muslim to hold the office.
Mamdani’s victory, with just over 50% of the vote, was made possible by a splintered opposition. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after his bitter primary loss, hoped for a comeback by highlighting Mamdani’s harsh criticism of law enforcement and of Israel, rallying much of the city’s Jewish and older Democratic voters after Mayor Eric Adams withdrew.
But Cuomo’s lingering unpopularity — he resigned as governor in 2021 after numerous women accused him of sexual harassment, allegations he denied — combined with his campaign’s lackluster strategy and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s continued presence in the race, helped clear the path for Mamdani to prevail.
Voting turnout surged past two million, with early voting also at a record high.
Cuomo received about 41% of the vote, according to unofficial results, higher than the 36% he got in the June primary.
A campaign that redefined Jewish politics in New York
Democratic nominees for mayor typically win in November — with about two-thirds of New York voters registered as Democrats. But Mamdani was not the typical Democratic frontrunner in the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. An outspoken and unapologetic critic of Israel and defender of Palestinians, Mamdani’s stance on the conflict in Gaza resonated with a majority of voters, according to public opinion polls.
His campaign roiled the Jewish community more than any mayoral contest in recent memory. Rabbis across the country weighed in on Mamdani’s candidacy. More than 850 rabbis and cantors signed a letter opposing Mamdani and the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism. Other prominent rabbis, who refused to issue political endorsements, called out Mamdani’s rhetoric but cautioned against the potential consequences of an increasingly divided Jewish community.
Felice Schachter, an Upper West Side resident who has been involved with the Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism, is planning her possible exit from the city after the votes are counted. “If God forbid, Mamdani wins, I’m leaving here. I’m moving. I don’t think it’s safe for Jews,” she said at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in midtown Manhattan at the watch party for Cuomo.
“I already spent time in Long Beach. I have a real estate broker. I got my pre-approval. I’m ready to go. My real estate broker knows tomorrow, I said, ‘If Mamdani wins, call Wednesday morning. I’m gonna have an offer in by December 1.’”
Mamdani is the first major party nominee to pledge to publicly back the movement to boycott Israel, which some in the pro-Israel community see as an assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish state’s existence. He also said he would not visit Israel, breaking with a tradition upheld by mayors since 1951 to show solidarity with Jewish constituents at home.
Mamdani promised to end the city’s half-century practice of investing millions in Israeli government debt securities and said he would dissolve a council Mayor Eric Adams created in May aimed at strengthening the U.S.-Israel economic ties. Recently, he said he would reassess a partnership between the Roosevelt Island campus of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology because of the Israeli university’s ties to the IDF.
The war in Gaza was also a flashpoint in the campaign, with Mamdani tapping into the anger over the loss of life and the dire humanitarian crisis.
Mamdani attended some of the protests just after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and led a hunger strike outside the White House to call for a permanent ceasefire in November 2023. Though he condemned Hamas’ attack as a “horrific war crime,” he defended the campus protests, some of which included offensive displays or antisemitic statements, and he criticized the Adams administration for its crackdown on them.
Mamdani faced the most scrutiny for refusing to outright condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” for saying he doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and for a newly surfaced 2023 video in which he said that the New York Police Department’s boots are “laced by the IDF.”
He also clashed with the Anti-Defamation League, saying the organization does not speak for New York Jews’ concerns.
Mamdani enjoyed support among progressive and younger Jews who see his criticism of Israel as compatible with Jewish values of justice. He was also boosted by local Jewish elected officials such as Ruth Messinger and embraced by prominent liberal rabbis.
A letter signed by more than 250 rabbis and cantors stated, “we recognize that candidate Zohran Mamdani’s support for Palestinian self-determination stems not from hate, but from his deep moral convictions.” It also defended attacks against his Muslim identity, arguing, “Jewish safety cannot be built on Muslim vulnerability, nor can we combat hate against our community while turning away from hate against our neighbors.”
Mamdani’s extended olive branch and coalition
Despite the backlash and the opposition, the son of Ugandan and Indian immigrants embarked on an unprecedented outreach effort to a broad spectrum of Jewish New Yorkers across the city’s five boroughs, even finding allies in segments of the Hasidic community.
