A complex set of thoughts going after the NYC mayoral election with Mayor-Elect Mamdani winning some half of the city-wide vote. On one hand, Mamdani ran on an affordability platform, not Palestine and Israel, and there was a concerted and good faith effort to reassure Jewish New Yorkers that he will represent them (https://forward.com/news/780196/mamdani-nyc-mayor-election-jews/) On the other hand, the toxic politics of “Israel and Palestine” was always part of Mamdani’s coalition. The Mayor-Elect of NYC is a committed a/z candidate and supporter BDS. He has a history trafficking in a/s-a/z tropes centered on Israel that many see has having contributed to a climate pocked by implicit and explicit a/I, a/j, a/s bias and hostility (XXXXAstoria article).

I am happy for Mamdani’s supporters who are happy, especially Muslim New Yorkers who suffered so much bigotry throughout this campaign; it’s their turn to be part of a governing coalition and to shoulder the weight of that civic responsibility. I am relieved that Cuomo lost, even though I voted for him. I am relieved that the race is over, willing to wait and watch the emergent Mamdani Administration with an open mind, but with one eye open; worried about what happens next; hoping he steps back from button animus towards the Jewish state. I hope he comes to understand, but have no hope he will, that it is anti-Zionist venom that gins up what he himself calls “the scourge of anti-Semitism” in society today, even as it does nothing to address roots of conflict and secure human life and political dignity in Israel and Palestine.

I will take some of my own lead from Rabbi Jeremy Kalmonfsky at Ansche Chesed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Ansche Chesed is an egalitarian-Conservative liberal-progressive-Zionist congregation. The congregation bespeaks unshakeable commitments to democracy and the State of Israel. No flags, not the American flag and not an Israeli flag flank the bimah –just two large menorahs. Neither he nor Rabbi Yael Hammerman joined 1000+ rabbis from across the country expressing opposition to Mamdani because of Israel. With their own redlines regarding anti-Zionism, other prominent NYC rabbis who didn’t sign the letter included Angela Buchdahl and Elliot Cosgrove ) :

In this letter to the congregation at Ansche Chesed, Kalmanofsky explains why he was not going to vote Mamdani, why he won’t tell his congregants or anyone else in the Jewish community how to vote, and how New York Jews might best respond to Mamdani in office.

Religion is a magnifying glass. In the synagogue before God, or the image of God, religion raises affect like love and fear to the nth degree. That includes political affect.

This is what Kalmanofsky wrote to his congregation before the election.

Dear Friends,

New York’s mayoral race has many Jews on pins and needles. 

The Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani – whose anti-Zionism is among his core personal commitments – is very likely to become mayor of the second most Jewish city in the world, after Tel Aviv. More Jews live in the Big Tapuach than in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beer Sheva combined. Polls say he holds a double-digit lead over Andrew Cuomo, whose only path to victory would require the Republican, Curtis Sliwa, to drop out. Mamdani is almost certain to win.

Still, Jewish leaders are mobilizing on the slim hope. Some of my friends and colleagues have given passionate sermons, circulating virally, about the dangers Mamdani would pose to our community. As I write this, more than 1,000 rabbis of every denomination, including several AC members and dear friends, signed an open letter encouraging Jews to oppose him and favor candidates who “reject antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric, and who affirm Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.”  

I’m for those things too, needless to say. But I did not sign the letter. I speak for myself, not Rabbi Hammerman, but she didn’t sign either. In her D’var Torah tomorrow in the Sanctuary she will express her views on cultivating engagement, not estrangement, even in disagreement. In contrast, several AC members expressed disappointment and criticism that I have not spoken in the decisive way other rabbis have. 

Because this is a weighty issue, I feel I owe it to our synagogue to reflect on it publicly. So in these next few paragraphs, I will explain:

–Why I myself will not vote for Zohran Mamdani.

–Why I think it is a misuse of my role to tell you how to vote.

–What I think would be more productive for Jewish citizens of this great city.  

First, regarding my own vote: Mamdani’s policy ideas are several steps left of what I would prefer. I find some of his proposals dubious in theory and unrealistic in practice. For reasons that have nothing to do with Israel and Jews, Mamdani would not be my first choice.

But fine. In most circumstances, I would probably give a Democratic Socialist the benefit of the doubt and wait to be pleasantly surprised at whatever successes he might have. Yet here, for reasons that have a great deal to do with Israel and Jews, I choose not to vote for him.  

I do not think Zohran Mamdani wishes harm upon Jews. I see no evidence that he would be hostile to our synagogues, schools, charities, museums, or businesses. Even amidst a very serious surge in antisemitic attacks, I see no evidence that he would slacken the protection the NYPD provides us. For that reason, I think rabbinic assertions that Mamdani poses a threat to Jewish safety are reckless hyperbole.

But the mayor-in-waiting definitely believes that the political expression of Jewish peoplehood, the State of Israel, should never have come into being and should no longer endure as a Jewish state. He is not alone, certainly not in his millennial generation. I know that some in our own community also believe that Israel, at best, has fatally lost its way, or, at worst, was an illegitimate colonial invasion from the outset.

