Steinmetz, who leads Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, a Modern Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side, said the video marked a sharp departure from his typical policy of avoiding politics in shul. And the change wasn\u2019t because the Internal Revenue Service recently reversed a decades-long policy barring endorsements from the pulpit, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m generally against political endorsements, and I know that now it\u2019s acceptable with the new IRS changes,\u201d said Steinmetz. \u201cHowever, to every rule, there is an exception.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Steinmetz added that he would also soon sign a letter of support for Cuomo alongside several other local rabbis, whom he declined to name.<\/p>\n Steinmetz is not the only New York City rabbi to be occupied by the looming mayoral election. A few have openly endorsed candidates, appearing with them at rallies. More of them are, like Steinmetz, wading into politics despite believing that it\u2019s generally ill-advised to do so. Others say they are sticking to their nonpartisan principles even as the election occupies and at times divides their communities. And some say that their congregants\u2019 minds are so made up, there\u2019s little reason for them to say anything at all.<\/p>\n \t Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt and Rebbetzin Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt of the Altneu, an Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side. (Daniel Landesman via JTA)<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much alignment on this that there\u2019s really no debate over this race in terms of who we are not voting for,\u201d said Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, the co-founder and rebbetzin of The Altneu, an Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side. Referring to Mamdani, she said, \u201cThe community is very organized and committed to electing anyone else, anyone but him.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s deep criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza have made him toxic not only in Modern Orthodox spaces, which lean conservative, but also among other pro-Israel Jews in the city. While polls show that Mamdani enjoys substantial Jewish support, much of it comes from Jews who identify as secular.<\/p>\n Still, some congregational rabbis have come out in support of him \u2014 at least in their personal capacity.<\/p>\n Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg, the founder of Malkhut, a progressive, non-denominational congregation in western Queens, was the only current pulpit holder among six rabbis who co-authored a July op-ed<\/a> saying they support Mamdani.<\/p>\n \t New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks on stage for the March on Wall Street, August 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo\/Heather Khalifa)<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that Jewish safety will not be secured by demanding unconditional support for Israel or imposing litmus tests on public officials around language. It will be secured through effective policy, education, solidarity, and shared struggle. That is what Mamdani offers,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Throughout the mayoral race, Goldenberg said some of her congregants had approached her to say that they were \u201cconcerned\u201d about Mamdani\u2019s relationship to the city\u2019s Jews and to ask whether she shares their worries. She said that while she and Mamdani \u201care not identical in our Israel-Palestine politics,\u201d she did not share those congregants\u2019 fears.<\/p>\n \t People participate in a scavenger hunt sponsored by Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign for mayor of New York City on August 24, 2025 in New York City. (Stephanie Keith\/Getty Images\/AFP)<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely try to reassure folks that I do think that the stirring up of fears around antisemitism are really coming from vested interests in defeating him, using Jewish fear and using the real rise of antisemitism to sow distrust in a Muslim candidate for mayor,\u201d Goldenberg said.<\/p>\n But she also said she did not consider her op-ed to be a rabbinic endorsement for her congregation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis statement that I made was one as a Jewish leader in New York City,\u201d said Goldenberg. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for me to use my position and my voice in public to speak, and it\u2019s my right to do that, but I don\u2019t campaign and make endorsements as the rabbi of my community.\u201d<\/p>\n The endorsement calculus changed this year with the revision of the IRS regulations. But at least in non-Orthodox congregations, there is \u201cpretty universal rejection\u201d of the new latitude, according to Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. This week, his group, along with the organizing bodies of the Conservative and Reconstructionist movements, issued new guidelines<\/a> for rabbis urging them not to endorse candidates.<\/p>\n \t Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism (left), with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem, October 25, 2023. (courtesy)<\/p>\n The guidelines warned that endorsing political candidates could risk \u201cundermining our leadership and dividing our community,\u201d and that they could also open up the door for political coercion, including \u201cthreats or promises from donors, elected officials, or interest groups for backing a candidate or party.\u201d<\/p>\n Some New York City rabbis cited those concerns in explaining why they did not plan to make an endorsement in the mayoral election.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not turn our synagogue into a place for political campaigns, and we will not open the door to the possibility that members may seek to use their donations to influence elections,\u201d Rabbi Roly Matalon of the non-denominational synagogue B\u2019nai Jeshrun on the Upper West Side wrote in an email.<\/p>\n \t Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City launched a new program called Amplify Israel, which he hopes will encourage Reform movement leaders to embrace Zionism even as they navigate a \u2018deeply problematic and offensive\u2019 new Israeli government. (Shahar Azran\/Stephen Wise Free Synagogue via JTA)<\/p>\n Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation on the Upper West Side, warned that the IRS ruling could cause politicians to be \u201ctempted\u201d to look at religious institutions as a source for funding and support, a dynamic he said would harm synagogues.<\/p>\n But Hirsch, who leads a Zionist organization within the Reform movement, said he would not be sidestepping politics from the pulpit, even as he will not endorse.<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter what the IRS says, even assuming that they permit now clergy to speak whatever it is they want to say about support for political candidates, we\u2019re not going to do that here, but we will be very engaged in the political process, especially about clarifying what our understanding is of Jewish values and their implementation in the policy dimension,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hirsch said that for his congregants, there were three main areas of concern about Mamdani: his lack of \u201cconsiderable executive experience,\u201d his socialist policies, and his \u201chostility to Israel.\u201d But he suggested that his congregants did not all hold a single view and added that rabbis risk compromising their moral authority when they wade too deeply into partisan politics.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to preferences for political candidates, every Jewish broad-based institution, generally, but especially in the American Jewish community, there\u2019s a diverse spectrum of opinions,\u201d he said. \u201cAs spokespeople for religious values\u2026 it diminishes us if we are perceived as being in a partisan camp.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo at an event marking the completion of a new Torah scroll, in New York City, May 15, 2025. (Luke Tress\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n For some rabbis, neither the heated race nor the changes in IRS rules will get them to change their longstanding policies. Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of the Upper West Side Conservative synagogue Ansche Chesed said endorsing candidates would be an \u201cinappropriate use of my rabbinic role.\u201d<\/p>\n Others have engaged in a delicate balancing act. Rabbi Kyle Savitch, the founder of Kehilat Harlem, a non-denominational congregation in Harlem founded in 2017, said he has spoken openly with congregants about the mayoral election and, ahead of the primary in June, encouraged them to rank neither Mamdani or Cuomo.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most political I got was encouraging people to take advantage of the ranked choice voting system,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was relatively clear that the two main candidates were Cuomo and Mamdani, and that I was encouraging people to take advantage of ranked choice voting, to choose neither.\u201d<\/p>\n For the general election, Savitch is not making his preference known, though he said he reached out to Mamdani\u2019s campaign to try to get a \u201cfirm statement on antisemitism\u201d from the candidate. He didn\u2019t receive a response.<\/p>\n \u201cI have had conversations one-on-one with folks, with a lot of folks,\u201d Savitch said. \u201cI won\u2019t say who I\u2019m voting for or endorse anyone, but I will kind of talk openly about all the candidates and my feelings and thoughts and concerns, and listen to their feelings, thoughts and concerns also.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs emphasized that rabbis should absolutely engage with their congregants on the issues and ideas that matter to each of them.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a rabbi, you know how to talk about the issues of the day and the values that are most important to people,\u201d said Jacobs. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to mention a candidate or a name to be talking about the most important issues, but I think our job is to get deeper than the current pain going on on any given question or any race.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Avital-741120-2-640x400.jpg\")
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