He attended High Holiday services at Kolot Chaiyeinu and the Lab/Shul, he addressed members of Congregation Beth Elohim for a community conversation earlier this month, and visited Hasidic leaders in South Williamsburg during Sukkot. On the second anniversary of Oct. 7, he appeared at an Israelis for Peace vigil alongside hostage families. Mamdani also recently published an open letter in Hasidic Yiddish, outlining his plans to combat antisemitism and advance his affordability agenda, and gave an interview to a popular Yiddish magazine, Der Moment.
In public appearances, he highlighted conversations he had with Jewish New Yorkers, in which he listened to their concerns and expressed solidarity with their struggle amid rising antisemitism.
Mamdani reassured the community that he would increase police protection outside houses of worship and Jewish institutions and invest in hate crime prevention programs. He also vowed to retain police commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish, and said he would use a city curriculum in public schools that teaches about Jewish Americans, even as it contradicts his own position on Israel. He also assured liberal Zionists that support for Israel would not be a litmus test for serving in his administration.
The road ahead
In his primary victory speech, Mamdani promised, if elected, to govern for every New Yorker, “including Jewish New Yorkers,” and those who didn’t vote for him. He’s expected to echo that sentiment in a victory speech at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater.
Building his administration and governing will test whether the promise of inclusion can overcome the scars of the campaign.
Jewish leaders will be closely monitoring to see how Mamdani reacts to the first antisemitic incident under his watch and whether he will move to implement his boycott and divestment agenda across city agencies.
There are also open questions about whether activists critical of Israel and with troubling pasts will fill senior roles at City Hall, and who will have a seat at the table when critical issues impacting the community are discussed.
Business and law enforcement leaders are bracing for his proposals to redirect police funding toward housing and mental-health programs and are unsure how his budget priorities will impact the economy.
A check on the mayor
Even as he takes office with a clear mandate, Mamdani faces a complex political landscape filled with powerful Democrats who did not endorse him and could act as a check on his more controversial ambitions in a city of 8.5 million with deep Jewish roots and global connections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, both of whom pointedly stayed neutral in the mayoral race, could be persuaded to speak out if Mamdani’s policies threaten to alienate the city from federal partners or jeopardize cooperation with Israel.
Rep. Dan Goldman, Councilwoman Julie Menin — who is running to become City Council Speaker in January — and former Comptroller Scott Stringer, all of whom withheld their support, could be part of an influential bloc of Jewish voices demanding accountability and moderation from City Hall.
Comptroller-elect Mark Levine, a key ally who campaigned with Mamdani but has publicly vowed to reinvest in Israel Bonds and use his platform to speak out for Israel, could become both a bridge and a brake on the administration. If Levine follows through on his promises and the mayor pursues divestment, a public clash between the two men could be one of the defining political dramas of the new administration.
For President Donald Trump, who endorsed Cuomo at the last minute, and New York Republicans, Mamdani’s win was expected to be a political gift. GOP officials intend to highlight the election as proof that Democrats have lost the center and use it to rally Jewish voters in next year’s gubernatorial race against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Leadership, who earned plaudits in the pro-Israel community after confronting the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania over campus antisemitism, is expected to launch her campaign for governor in the near future.
Hannah Feuer contributed reporting.
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Heeding a Saudi plea, Trump says he canceled a joint U.S.-Israel assault on Iran
(JTA) — President Donald Trump said he canceled at the last minute a planned joint assault with Israel on Iran’s energy infrastructure at the behest of Saudi Arabia, which feared the war blowing up into a wider conflict.
The U.S. alerts over the weekend warning citizens to evacuate the Middle East and then Trump’s announcement late Saturday that he was canceling the planned strike appeared to catch Israel off guard. It undercut Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim last week that he and Trump were in lockstep on Iran.
“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump said on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns.
“Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” he said. “This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”
Saudi Arabia’’s official news agency confirmed that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who has close business and personal ties with Trump and his family, appealed to the U.S. president to stand down.
“The Crown Prince stressed the need to prioritize dialogue to reduce escalation and the importance of making every possible effort to achieve calm that paves the way for diplomatic solutions, preserves the region’s security and stability, and prevents a wider conflict whose repercussions would affect regional and international security and stability,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
Iran disputed Trump’s claim, instead saying that it was ready to respond to any attack on the country.
