Before Adolf Hitler ever raised his voice in Munich, he walked the streets of Vienna. The year was 1908. He was a failed artist, a nobody—but he was watching. And what he saw was a master class in antisemitism, taught by none other than the city’s powerful mayor, Karl Lueger.
Lueger didn’t scream; he smiled. He didn’t wear jackboots; he wore a mayor’s sash. But his message was clear: Jews don’t belong. He didn’t have to say it outright—he just needed to point at “Jewish capital,” “Jewish influence,” “Jewish power.” Always with a wink, always in the name of the people.
Hitler later said Lueger was one of the greatest German politicians of all time. Not because he was a fascist but because he knew how to mainstream hate. He made antisemitism a component of civic reform.
Sound familiar?
Over a century later, in Queens, New York, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani is walking the old path in new shoes. Like Lueger, he’s building a political brand on a foundation that isolates Jews—especially those who support the Jewish State—as outside the moral community.
Criticize the Israeli government? Fine. Hold them accountable? Of course. But Mamdani goes further. He doesn’t criticize Israeli policies. He calls for Israel’s erasure. He doesn’t debate Zionism. He demonizes it. And anyone who affirms the Jewish right to self-determination is labeled part of the problem. AMCHA Initiative has long shown how Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on campuses – a group which Mamdani is proud to help found at his college – correlates to a steep rise in attacks against Jews.
We all see the impact on Jews today.
It’s Lueger’s method, just in post-colonial language.
Just like Lueger – and others like disgraced politician Jamaal Bowman – Mamdani claims he’s not against Jews; he’s just against the wrong kind of Jews—those who won’t denounce their homeland, who won’t apologize for their peoplehood. Like Lueger, Mamdani gets to decide who counts as a “good Jew.”
And here’s the haunting echo: who’s watching today?
In 1908, Hitler was a quiet observer of Lueger. Who’s listening to Mamdani now?
Who’s the radical activist or ideologue soaking up the message that Jews are oppressors, that Zionists are the enemy, that the Jewish state is a crime? Who’s internalizing this polite, polished, progressive bile and dreaming of taking it further?
No, Mamdani isn’t directly inciting genocide. But Lueger didn’t either. History tells us you don’t need to pull the trigger to light the fuse. Lueger mentored Hitler without even knowing him.
We remember how it started last time. We worry who might be watching this time.
{Reposted from the author’s blog}
