New York – By choosing Zohran Mamdani as candidate for the mayor, the Democrats of the most American Jewish city appointed a Frankish critic of Israel, alarming some in the Jewish community in New York and pointing out a sea change in the priorities of one of the most loyal voting groups.
The surprisingly solid performance of the 33 -year -old democratic socialist against former governor Andrew Cuomo clearly indicates that taking a position against Israel no longer dissolving in a democratic primary. The member of the State Assembly refused to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, refused to denounce the term “world intifada” and supports an effort organized to exert economic pressure on Israel thanks to boycotts and other tactics.
However, he excelled in the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel and with the support of many Jewish voters.
The success of Mamdani reflects the ideological realignment of many American Jews since October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against Israel which led to the invasion of Israel of Gaza. Many Democratic voters, including Jews, have become dismayed by the conduct of Israel in the war and are deeply criticized for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is particularly true among the younger and more progressive voters, many of which have rejected the notion formerly accepted by anti-Israeli feeling is intrinsically anti-Semitic.
For others, Mamdani’s show has aroused new fears about the security and the decreasing influence of Jewish voters in a city where anti-Jewish hatred crimes have increased. Last year, the Jews were the target of more than half of the crimes of hatred in the city.
“People are certainly worried,” said Rabbi Shimon Hecht, of the B’Nai Jacob congregation in Brooklyn, who said he had heard the faithful in recent days who hope that Mamdani will be beaten during the November general elections, where he will face the mayor Eric Adams, who presents himself as an independent republican, Sliwa, and perhaps Cuomo, race.
“I think that like all overwhelming elections, it’s a wake -up to people,” said Hecht. “I firmly believe that he will not be elected as our next mayor, but it will take many links between the Jewish people and the others who are concerned about these questions. We must unify.”
The veteran of the New York Democratic Political Stratege, Hank Sheinkopf, said it more frankly, predicting a hasty exodus of religious Jews from the city and a decrease in longtime Jewish influence which would be reproduced elsewhere.
“This is the end of Jewish New York as we know him,” he said, adding: “New York is a petri dish for democratic national politics. And what happened here is what will probably happen in cities across the country.”
The best democratic rival in Mamdani, the former governor, had called anti -Semitism and the support of Israel “the most important question” of the campaign.
Mamdani’s donors have repeatedly accused Cuomo of having tried the problem of armament. Many have made parallels with the way Republican President Donald Trump criticized Israel’s actions as an anti -Semitic, saying that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and their own religion.
For some supporters of Mamdani, the election results reported a rejection of the voters of one of the arguments of Cuomo: that a socialist who came with pro-Palestinian opinions represented a threat to the Jewish community in New York.
Many have focused on questions such as affordability in a notoriously expensive city, or categorically opposed to Cuomo, which was forced to resign in disgrace in the midst of allegations of sexual harassment.
Aiyana Leong Knauer, a 35-year-old Brooklyn bartender, who is Jewish and supported Mamdani, said that the vote represented “New Yorkers, many of whom Jewish, saying that we care more about having an affordable city than sowing the division”.
“Many of us are very deeply available that our history is armed against us,” she said. “The Jewish people around the world have fears well founded for their security, but the Jews in New York are safe.”
Others agreed with Mamdani’s opinions on Israel.
Beth Miller, political director of the Jewish voice for peace, an anti -Zionist and progressive group who worked on behalf of Mamdani, said that Mamdani “was in fact quite popular among many Jewish voters”.
“It is not despite his support for Palestinian rights. It is because of his support for Palestinian rights,” she said. “There has been a massive break in the Jewish community and more and more Jews of all generations, but especially younger generations,” she said, now refuse to be linked to what they consider a rogue government as atrocities against civilians.
Surveys show that support for Israel has decreased since the start of the war. Overall, a slight majority of Americans now expresses a “somewhat” or “very unfavorable” opinion of Israel, according to a March Pew Research Center survey, compared to 42% in 2022. The visionaries of the Democrats are particularly negative, with almost 70% with an unfavorable opinion against less than 40% of the Republicans.
Mamdani was not the only race where Israel was in the minds of voters.
In Brooklyn, the municipal councilor Shahana Hanif, who represents the park and the surroundings, aroused criticism for her Palestinian plea. Some have said that she had not responded forcefully to anti -Semitic incidents in the district.
However, Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the municipal council, easily beat her best challenger, Maya Kornberg, who is Jewish, despite an influx of money from rich and pro-Israelis and donors.
This result dismayed Ramon butnle, a developer who launched Brooklyn Bridgebuilders to oppose the re -election of Hanif and said that anti -Semitism did not seem to resonate with voters.
“We were very disappointed with our neighbors’ response,” he said.
While campaigning against Hanif, he said that he had regularly shouted by residents and accused of supporting the genocide.
“I think those of us in the Jewish community who are attentive who are aware that there has been a kind of cultural sea change that occurs,” he said. “What we see is a legitimization of hatred that does not occur in any other liberal or progressive space.”
Mamdani has repeatedly committed to fighting anti -Semitism, including during an appearance in “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, where he was toasted in his position. He was joined in the program by the city controller and Candidant Certificate Brad Lander, the highest Jewish civil servant in the city, who had transformed him. He also said that he would increase programming for anti-hate crime by 800%.
But many of his comments have angry Jewish groups and officials, including his refusal to disavow the expression “globalizing the intifada”, which was used as a slogan in recent demonstrations. Many Jews see him as an appeal to violence against Israeli civilians. In an interview with the podcast, Mamdani said that the expression had captured a “desperate desperate desire for equality and equal rights to defend Palestinian human rights”.
Given another opportunity to condemn the sentence, Mamdani told NBC on Sunday “Meet the Press” that it was not his role of police speech and he is committed to being a mayor who “protects Jewish New Yorkers and at the height of this commitment through the work I do”.
Mamdani also supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which aims to put pressure on governments, schools and other institutions to boycott Israeli products, to sell companies that support the country and impose sanctions. The anti-diploma league calls it anti-Semitic and was part of a wider campaign to “delegitimize and isolate the state of Israel”.
Mamdani also said that as mayor, he would stop Netanyahu if the Israeli chief tried to enter the city.
The ADL in a statement Thursday warned the candidates and their supporters not to use “the language playing in dangerous anti -Semitic ducks which, repeatedly, have been used to encourage hatred and violence against the Jews.”
In his victory speech, Mamdani alluded to the criticisms he had received and said he would not give up his beliefs. But he also said that he “would reach more to understand the perspectives of those with whom I do not agree and to fight deep with these disagreements”.
___ The writer Associated Press Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.
