Months’ worth of handwringing ended on election day, only to usher in a more vigorous form of it. The fear of an openly socialist Muslim mayor in NYC, one who is loudly anti-Israel, has been realized, bringing with it more fear of what this actually portends for the most “Jewish" city in the world outside of Israel.
Since the primaries, Jews in NYC shuddered at the theoretical prospect of a mayor who supported “globalize the intifada”, threatened to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu, promoted BDS, refused to recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and linked his disdain for both the NYPD and Israel by saying, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”
The election was so eclipsed by the Democratic nominee’s radical anti-Israel ideology as to categorically conflate all issues. Antisemitism was the invisible referendum on the ballot and it won. Indeed, after the mayoral primary, a poll showed that Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian Arab advocacy was a motivating factor for most of the New Yorkers who voted for him in the mayoral primary. A whopping 83% said “his support for Palestinian Arab rights” drove them to the voting booth.
As typical of Jewish consideration, I got numerous messages from friends and family in Israel on election day wanting to know how I am holding up as a NYC resident. They expressed concern and offered sympathy.
One might comment on how the tables have turned. After years of worrying about our brethren in Israel, Jews in the diaspora are now on the receiving end. The link has become somewhat inverted after October 7, with events that took place in Kibbutz Be’eri and Kfar Aza directly influencing events taking place in NYC, Dearborn, and Manchester.
That common denominator explains why the dangers facing Jewish New Yorkers are not limited to Jews in the city. What happens in Israel doesn’t just stay in Israel.
Take the tenable ceasefire that President Trump brokered between Israel and Hamas, which seems to have produced an unnatural lull in Israel. While everyone rejoiced at the return of the hostages, though fewer rejoiced at the cost, the future is as unpredictable as the Arab partners that endorsed it.
That is because the real battle against Israel’s enemies cannot be conquered by a 20-point plan or even a 100-point plan. It was Jew-hatred that triggered the war, and no quantity of dealmaking or boots on the ground can quell the spread of antisemitism that October 7 unleashed without addressing the root cause.
Even if Hamas were to lay down their arms, the damage of the past two years has produced the likes of Mamdani, who is in large part a creation of the false depiction of the war in Gaza. His championing of “free Palestine” was as central to his campaign as his championing of free buses and free groceries.
Elan Carr, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism under the first Trump administration, recently blamed Mamdani’s growing popularity, particularly among younger voters, on “indoctrination”. “If you allow American educational institutions to become mechanisms of indoctrination against American values, against Jews, against Israel, then you’re going to turn out a generation of people like the squad in Congress,” he said.
This is the real conflict that Jews face. Israel may have won a bittersweet victory over Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran, but the war continues and grows in America, Europe, and around the world. In the classic sense, it is a matter of winning the battle but losing the war. That is because the combat zone is increasingly centered in people’s minds, from whence it springs into action.
Month after month of disinformation, incitement and blood libels against the Jewish State have not only produced diplomatic acts of antisemitism, such as recognition of a Palestinian Arab by major democracies, but acts of antisemitic violence around the world.
We have reached a point where organizations that primarily center on fighting terrorism in Israel are now hosting conferences in NYC. Last week, I attended the second annual Rage Against the Hate Conference in lower Manhattan. It was sponsored by the Israel-based Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, whose founder, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, is a champion of the legal and economic fight against terrorism in Israel. She now sees the necessity of defending Jews outside the Jewish State.
As more evidence of Mamdani’s Jew-hatred became known during the campaign, Jewish New Yorkers desperately tried to galvanize efforts to defeat him. But even an aggressive get-out-the-vote initiative was not enough.
New Yorkers who are loath to see the ruin of this once great city are busy bemoaning the trajectory that got us to this point. Had more people voted in the primaries, had Cuomo been a better candidate, had Sliwa dropped out of the race…
We need to channel this Monday morning quarterbacking into action.
Pro-Hamas activist Linda Sarsour, Mamdani’s mentor in the campaign, bragged about the CAIR-funded Unity and Justice Fund PAC as “the largest institutional donor to the pro-Zohran super PAC in New York.” This is the same CAIR that is under scrutiny for bankrolling Islamic terrorists. And Sarsour warned that she will hold the mayor “accountable” to his donors and his campaign promises, which include dismantling an NYPD unit that polices terrorism threats, protests and riots.
This is a direct threat to Jewish communities in the city, and not all Jews have the luxury of fleeing to Florida or Israel. As New Yorkers, we have to take the theoretical lessons from this election and practically apply them for our own protection. That means using all means possible - legal, organizational, financial, political, educational - to hold the mayor “accountable” to all his constituents.
And as Americans, we cannot afford to watch this catastrophe spread.
With the election behind us, our work has only just begun.