From Satmar to Central Synagogue, New York Jews question voting for Mamdani
Across the Jewish community, from the Chassidim to Reform, the reaction to the Mayoral frontrunner suggests a deep suspicion
One of the main factions in the largest Chassidic sect in New York appears to be grappling with the question of how to vote in tomorrow’s Mayoral election, with frontrunner Zohran Mamdani continuing to face serious questions about his views on Israel.
On Sunday, one of the two factions comprising the largest Chassidic sect in New York, Satmar, appeared to be in a state of internal warfare over a highly controversial endorsement of Mamdani. Hours after a key spokesperson for the Satmar “Aroynim” faction, Rabbi Moshe Indig, said that his community would be supporting Mamdani, the official Board of Directors for the “Aroynim” distributed messages urging people to instead back Mamdani’s key challenger, Andrew Cuomo.
According to the Belaaz strictly orthodox media network, the leader of the “Aroynim” sect, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, had given instructions that the community should remain neutral in the Mayoral race. However, following what was described as Indig’s “totally unauthorised” public declaration of support for Mamdani, it was decided that to counteract that messaging, the Board of Directors would endorse Cuomo.
Satmar, which is seen as hostile towards the Israeli state, was expected to be potentially the most receptive of the large Chassidic sects towards overtures from the Mamdani campaign. However, Belaaz reported that there had been significant pushback from within the Satmar community after Indig’s announcement.
Zohran Mamdani was the surprise winner of the Democratic primary for New York Mayor earlier this year, narrowly beating Andrew Cuomo – who subsequently decided to stand as an independent to compete against Mamdani in the general election. A far-left democrat, Mamdani’s views on a range of issues – from Capitalism to crime – have raised questions among voters, but for many Jewish voters in particular, his obvious hostility to Israel has raised serious questions. Mamdani has expressed the desire if elected Mayor to attempt to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli Prime Minister comes to New York. He has also repeatedly declined to distance himself from the phrase “globalise the Intifada”, which is seen by many Jews as a call for violence against them worldwide.
10 days ago, a video of the politician from September 2023 emerged, in which Mamdani can be seen urging a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) crowd to try and make hostility to Israel into a “hyper-local” issue, saying “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”
While initially avoiding an answer as to what he meant, Mamdani claimed last week that “It was a reference to training exercises that have taken place between the NYPD and the IDF.”
When asked by CNN last week whether he still believed that the NYPD “is basically working hand in glove with the IDF”, Mamdani responded by saying ““No, what I’ve made very clear is those are training exercises that are of concern to me.”
Mamdani’s comments and claims appear to have originated from a conspiracy theory called “deadly exchange”, which directly blamed Israeli training of US police forces for violence subsequently carried out by those police forces. However, the NYPD and other US police departments regularly have officers train with police and military counterparts from a wide range of countries, a number with questionable human rights records. Despite this, Israel is the only foreign country which has ever been blamed for US police brutality.
The NYPD holds training exercises with police and armed forces from multiple nations. However, the only foreign nation which has ever been blamed for cases of NYPD brutality is Israel
Mamdani’s latest comments led to a public message from Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi of Central Synagogue, the largest Reform synagogue in New York City. Buchdahl had been criticised for not adding her name to an open letter from 650 rabbis opposing Mamdani’s candidacy, and had defended herself by saying it was her policy not to sign open political letters.
In a sermon to her congregation last Shabbat, Buchdahl said: “some fear that in the most Jewish city in the world we are becoming strangers once again…I fear living in a city and in a nation where anti-Zionist rhetoric is normalised and contagious, where Israel is singularly and repeatedly called out and demonised as the worst actor in the world stage.”
She described how “Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism. His shocking 2023 accusation: ‘when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF’. This crosses the line clearly into antisemitism, not only demonising Israelis, but echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews across the world are the root cause of our problem here.”
She went on to talk about Mamdani’s “false claims of genocide, his reluctance to label Hamas a terrorist organisation, his unwillingness to condemn phrases like ‘globalise the Intifada’, an absolute opposition to Israel as a Jewish state – contributes to an atmosphere of denigration and ostracization of Jewish people everywhere.”
On Sunday, New York City’s branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, which is closely aligned with Mamdani, held a phone-banking session in support of their candidate, with Jeremy Corbyn as the guest star.
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