“The Iranian Foreign Ministry vowed that Tehran will use all means at its disposal to exercise its inherent right of self-defense in the face of the United States’ ongoing violations against the Islamic Republic,” the Fars News Agency said.
Fars, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – the principal power in Iran since the war began – denied any stand-down on Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran’s Armed Forces have staged uncompromising retaliation in the face of each instance of violation, including those taking place in support of illegal vessel movement in the waterway,” the agency said.
The waterway is critical to the passage of a fifth of the world’s petroleum. Iran has asserted control of the waterway in the wake of the war the United States and Israel launched in February.
Trump’s statement came after CBS News reported on Saturday that the United States and Israel were set to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure, which would substantially escalate the war. The State Department put out a security alert advising Americans in the region to leave if they could, and to cancel plans to enter it.
Regional media reported that Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, conveyed warnings through Turkey and Pakistan to regional U.S. allies that it would hit back hard if the U.S.-Israel attack went through.
Israel appeared to be caught off guard both by the planned escalation and by Trump’s stand-down. “Israel is unaware of a decision to restart full military operations, nor has been requested of Israel to join any military actions against Iran,” CBS News quoted an Israeli official as saying – even as it quoted U.S. officials as saying that Israel was coordinating with the United States.
Israel’s government had no comment on Trump’s reported plan to attack the infrastructure, or his stand-down. Flights in and out of Ben Gurion Airport were unaffected. In his Truth Social statement, Trump said, “The Country of Israel joins me in this commitment.”
Trump has multiple times since the war’s launch threatened to escalate the war only to retreat at the last minute, something the Fars news agency noted in a sardonic tone.
“This narrative seems familiar and repetitive,” it said in a separate report on bin Salman’s appeal. “Every time Trump has made serious threats against Iranian infrastructure in the past, after Tehran has not backed down, he has claimed that friendly countries have asked him not to do anything.”
Trump escalated his rhetoric last week as Iran continued to attack ships attempting to transit Hormuz. “We’re going to beat the f***ing s**t out of them,” he told Fox News.
Trump has since the tentative signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran in mid-June asked Israel to stay out of the conflict – including in the wake of the resumption of fighting on July 13.
Netanyahu, facing a tough reelection in October, has in recent weeks sought to allay any perceptions in Israel that he had been sidelined by Trump. He met with the president last week.
“I just finished an excellent meeting with President Trump,” he told Israeli reporters after the meeting. “And when I say excellent, it’s not lip service – a conversation with full cooperation, with mutual support, with the understanding of the joint goal to ensure that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and other goals.”
The roller-coaster ride appeared to unsettle Netanyahu’s colleagues in his Likud Party. “You can say ‘no’ to Trump,” Knesset member Amit Halevi told Kan Reshet Bet, the government-run radio station. “Our commitment is to the security of the state.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention
(JTA) — Local and national Jewish Democrats say they are sympathetic after Michigan’s Jewish attorney general, Dana Nessel, said she would skip the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention over concerns about antisemitism and harassment.
“I don’t blame AG Nessel for not wanting to go and basically put herself in situations that feel untenable in this moment of time and don’t add any value politically, personally,” Jessica “Decky” Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic caucus chair, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
Alexander’s comment came a day after Nessel announced during a televised antisemitism roundtable that she would be skipping the convention next month, where party leaders will finalize the state’s Democratic candidate for Senate following a divisive primary that has focused in part on Israel and antisemitism.
“I don’t feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying,” Nessel said during the roundtable. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”
She said she had filed a formal complaint within the party about a party official who had called her a neo-Nazi because of her beliefs. “Why is this person more accepted in our party than me?” she asked without naming the official. Her office responded to a request for comment by referring to the recorded livestream of the antisemitism roundtable.
Nessel’s declaration comes in the final days of the primary between Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel stalwart, and Abdul El-Sayed, a democratic socialist who is deeply critical of Israel. El-Sayed is surging in polls despite a reported $30 million spent against him by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, and its supporters, whom he has made a target of criticism from the campaign trail.
Nessel’s comments also follow turmoil at the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention in April, where Stevens was booed by attendees. A third primary candidate who later dropped out of the race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, said a convention attendee had targeted her Jewish husband with an antisemitic slur.
