{"id":463369,"date":"2025-12-22T01:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T01:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/463369\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T01:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T01:43:14","slug":"nycs-zohran-mamdani-shares-hanukkah-video-with-mandy-patinkin-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/463369\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s Zohran Mamdani shares Hanukkah video with Mandy Patinkin, family"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What’s next for NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani?<\/p>\n

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani pulled off a win, but what challenges could he face once in office?<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani<\/a> published a Hanukkah video Dec. 20, featuring Emmy- and Tony-winning actor Mandy Patinkin and his family.<\/p>\n

In the video, Mamdani is seen making latkes, lighting menorah candles and participating in Hanukkah blessings.<\/p>\n

“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\u00a0shehecheyanu\u00a0blessing<\/a>, a Jewish prayer performed to offer thanks for new experiences. “Your mayoral tenure … has now been blessed.”<\/p>\n

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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<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mamdani’s opponents and critics attempted to make his criticism of Israel a key issue in the mayoral race, claiming it was antisemitic.<\/p>\n

The mayor-elect is a long-time activist for Palestinian rights, who has\u00a0called for boycotting Israel<\/a>\u00a0and refers to its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank as “apartheid.”<\/p>\n

However, Mamdani reached out to the city’s diverse Jewish communities during the race. He had difficult\u00a0conversations with reform congregations<\/a>\u00a0in Brooklyn, met with\u00a0Hasidic leaders<\/a>, and had four rabbis\u00a0speak in support<\/a>\u00a0of his candidacy.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the campaign’s focus on affordability and Mamdani’s affable personality won him his seat in Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n

How Mamdani won New York: <\/strong>Be everywhere. Talk to everyone. Focus on affordability.<\/a><\/p>\n

“He was human, he wasn’t a part of the plutocracy, billionaire class,” Kathryn Grody, Patinkin’s wife, says in the Hannukkah message.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Patinkin himself has been critical of Israel, saying in a June interview with the New York Times<\/a> that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>‘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.”<\/p>\n

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY<\/p>\n