{"id":339672,"date":"2025-10-29T01:56:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339672\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T01:56:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:56:25","slug":"nearly-1000-rabbis-from-nyc-and-across-the-country-sound-off-on-their-opposition-against-the-mamdani-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339672\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 1,000 rabbis from NYC and across the country sound off on their opposition against the Mamdani campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

As early voting continues in the 2025 NYC Mayor\u2019s race<\/a>, more than 1,000 rabbis from across the country have publicly voiced their opposition to Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani\u2019s mayoral candidacy, expressing their concerns in an open letter. <\/p>\n

The religious leaders shared their perspectives on why they believe Mamdani is unfit to become the leader of New York City, which has the largest Jewish population of any place outside Israel.<\/p>\n

The letter, signed last week, is titled A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future<\/a>. It touches on topics including the \u201cpolitical normalization\u201d of anti-Zionism, violent verbiage, and denials of Israel\u2019s legitimacy \u2014 and criticized Mamdani for helping to propagate a hostile environment for Jewish New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen public figures like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani refuse to condemn violent slogans, deny Israel\u2019s legitimacy, and accuse the Jewish state of genocide, they, in the words of New York Board of Rabbis president Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, \u2018Delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews,\u2019\u201d the letter states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hirsch, who leads the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side, said he signed the letter because he has become increasingly concerned about Mamdani\u2019s opinions on the \u201cdelegitimization of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rabbi made it clear that not everyone who criticizes the Israeli government is antisemitic. But what Mamdani believes, he said, is not about policy or government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely legitimate to criticize any policy of any government,\u201d Hirsch said. \u201cWhat Zohran Mamdani believes, however, is not a disagreement on policies as strongly as he may think. It is a disagreement on the very existence of the state of Israel. He\u2019s a proud anti-Zionist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hirsch, consulting history, explained that anti-Zionism leads to antisemitism and other forms of hate.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you study the history of anti-Zionism over the past, say, century and a quarter, in every single case, as night follows day, where anti-Zionism is normalized, it leads to antisemitism, an intensification of antisemitism, without exception,\u201d the rabbi explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regrets? Mamdani doesn\u2019t say
\n\"zohranDemocratic mayoral nominee Zohran MamdaniPhoto by Jonathan Portee<\/p>\n

During the final 2025 NYC mayoral debate<\/a> on Oct. 22, moderators asked Mamdani if he had regrets about how he has dealt with issues regarding Israel and Jewish New Yorkers continuing to feel unsafe after acts of antisemitism skyrocketed following the start of war on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Mamdani did not respond to whether he had any regrets about his statements or views on Israel, but said he would be a mayor for all New Yorkers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes Jewish New Yorkers who may have concerns or opposition to the positions that I\u2019ve shared about Israel and Palestine,\u201d he said on the debate stage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the Oct. 22 debate, the candidate added that he would \u201cdeliver on the implementation\u201d of the Hidden Voices curriculum, a public school social studies program that helps students learn about various stories of people in U.S. history, \u201cso children in this city learn about the beauty and the breadth of the Jewish experience.\u201d No further explanation was provided on how the curriculum would be implemented.<\/p>\n

amNewYork contacted Mamdani\u2019s campaign team for comment on this story and is awaiting a response.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Rabbis supporting Cuomo<\/p>\n

Rabbi Michael Miller, a longtime New Yorker who often travels between the Big Apple and Israel, said he supports the letter, as well as former Gov. and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo for mayor \u2014 a sentiment he says he has heard from other rabbis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of the rabbis that have communicated with me vocally stated that they are going to be pushing Andrew Cuomo\u2019s candidacy,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI think that is extraordinarily important at this juncture, considering we are only a few days away from the election. We need to turn the tide here. Cuomo has increased his percentage numbers in the polls, and Mamdani has remained pretty stagnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirsch, who has met with Mamdani about topics concerning Jewish New Yorkers, said he has not yet heard from the candidate\u2019s campaign since the letter was sent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another signature on the letter is from Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, of Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side<\/a>. Steinmetz not only signed the letter but also urged the NYC Jewish community to support Cuomo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rabbi said he has never endorsed a candidate before, but felt compelled to do so, citing a \u201cgeneral threat\u201d that Mamdani poses to NYC.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the spring, I\u2019ve been sounding the alarm about Mamdani\u2019s candidacy in sermons, videos, and interviews,\u201d Steinmetz said. \u201cMamdani is obsessed with Israel, which has been his focus since his earliest involvement in politics. In the Assembly, nearly every one of Mamdani\u2019s foreign policy statements has attacked Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Rabbi Hirsch, Steinmetz has not received a response from the Mamdani campaign to the letter.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hirsch appealed to the Mamdani campaign in a public video<\/a>, urging the candidate to reconsider his \u201clong-held views\u201d of Israel\u2019s right to exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese views are profoundly immoral and are a political dead end,\u201d Hirsch said. \u201cThey have increased both Israeli and Palestinian suffering and have distanced the dawn of a new day of coexistence and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, as many polls show Mamdani ahead in the race for mayor, Hirsch said he would like the candidate to work toward uniting Jews, Palestinians and supporters of both peoples in NYC and across the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBe a uniter and a peacemaker,\u201d Hirsch said in the video, directed toward Mamdani. \u201cNeither Israel nor the Palestinians is going anywhere. Fantasies of eliminating one or the other are harmful delusions unbecoming of responsible political leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As early voting continues in the 2025 NYC Mayor\u2019s race, more than 1,000 rabbis from across the country…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[167481,5229,5297,13572,167482,70242,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,24672,167483,167484,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-339672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2025-nyc-mayoral-candidates","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-andrew-cuomo","11":"tag-assembly-member-zohran-mamdani","12":"tag-early-voting-in-nyc","13":"tag-mayors-race","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-pm-newsletter","21":"tag-rabbi-ammiel-hirsch","22":"tag-rabbi-chaim-steinmetz","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115454973778911611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}