But I think the opposite. I think Israel, for all its flaws, represents the liberation of Jews from centuries of vulnerability. It represents the ingathering of exiles – especially those who survived Tsars, Nazis, Soviets, and Ayatollahs – who created and are still creating modern Jewish culture in an ancestral homeland, reviving an ancient language. To me, Israel represents our people’s will to live, our commitment to Jews past and future, our mutual care, our infinite patience, perseverance, and hope, despite unspeakable suffering. 

And the vast majority of American Jews agree with me. A Washington Post poll, earlier this month, reported that 76 percent of American Jews believe the existence of Israel is vital for the long-term future of the Jewish people. That’s most definitely what I think.

So here lies the crux of a very tough problem. I believe Zohran Mamdani is not an antisemite. But he is implacably opposed to the vision most of us hold of Jewish thriving. I find it difficult to believe that as mayor he would consistently support our community’s aspirations for itself, while at the same time regarding those very goals as – what he considers – genocide and oppression. 

In an era when the word Zionist has become a curse among leftists worldwide, I find it easy to imagine conflicts between City Hall and Jewish citizens over our love and commitment to the country Mamdani considers illegitimate. 

Here are a few hypotheticals: What would happen if his ideological comrades call on him to cancel the Salute to Israel parade, which they call Salute to Apartheid? An October 7th commemoration in Central Park? New York should not celebrate the beginning of a genocidal war. Mamdani’s claim that he would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu in New York is probably, but not certainly, absurd. What if that threat extended beyond one prime minister to his successors, or to any minister representing that pariah country? Under Mamdani’s Education Department, which curricula or books would be rejected by public schools for “normalizing settler colonialism?” I find it easy to imagine that Mamdani’s City Hall would take a generally hostile, BDS approach to the national home of our people. 

I do not agree with those who claim Jews would be unsafe in Mamdani’s New York. But I do think many of us – including me – would feel unwelcome. So I will not vote for Zohran Mamdani.

Second: I think it is a misuse of my role to tell you how to vote. I treasure America’s venerable suspicion about the toxic brew of religion and politics. Faith traditions should contribute to public life by speaking about the values behind political questions. But debates in the political sphere are almost always contestable, with reasonable people seeing things differently. Most problems are not all black or all white, with only a single decent answer. Most problems are hard – including this one – and everyone’s duty as a citizen is to engage them, consider different factors, and choose responsibly. I have expressed my views, but I do not think they are the only legitimate ones. Over 25 years, I hope I have proven that my doors and ears are open for talking over hard issues respectfully. If anyone wants to meet with me about this matter, you’re invited.   

When religious leaders claim their faith commands favoring a given candidate over another, that typically diminishes people’s agency and responsibility as citizens in a democracy. New York Jews, do your job and make your own decisions. Some of you will disagree with me about Mamdani. You might think I am mistaken, and I might think you are. That does not make either of us bad Jews.

Having been in this job for 25 years, I know some of you out there are itching to object … But what about Hitler? If Hitler were on the ballot, would you endorse his opponent? First of all, yes, I would. Second, if Hitler were on the ballot, you wouldn’t need rabbinic guidance on what to do. And third, while I would prefer that someone besides Zohran Mamdani serve as Mayor, he is not Hitler, and this is not Berlin, 1933. Let’s keep our eyes open for warning signs of trouble, but let’s not frighten ourselves or lose our heads prematurely.

Moreover, looking around America, I grow increasingly distressed at the shearing off of liberal from conservative religious communities. Christians seem to have this problem worse than we do, at least so far. There are MAGA churches that brook no dissent and progressive ones that are no less rigid, each viewing the other as borderline wicked. I hope we Jews do not divide ourselves into ideological monocultures where heterodoxy and dissent are unwelcome. Republicans should be able to davven in liberal spaces. Progressives should be able to join Orthodox shuls. Anti-Zionist and Zionist Jews should do mitzvot together. The Torah commands lo titgodedu, traditionally interpreted to mean, don’t fragment yourselves into factions. I fear this happening to Jews. Frankly, I fear it more than I fear an anti-Zionist mayor.  

Third, what would be more productive for Jewish citizens of this great city? Don’t condemn the new administration before anything has even happened yet! Instead, be good citizens. Show civic virtue and work together with our neighbors. Don’t shout. Talk together and connect. Don’t boycott. Do you like it when people boycott us? And especially, be sure to vote, with early voting beginning tomorrow. Don’t sit this one out, even if you don’t like your choices. 

If and when Mamdani wins, what would be a better outcome pragmatically – isolation or cooperation? During the campaign, he has said at least some of the right things about building ties to Jewish communities, even promising to include Zionists in his administration. You might be skeptical about how seriously he means it. I am a little skeptical myself. But let’s remember, he is not running for president and is not a nominee for secretary of state. Israel-Palestine is not in his portfolio. He is going to have his youthful, inexperienced hands full with mayor stuff – affordable housing, public safety, and sanitation. It violates no one’s Zionist principles to work together on issues like those.

