Mamdani and top New York rabbis will meet privately, but their core divide remains unresolved
By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN
(CNN) — The Friday after Zohran Mamdani won, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch gave a sermon saying that he believed the incoming New York mayor’s criticisms of Israel aligned with Hamas and that critics of Israel wanted to separate “good Jews” from “bad Jews” in a way that endangers the city’s Jewish community.
Hirsch, a self-described liberal, challenged Mamdani to prove him wrong.
“If I’m wrong, say so,” he told CNN. “It would be welcomed by the American Jewish community, by the New York Jewish community, and by many people who are not Jewish who care about these issues.”
A month later, he noted, he is still waiting.
Mamdani is expected to have an unannounced meeting Thursday with the New York Board of Rabbis, of which Hirsch is the current president. According to two invitees, several rabbis who are attending are planning to propose a unified agenda, asking Mamdani to back away from his rejection of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state or his support of the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.
But doing that wouldn’t just put Mamdani at odds with his base since, as Hirsch acknowledged in his sermon, support for Israel has plummeted not just among the far left but within the Democratic Party overall. It would be a reversal from which many of Mamdani’s other convictions flow. As he declared at a Democratic Socialists of America convention just two years ago, “the struggle for Palestinian liberation was at the core of my politics and continues to be.”
With weeks to go before his January 1 inauguration, Mamdani has made little progress on easing a conflict that roiled his campaign. Jewish community leaders warn that Mamdani’s criticisms of Israel fan antisemitism and that he lacks sensitivity to what they are facing, while far-left progressives as well as voters of Arab and Muslim descent support Mamdani’s politics and want him to lead opposition to Israel from his new platform.
“In 1654, Peter Stuyvesant tried and failed to stop the first Jews who ever sailed into our harbor from coming ashore. Since then, pretty much every elected mayor of New York had longstanding warm relations with the city’s Jewish communities,” said Stu Loeser, a Democratic strategist who was Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s press secretary and an observant Jew. “So we are in some uncharted waters here.”
At least three Jewish leaders warn privately they will put pressure on other New York officials like Gov. Kathy Hochul and incoming city council speaker Julie Menin to not work with Mamdani more broadly if he follows through on promised anti-Israel moves and doesn’t provide more reassurances to Jews in the city. Several told CNN that they have already privately gotten reassurances from some leaders that they will keep any objections in mind.
“I don’t know whether we can navigate it, but we’ve got no choice but to try because he is going to be the mayor,” said Rabbi Joshua Davidson, of the Temple Emanu-El synagogue. “If he really is committed to keeping the Jewish community safe – and I believe him when he says he is – he needs to understand how his own language undermines our own sense of safety.”
In meetings with Jewish leaders during the campaign and other sessions where attendees pressed him on these issues, Mamdani repeatedly pledged that he would continue to provide security to synagogues and oppose antisemitism.
Mamdani received a warm reception on Wednesday night at a major event for the Brooklyn-based ultra-Orthodox sect of Satmar Jews – though in an in interview published last week with a Jewish magazine, the political leader of the sect who managed their endorsement said the relationship was purely “transactional.”
Mamdani’s aides declined to make him available for an interview or answer detailed questions from CNN about which of his anti-Israel campaign promises he would fulfill and how.
“As mayor, I will serve each and every New Yorker, including those who disagree with me or did not vote for me,” he said in a statement. “My politics are grounded in a belief in universal human rights, dignity, and equality – these are the values I’ve shared in public and private meetings over the last many months – and the same values that will guide me as Mayor. I will use every tool at my disposal to combat the scourge of antisemitism, deliver public safety for all, and ensure that every New Yorker knows that they belong.”
The fears of many Jewish leaders were reinforced by a November protest outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, when people outside chanted “death to” the Israeli Defense Forces and to “globalize the intifada.” Mamdani’s initial statement criticized the synagogue for hosting the event, held by a group promoting Jews moving to Israel that lists settlements in the West Bank on its website. A later Mamdani statement denounced violent rhetoric without criticism of the group or the synagogue.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is both Jewish and a Zionist, was asked by Mamdani to stay on because of the wide respect she has gained leading the department. When she spoke at Park East Synagogue the Saturday after the protest, Tisch apologized to congregants for not providing adequate security.
She did not tell Mamdani in advance she was going, though she said when accepting his offer to remain on the job that they would not agree on everything. Less than two weeks later, she apologized to Mamdani after her brother, Benjamin, called him an “enemy” of the Jewish people at a charity dinner.
“I understand the fear in the Jewish community,” Tisch said in a statement to CNN this week issued after her brother’s comment. “My sincere belief is that the mayor-elect will live up to the commitment he’s made to be a mayor for all New Yorkers, including the Jewish community.”
Mamdani overcame Jewish leaders’ opposition to win
In the weeks after his surprise win in June’s Democratic primary, Mamdani’s aides nixed a drafted speech on antisemitism and Israel. Aides explained to those questioning the decision that they felt they were past those issues being problems for him, according to a person familiar with the conversations.
In terms of winning in November, his aides were right. Exit polls showed only about a third of Jews in New York voted for Mamdani as he went on to a big win.
Top Mamdani aides, several of whom are Jewish, didn’t accept multiple offers from Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose Manhattan district has a large Jewish population, to help with outreach in the months after he endorsed, according to another person familiar with the matter. Nadler drew criticism from some prominent Jewish New Yorkers that he had betrayed them.
And when Mamdani responded to a question in a Fox News interview after a US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza about whether he would ask Hamas to lay down its weapons by saying, “I don’t really have opinions about the future of Hamas beyond the question of justice and safety,” he cleaned that up a few hours later in a general election debate. That was after the backlash communicated to his aides before they’d even left the studios, according to people involved in the conversations.
