University of Kwazulu-Natal

Mamdani S Nyc Vision Omits Jewish Immigrant Life Critics Say

Bonisiwe Shabane
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mamdani s nyc vision omits jewish immigrant life critics say

(NEW YORK CITY) Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid has drawn fresh scrutiny from some Jewish community leaders and historians this week, who say his policy agenda—centered on rent freezes, fare-free buses, universal childcare, and progressive... The debate, sparked in part by recent commentary arguing his platform overlooks the city’s unique Jewish story, raises questions about how a broad social-justice message connects with communities shaped by generations of migration, religious... Critics do not say Mamdani ignores immigrants altogether. His proposals focus on economic inequality, housing stress, and public transit access—issues affecting many of the city’s 3.2 million foreign-born residents. Still, they argue that in a city where Jewish immigrant life has shaped neighborhoods from the Lower East Side to Brooklyn for centuries, the absence of explicit reference to Jewish history and contemporary concerns... Supporters counter with a universalist view: a platform prioritizing affordable housing, low-cost transit, and childcare benefits working families across faiths and backgrounds, including Jewish New Yorkers facing rising rents and longer commutes in boroughs...

They also point to the historic use of progressive revenue streams in city politics to expand public goods that ease costs for seniors, new parents, and small business workers. Tension in the political mood centers not only on policy details but on identity and safety. Those concerns are broader than taxes or transit; they’re about whether communal identity will be seen and respected in City Hall. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City said Wednesday that “the hard work of improving New Yorker’s lives starts now.” He vowed that ICE agents will be held to the same standard of... New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference in the Queens borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025.

(AP Photo/Heather Khalifa) NEW YORK (AP) — Within hours of Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s first Muslim mayor, the Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism, launched an initiative to track policies and personnel appointments of the incoming... The ADL said Wednesday the goal is to “protect Jewish residents across the five boroughs during a period of unprecedented antisemitism in New York City.” Mamdani’s main rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, received about 60% of the Jewish vote, according to the AP Voter Poll, after a campaign that highlighted Mamdani’s denunciations of Israel and kindled debate over antisemitism. About 3-in-10 Jewish voters supported Mamdani, the AP poll said.

As a Jew and a New Yorker, Norman Needleman said he finds the city’s mayoral election “painful.” Waiting in line Friday to vote on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the 77-year-old Needleman thought Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist, would be good for the city’s social needs. But his positions on Israel were just too much for Needleman to accept. “If I try and bend that far, I’ll break,” he said, quoting the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” His comments reflect what has been a fraught debate, among Jews in New York and elsewhere, ahead of the city’s mayoral election Tuesday. Jewish voters have long reliably supported Democrats, and Mamdani won the Democratic primary, but concerns about rising antisemitism and Mamdani’s sharp criticisms of Israel have opened up a generational split and raised deeper questions...

This election has shown clearly that “Jews and Jewish voters are not a monolith,” said Phylisa Wisdom, the director of the New York Jewish Agenda, an advocacy group promoting liberal Jewish New Yorkers. “I will be the mayor who doesn’t just protect Jewish New Yorkers, but also celebrates and cherishes them,” said Zohran Mamdani during New York’s first general-election debate for mayor. Since he launched his campaign in October of 2024, however, Mamdani has faced a barrage of criticism, apprehension, and even attempts to demean his character in response to his views on Israel. Mamdani’s platform has focused narrowly on innovative policies to make New York, one of the world’s most expensive cities, more affordable and inclusive for all. From rent freezes to raising the minimum wage, free child care for all to hiking taxes on corporations and the one percent, Mamdani consistently presents an articulate progressive vision for the city’s future. The excitement created by his campaign, for which an astonishing 90,000 volunteers have walked precincts and staffed phone banks, has reverberated across the country.

But in New York—the historic gateway for immigrants from across the world—support for and opposition to the regimes from which those immigrants came, and New Yorkers’ ties to friends and relatives in other countries,... Unlike his opponents in the mayoral race, Mamdani has offered perspectives on Israel, Zionism, and antisemitism that have upset and even alarmed some voters. Although he has never denied that the state of Israel has a right to exist, he simultaneously has not affirmed that it should exist as a Jewish state. Mamdani is forthright in his opposition to Israel’s use of violence against the Palestinian people, and has classified the ongoing war in Gaza as a “genocide.” He also has not swayed from his support... When it comes to New York’s institutional ties to Israel, Mamdani wants to deviate from the past practice of the city’s mayors, who supported initiatives such as the NYC-Israel Economic Council and the NYPD’s... Perhaps the most remarkable promise Mamdani has made is to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he ever enters the city.