Is there a chance that well-meaning New York Jews can persuade him to moderate his anti-Israel views? Honestly, probably not. His father, Mahmood, is a leading theorist at Columbia on “settler colonialism,” and Zohran is steeped in a certain approach to the conflict. But respectful relationship building – being no more adversarial than necessary – could at least help Mamdani understand that Israel supporters have an ethical and sincere worldview that he might come to respect as something more than rapacious and racist.

Finally, I must object to one element in the Jewish outcry against Mamdani. Some of the rabbis condemning him have urged people to put their Jewish identification first when deciding how to vote. Essentially: Don’t worry about New York as a whole, is it good for the Jews? But being American Jews, New York Jews, must be integrated with being citizens in this republic, not an alternative to it. I already told you why I am not voting for the man. But I implore us to view this challenge not as an either/or. To treat Jewish commitments as something opposed to citizenship commitments would confirm that our enemies were right all along: That would mean that we really do not belong here and do not see ourselves at home in the gorgeous mosaic. That distortion of citizenship would betray American Jewish history to its core. 

Shabbat Shalom, Jeremy

My own thoughts about Mamdani and the mayoral race and anti-Zionism in Democratic Party and liberal-progressive society have been bitter. But now, after the election, it’s time to begin to bracket them. Indeed, the model represented in the missive from Kalmanofsky creates room to breathe in the closed place of the synagogue. Instead of mirroring and magnifying our own worst fears about Mamdani and anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in society, Ansche Chesed models the virtue of open civic engagement.

Having said this, it would be remiss not to mention.

Mamdani’s own statements about Israel from just a few short years ago represent a rendition of what others have called the “socialism of fools.” Jews not joining Mamdani, who won just over 50% of the total vote in NYC, kept the Mayor-Elect from securing more of the votes required for a super-charged popular mandate.

Here are a number of items.

— A review with links to what Mamdani has said about Israel, BDS, 10/7, etc.

–Mamdani’s acknowledgment of Jewish trauma on 10/7 follows a formula: [1] A short and cursory expression of grief followed by a full bore condemnation of Israel, [3] A short expression supporting universal human rights and dignity. [His remarks on the commemoration of 9/11 follow the same formula]

–Excellent article on Mamdani and New York Jews that captures the ambivalence felt by many Jews, including Jewish supporters of Mamdani.  

—Here and here, remarks by Mamdani at the DSA in 2023 trades in classical anti-Semitic tropes:  “How much of your $$$ is going over there, and how much of your needs are unmet here… We need to connect the struggles against austerity with the struggle against the funding of Israeli Apartheid”

—Ditto: Mamdani says NYS Assembly is a bastion of Z. thought

—Article by Jacob Kornbluh, the best reporter in NYC covering Jews and Jewish community: This article is about Mamdani’s reach-out to Jewish voters.

–A statement from Rabbi Angela Buchdahl.

–Anti-Zionist-Anti-Semitism in Astoria, Queens.

–An article about the split Satmar endorsements

— What Mamdani said by way of reaching out. “I hope they know that, whether or not they support or agree with me, I will always be a mayor who protects them and their communities. I don’t begrudge folks who are skeptical of me, especially with tens of millions of dollars having been spent against me with the intent to do just that, but I hope to prove that I am someone to build a relationship with, not one to fear”

—Another article by Kornbluh. This one is about some Brad Lander Jews voting Cuomo, and Mamdani Jews express misgivings.

For Mamdani, the question will be how much bandwidth to give Israel and Palestine as Mayor-Elect and Mayor of NYC. For the Jewish community, the issues at stake are: anti-Semitism and public safety, disruptive anti-Israel protests, including protests marked by bloodcurdling messaging, Mamdani’s non-participation in community events like the annual Israel Parade (I’m not a big fan and don’t attend personally, but I’m not Mayor of NYC). It is a fair case to make that anti-Zionism does nothing to advance Palestinian rights, that refusing the right of Jewish national self-determination and the incessant “Israel genocide Israel genocide” drumbeat gin up a climate of anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish hate in society.

Mamdani is presumably not himself an anti-Semite, most reasonable people are going to contend. But we know that phenomena such as anti-Black racial animus or anti-Semitism is structural and systemic. What concerns many Jewish voters is Mamdani’s strong anti-Zionist orientation and alignment with binary movements such as the DSA and SJP that foment anti-Jewish animus and contributes to anti-Semitism in society. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are, indeed, different and “distinct” phenomena. But they are not “separable.” Like many progressives,  Mamdani, in all probability, does not understand or refuses to acknowledge how they overlap. His allies on the anti-Zionist Jewish left are only going to obfuscate this point. The overarching issue facing New York Jews is recognition, including recognition of the Jewish community that overwhelmingly supports the State of Israel, wants to see a fair and decent resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and seeks to establish sound relations between Muslim and Jewish New Yorkers.