As a governing matter, though, the issues are very much still with Mamdani.
His decision to retain Tisch helped with many moderates and notably Hochul. But he was set back again with Jewish leaders by his initial statement about the protest outside Park East Synagogue.
Top transition aides admitted in conversations asking after the fact for help that they hadn’t thought the comment would create an uproar, according to four people involved in the conversations.
Mamdani aides say much of what he’s facing is due to multimillion-dollar ad campaigns against him during the campaign that they say distorted his positions. Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, also decried Islamophobia during the campaign and moments such as former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo laughing when a radio host suggested Mamdani would celebrate another terror attack like September 11.
The antagonism he continues to face makes some Mamdani aides question, privately, what the point is of trying to build bridges with longtime critics. Two prominent Jewish business leaders last week – including Tisch’s brother – called Mamdani an “enemy” of Jews. And Israeli President Isaac Herzog excoriated Mamdani at a recent appearance in New York, saying Mamdani “makes no effort to conceal his contempt for the Jewish, democratic state of Israel, the only nation-state of the Jewish people.”
What some top Jewish leaders want from Mamdani
Even if he won with so many of them deeply opposed to him, Mamdani will now lead a city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel: over 1 million Jews make up 12 percent of the city. And given Jewish voters’ prominent and powerful roles throughout New York life, rabbis and Jewish leaders warn Mamdani is threatening to poison broader relationships.
Mamdani’s campaign didn’t answer if he will stick to campaign promises to push for the continued divestment of city pension funds in Israel, how he will implement BDS policy overall in the city, how he would follow through on his promise to arrest Netanyahu, if he will end NYPD partnerships with Israel or if he will seek to end a partnership Cornell University has with the Israeli university Technion.
“My expectation is for him to expand his circle so he can have a much more rounded view,” said Mark Treyger, a former city councilman from Brooklyn who is now the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. “If he doesn’t, he runs the risk of not just further alienating Jewish New Yorkers – he runs the risk of being unable to build the coalitions necessary to advance affordability in this city.”
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue, who’s also the corresponding secretary of the Board of Rabbis, argued that “antisemites masquerade as anti-Zionists.”
“If we have a mayoral administration that seems to play up anti-Zionism, it will be difficult for the Jews of New York,” Steinmetz said.
Eric Adams, the departing mayor and a staunch ally of Israel, deliberately boxed Mamdani in by signing an executive order last week that bars New York City from boycotting Israel. And Mark Levine, the incoming city comptroller, will reverse current policy to allow the city to invest in Israeli government bonds.
Mamdani, who has attended unrelated protests since winning but skipped one about the bonds, is already being called on to push Levine to change his mind. Levine has declined to comment.
Mamdani’s supporters note his past commitments
Mamdani is a deliberate politician. He is careful not to misspeak and is direct when he wants to be. He does not show up places without thinking about their symbolism or significance. And on this issue, he has been making clear choices.
“Free, Free Palestine” chants became regular features of his rallies. Both allies and detractors believe his outspokenness on Israel helped drive interest in his candidacy and his affordability message.
“It engendered trust and really encouraged them to show up in ways they wouldn’t for other politicians,” said Beth Miller, the political director of the anti-Zionist Jewish group Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which endorsed Mamdani on the day he launched his campaign.
Mamdani ran the NYC Gaza 5K the Sunday morning over the weekend that Hamas began to return Israeli hostages as part of the ceasefire deal. He made his only publicized visit to a mosque since winning the election in Puerto Rico, to prayers led by a vocally anti-Israel imam.
Mamdani is perhaps the only person to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide” in the Oval Office while standing next to Trump. Then before going back to the airport, he posted about stopping for dinner at a well-known Palestinian restaurant in Virginia.
But Mamdani’s reappointment of Tisch is already stirring fears among his anti-Zionist allies that he’s giving in too much to Jewish leaders. The Democratic Socialists of America’s New York chapter issued a list of anti-Israel demands immediately after the election, starting with divestment from Israel.
“A lot of people are going to continue to feel betrayed over time from the lack of movement,” said Nerdeen Kiswani, a pro-Palestinian organizer of the group Within Our Lifetime, which led dozens of groups to sign onto a letter calling on Mamdani to reverse course on Tisch, in large part because they tag her as a Zionist.
Mamdani also declined comment on those who say Tisch should have been disqualified because she’s a Zionist.
Several Jewish leaders whom Mamdani transition aides pointed to as validators gave hedged assessments.
One of them, Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said “there are those who are dismissing real and legitimate Jewish concerns about rising antisemitism. There are certain statements Mamdani has made that have played into it.”
“I don’t think anyone in good faith is saying he shouldn’t stand up for Palestinian human rights,” Spitalnick added. “The question is: At which point does it become so all-encompassing from the public conversation perspective or lead to comments that may intentionally or not harm the Jewish community?”
Some of his best-known critics, meanwhile, are reconsidering how to move forward.
Just before the election, Park Avenue Synagogue Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove delivered his own widely shared sermon declaring that Mamdani “poses a danger to the security of New York Jewish community.”
On Monday in a speech to the American Zionist Movement conference in New York, Cosgrove said that it’s time for the Jewish leaders most opposed to Mamdani to reconsider their own approaches.
“He understood the fissures of our community better than we ourselves did,” Cosgrove said. “And the question we face now is, what are we going to do about it?”
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated with additional information and to clarify that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s statement was in response to her brother’s comment about Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
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