The primary election success of Zohran Mamdani marks a bitter and unprecedented turning point for New York’s Jewish community. While many political victories come and go without seismic consequence, this one resonates differently – because it signals a rupture not just in policy or party, but in the very civic fabric that once made New York a bastion of Jewish life and support for the State of Israel.
From the earliest days of the city’s founding, Jews have helped shape the identity and vitality of New York. As immigrants, merchants, educators, philanthropists, laborers, artists and industrialists, Jewish New Yorkers have given much – and asked for little beyond the freedom to contribute. In every borough, Jewish institutions sprang up: synagogues, schools, hospitals, charities, theaters, bookstores, Yiddish newspapers and mutual aid societies that reflected the community’s deep belief in collective responsibility and cultural excellence. It is no accident that New York became, outside of Israel, the beating heart of Jewish civilization.
Alongside this local flourishing, New York also emerged as the global epicenter of support for the Zionist movement. From the turn of the twentieth century through the post-Holocaust years, New York’s Jewish residents and civic leaders played an indispensable role in helping to secure the dream of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish Agency’s American branches, Hadassah, and countless synagogue groups, youth movements and Zionist organizations operated from New York with vigor and vision.
The political class stood with them. From Mayors Jimmy Walker, Fiorello La Guardia, Robert F. Wagner, Jr. and John Lindsay to Senators Jacob Javits and Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Governors like Nelson Rockefeller support for Israel was seen as a moral obligation and a strategic imperative. Since 1964, New York City mayors—Democrats and Republicans alike—have participated proudly in the annual Salute to Israel Parade and spoken with clarity about Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.
These were not merely political gestures. They were affirmations of the values that united New Yorkers across lines of faith, ethnicity and background: pluralism, democracy and resistance to tyranny. Whether in the aftermath of the Six-Day War or in the dark days of the Yom Kippur War and the intifadas, or after the horrors of the October 7 Hamas attacks, New York’s skyline and streets have lit up with rallies, solidarity events and unmistakable pride in the miracle of Israel’s endurance.
And now, all of this is at risk of being upended.
Zohran Mamdani, who clearly stands for the dismantling of Israel and its replacement with a so-called “one-state” solution – meaning, the erasure of Jewish sovereignty – may soon occupy the highest elected office in a city built in no small part by proud Zionists, and long safeguarded by political leaders committed to the cause of Israel’s survival. His positions are not fringe musings. They are blunt expressions of a radical worldview that denies the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination.
If Mamdani’s victory is certified and sustained, and if he is elected Mayor in November, it will mark the first time in history that America’s greatest city will be represented nationally and internationally by an elected official with such menacing and loathsome views. It also means that for the first time, the Mayor of New York City will almost certainly not participate in the annual Salute to Israel Parade. A parade once universally embraced by the city’s leadership may now become a source of division rather than unity.
Let us be clear: the Jewish community is not afraid of disagreement or debate. But this is not a matter of nuance. This is about legitimacy – of Israel’s right to exist, and of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, self-defense and national life.
In the face of this political moment, we must not retreat into silence or resignation. We must rededicate ourselves to the values that made New York a place of refuge and rebirth, for Jews and for so many others. We must educate, advocate and remind our fellow citizens that Israel is not a slogan – it is a living democracy, home to millions and the miraculous fulfillment of a forcibly dispersed, persecuted people’s ancient longing to return to its historic homeland, to the land it never abandoned and never entirely left.
The Jewish community built New York. It cannot, and will not, stand idly by while that legacy is defamed or forgotten.