Instead of marketing himself as an ally to Israel, Mamdani has instead channeled his energy into targeting many of the everyday concerns of Jewish New Yorkers. According to data released by the NYPD, Jews were the primary target of hate crimes reported (hate crimes remain largely underreported across the board) in the city in 2024, constituting nearly 54 percent of... He has called for increasing funding for hate violence programs from $3 million to $26 million. He has also signified support for the implementation of the “Hidden Voices” program, which would teach students from kindergarten through 12th grade about Jewish Americans in U.S. history. On the second anniversary of the October 7th attacks, Mamdani released a statement mourning those killed in both Israel and occupied Palestine, and he has repeatedly expressed a continued commitment to condemning antisemitism across...

But connecting with voters in an effort to reconcile his opposition to Zionism with his opposition to antisemitism and his support for the city’s Jewish population has not been an easy task. Mamdani’s campaign has been met by significant resistance from Jewish leaders and organizations that take issue with his stance on Israel. A letter signed by over 1,000 rabbis that called for voters to stand up against Mamdani made headlines, arriving in the wake of Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue’s classification of Mamdani... In recent weeks, these voices have dominated the public conversation about the city’s mayoral race, but the truth about Jewish New Yorkers’ positions on Mamdani is much more complex. In a Fox News poll taken just before the general-election debate, 42 percent of Jewish voters surveyed supported Cuomo, while Mamdani trailed just behind with 38 percent. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on June 24.

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images New York’s Jewish community, online and off, is preoccupied with Zohran Mamdani’s stunning upset in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary: What would his history of activism against Israel mean should he become mayor? Did the Jews who voted for him consider above all his plans for social relief? The 33-year-old Democratic Socialist is a vocal critic of Israel and aligned with progressive causes. His potential victory over incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in the general election is raising questions not only about his stance on Israel, but also about how he would govern a city with the largest...

During the campaign, Mamdani did not shy away from controversies, Jewish and otherwise. He said he would not visit Israel, breaking with a tradition upheld by mayors since 1951 to show solidarity with the fledgling nation and with Jewish constituents at home. He is the first Democratic nominee to pledge to publicly back the movement to boycott Israel as mayor, which some in the pro-Israel community see as an assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish... Mamdani, who is Muslim, also came under fire for declining to co-sponsor resolutions recognizing Israel’s independence and commemorating the Holocaust. Jewish colleagues in the state house accused Mamdani of antisemitism after he authored a bill to penalize charities supporting Israeli settlements. His critics said it targeted, in part, Jewish organizations and nonprofits assisting families of terror victims or providing support for units of the Israel Defense Forces.

Every time I pull into New York City, I blast Taylor Swift's "Welcome to New York." Prosaic, perhaps, but the thumping bass and lyrics painting New York as a city of bright lights and... In New York City, as the song goes, "the lights are so bright but they never blind me." But after the Nov. 4 New York mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani's policies may open the eyes of Gen Z so blindingly enthralled with democratic socialism, they seem poised to give the Democratic nominee the reins of one of... It would be a devastating loss for common sense and New York City. More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast ballots during the early-voting period, and 16% were Generation Z voters. Mamdani's socialist policies and extreme views on the New York Police Department and the city's robust Jewish population will destroy − or at least dim the lights of − the city they call home.

It might drive some to actually leave. We are seeing hints of this already. A survey done by J.L. Partners for the Daily Mail found that, despite Mamdani's incredible popularity with the youth vote, not everyone is excited that the state legislator will institute his socialist agenda on New Yorkers. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in Tuesday night’s Democratic mayoral primary in New York is alarming many Jews in the city who say that his anti-Israel rhetoric legitimizes antisemitism and deepens divisions. Daniel S.

Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that Mamdani’s dismissive “attitude to the concerns of New York’s Jewish community during the campaign, particularly its strong support for the State of Israel, is more... “New York is home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel,” Mariaschin said. “Over more than three centuries, Jewish New Yorkers have made countless contributions to making it one of the world’s greatest cities.” Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, and William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, spoke to JNS about Mamdani on the sidelines... “I’m certainly hoping that that all right-thinking New Yorkers, and certainly our Jewish community, will organize themselves to make sure that there’s a serious opposition in the general election,” Fingerhut said.

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