Who could have known?
New York City, home to the largest Jewish population in the Diaspora, is now governed by an anti-Zionist Muslim mayor, a possibility that seemed inconceivable only a few months ago.
A former New York assemblyman from Queens, Zohran Mamdani defeated Andrew Cuomo, the ex-governor of New York, in last November’s municipal election.
Ironically, Mamdani was sworn into office by Bernie Sanders, a Jewish U.S. senator from Vermont who shares his progressive views.
Mamdani questions Israel’s legitimacy and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting the Jewish state. He believes that the New York Police Department should enforce an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the International Criminal Court has accused of war crimes.
At 34, Mamdani is the city’s youngest mayor in generations. Born in Kampala, Uganda, he acquired U.S. citizenship in 2018.
He swept to victory on a platform of “affordability” to lower the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities. He pledged to phase in free child care and free bus rides, implement a rent freeze for about one million households, and create a system of city-managed grocery stores.
On a broader basis, as one observer wrote, Mamdani is in the vanguard of a new “political cohort on the left” that has adapted “the lexicon of third-world liberation” to American politics, “transforming decolonization into a scaffold for moral and political identity.”
An ardent supporter of the Palestinian cause, he refused at first to condemn the Palestinian phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan that some equate with a call to violence against Jews and Israel. Subsequently, he said he would not use that phrase and would discourage others from using it.
In his first speech as mayor, though, he struck a defiant tone, saying he would not retreat from the promises that carried him to victory. “I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” he said in no uncertain terms.
These were not mere words.
On his first day on the job, Mamdani swiftly cancelled all of the executive orders issued by his African American predecessor, Eric Adams. Among them were two orders dear to the hearts of most Jewish New Yorkers.
Mamdani nullified an order opposing the BDS movement, which calls for an economic and cultural boycott of Israel.
This was in keeping with his refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, his condemnation of Israel as an apartheid state, and his belief that the Israeli armed forces committed genocide in the two-year war in the Gaza Strip, which ended in October with a ceasefire brokered by the United States.
In addition, he scrapped an internationally accepted definition of antisemitism as formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. This definition, stating that it is discriminatory to deny the Jewish people the right to self-determination, classifies as antisemitic the claim “that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
By revoking these orders, Mamdani got off to a rocky start in his relationship with the Jewish community.
A statement signed by several major Jewish organizations blasted Mamdani: “Mayor Mamdani pledged to build an inclusive New York and combat all forms of hate, including antisemitism. But when the new administration hit reset on many of Mayor Adams’ executive orders, it reversed two significant protections against antisemitism: the city’s adoption of IHRA and critical protections against the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the State of Israel.”
The statement was signed by the UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Anti-Defamation League’s office in New York and New Jersey, the American Jewish Committee’s New York chapter, the New York Board of Rabbis, Agudath Israel of America, and the Orthodox Union.
The Israeli government, which in October denounced Mamdani as a politician who “excuses terror, normalizes antisemitism” and “stands with Jews only when they are dead,” issued a scathing denunciation of him after he took office.
“On his very first day as mayor, Mamdani shows his true face,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. “He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.”
Israel’s consul general in New York, Ofir Akunis, claimed that Mamadani’s decision to cancel Adams’ orders threatened the safety of Jews and “could lead to an increase in violent antisemitic attacks throughout the city.”
As if to blunt this sharp criticism, Mamdani promised to preserve the Office to Combat Antisemitism, which was established by Adams in an executive order last year. “That is an issue that we take very seriously and is part of the commitment that we’ve made to Jewish New Yorkers,” he said.
Mamdani claimed that the protection of Jewish New Yorkers would be “a focus” of his administration, and that his administration would be “relentless in its efforts to combat hate and division … And that includes fighting the scourge of antisemitism.”
In this spirit, Mamdani portrayed New York as a “shared civic project” shaped by its many languages and faiths. “The authors of this story will speak Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole,” he said. “They will pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at gurdwaras and mandirs and temples — and many will not pray at all.”
He mentioned Russian Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach and Palestinian Americans in Bay Ridge, who immigrated to the United States with a dream of improving their lives.
“Where else could a Muslim kid like me grow up eating bagels and lox every Sunday,” said Mamdani, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and marxist university professor Mahmood Mamdani, who moved to New York City when their son was seven years old.
Although he has made a tactical effort to appease Jews who mistrust him, Mamdani and some of his staffers are definitely anti-Israel. According to the Anti-Defamation League, approximately 20 percent of his administrative appointees have ties to anti-Zionist activist groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine.
Last month, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, his choice as director of appointments, resigned in disgrace after her antisemitic remarks from more than a decade ago surfaced, including one decrying “money-hungry Jews.”
Mamdani himself may not be hostile to Jews, particularly Jews who share his anti-Zionist perspective, but his views concerning Israel are set in stone and are nothing less than alarming.