The incident has fueled alarm among Jewish Democrats, according to Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“She’s not alone,” Soifer told JTA about Nessel on Friday. “We’ve heard from other Jewish Democrats who attended the Democratic Party convention earlier this year in Michigan, and there was a sense of discomfort amid what felt like a pro-Palestinian protest [that] may have even blurred the line for some into antisemitic sentiment — and it’s really concerning.”
Nessel has raised the alarm about antisemitism within the party for years, alleging in 2024 that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a prominent pro-Palestinian voice, had been antisemitic when criticizing charges Nessel filed against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan.
For her part, Alexander said she would be participating in the nominating convention and said she believed the chair of the state Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, had been “very accessible and very open to making sure that we, including our Jewish elected officials, feel safe in that space.” But she said she understood why Nessel was staying away.
“It would never even occur to me, but I’m not an elected official,” Alexander said. “It’s a different stake for me than it is for Dana. I understand her completely.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
(JTA) — Every congregational rabbi in Maine has signed onto a statement calling for peace and urging the state’s political leaders to stop using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza, following a Democratic primary in which several candidates used the label for the first time.
But the rabbis also indicated that they, too, were unsatisfied with conditions in the Middle East and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work toward a peaceful future.
“We call upon Maine’s leaders, and particularly its political leaders, to reject the irresponsible usage of the term in describing the Israel-Hamas War,” said the statement released on Friday. “We also call upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end the cycle of violence and to create a better world for both Palestinian and Israeli children.”
The statement, titled “A Call for Peace and Responsible Rhetoric,” argues that using the term as a “political slogan does not advance peace in the Middle East.” The term “erases essential moral and legal distinctions, diminishes the meaning of genocide, and inflames hatred for the local Jewish community,” the rabbis say.
“Compassion for Palestinians does not require the adoption of hateful and misleading language,” they continue. “Advocating for peace does not require participation in a ‘Holocaust inversion’ against the Jewish community. And political leadership does not require demonizing one community in the service of another.”
The statement comes days after Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president, secured the Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Saturday at the party’s nominating convention to replace Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic who dropped out of the race earlier this month. Platner faced a sexual assault allegation, which he denies. Jackson now faces Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election.
Platner’s romp to the primary victory featured routine use of “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions. And ahead of the convention to replace him, Jackson and several other Democratic hopefuls who later exited the race began using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza for the first time, a shift that drew scrutiny from some Jewish leaders and voters in the state.
The use of the term has become a “currency for acquiring power and position in Maine’s Democratic party,” Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, the leader of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville, who also signed the statement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Too many Maine Democrats are cynically willing to trade in that currency at the expense of our safety and dignity,” she said in an emailed statement. “We decided we needed to say something collectively, both about the specious and dangerous nature of the claim, and about how much damage has been done to our families and congregants.”
The statement Friday was spearheaded by the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine and signed by every congregational rabbi in the state, including Rabbi Bill Siemers of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor and Rabbi Erica Asch of the Reform Temple Beth El in Augusta. (Rabbis affiliated with the Chabad movement in Maine did not appear on the signatory list.)
Zach Schwartz, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, said the federation hoped the “unity displayed here in Maine can inspire Jewish communities across the US to also unite against the extremist rhetoric harming our community and our children.”
Rabbi Josh Stanton, the associate vice president of interfaith and intergroup initiatives for Jewish Federations of North America, also hailed the joint statement.
“Maine’s Jewish clergy are setting an important example with their call to put aside inflammatory rhetoric and look to the common good,” Stanton said in an emailed statement. “At a time of rising polarization and declining civil discourse, the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine’s efforts to unify the community around this important message are a mark of true leadership.”
Isaacs told JTA that she hoped Jackson would “support, understand, and advocate for all of Maine’s citizens, including the totality of Maine’s diverse Jewish community.”
“Work with us to figure out how to express outrage and legitimate critique of Israel’s government without succumbing to language that you might not know is an ancient antisemitic trope, or dismissing the security needs of Israel’s citizens,” Isaacs said of her message to Jackson. “Please have the courage to forge your own path, and not follow in the footsteps of Graham Platner, a man who should have never been normalized, endorsed, or empowered.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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