What’s next for NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani?
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani pulled off a win, but what challenges could he face once in office?
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani published a Hanukkah video Dec. 20, featuring Emmy- and Tony-winning actor Mandy Patinkin and his family.
In the video, Mamdani is seen making latkes, lighting menorah candles and participating in Hanukkah blessings.
“This is a new beginning that this family is grateful for, this city is grateful for and the world is grateful for,” Patinkin says of Mamdani before performing the shehecheyanu blessing, a Jewish prayer performed to offer thanks for new experiences. “Your mayoral tenure … has now been blessed.”
It was such a joy to celebrate Hanukkah with Mandy, Kathryn and their son, Gideon. As Jewish New Yorkers across our city prepare to light candles and mark the seventh night today, I wish you and your families a Hanukkah full of light and love. pic.twitter.com/GOxL8Jl5wf
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 20, 2025
Mamdani’s opponents and critics attempted to make his criticism of Israel a key issue in the mayoral race, claiming it was antisemitic.
The mayor-elect is a long-time activist for Palestinian rights, who has called for boycotting Israel and refers to its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank as “apartheid.”
However, Mamdani reached out to the city’s diverse Jewish communities during the race. He had difficult conversations with reform congregations in Brooklyn, met with Hasidic leaders, and had four rabbis speak in support of his candidacy.
Ultimately, the campaign’s focus on affordability and Mamdani’s affable personality won him his seat in Gracie Mansion.
“He was human, he wasn’t a part of the plutocracy, billionaire class,” Kathryn Grody, Patinkin’s wife, says in the Hannukkah message.
“I immediately felt that you weren’t so much just a politician but something far more important to me, which was a human-itician,” Patinkin adds.
Patinkin himself has been critical of Israel, saying in a June interview with the New York Times that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s actions in Gaza and the West Bank “are endangering not only the State of Israel, which I care deeply about and want to exist, but endangering the Jewish population all over the world.”
Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY