{"id":835587,"date":"2026-05-31T23:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/835587\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T23:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:34:12","slug":"nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdanis-absence-from-israel-day-parade-disgraceful-rep-mike-lawler-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/835587\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s absence from Israel Day Parade “disgraceful,” Rep. Mike Lawler says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people lined Fifth Avenue on Sunday for the annual Israel Day Parade<\/a>, but this year’s event was even more notable because Zohran Mamdani became the first New York City mayor in recent history not to attend.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said during his campaign and reiterated earlier this week<\/a> that he wouldn’t be coming.<\/p>\n

“I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn’t be attending the parade, and I’ve made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear,” Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Lawler sounds off on Mamdani’s absence<\/p>\n

A sea of blue and white took over Fifth Avenue as thousands of people marched and even more watched from the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\"630-ruchim-image-2.jpg<\/p>\n

New York Rep. Mike Lawler was critical of Mayor Zohran Mamdani for not showing up to the Israel Day Parade in Manhattan on May 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

CBS News New York<\/p>\n

Among those in attendance were Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s opponent in the November election<\/a>, and Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler. Both are Republicans who have been critical of Mamdani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful that the mayor of New York City, a city that has the largest Jewish population outside of the state of Israel, chose not to be here,” Lawler said.<\/p>\n

Others also spoke openly about Mamdani’s absence. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think more people showed up just because Mamdani didn’t,” marcher Gina Friedlander said. “We want to send a message that we are not going to be cowed, and we are strong, and we’re not going to allow Mamdani to tell us how we should feel.”<\/p>\n

Former comptroller and congressional candidate<\/a> Brad Lander, who is Jewish, said last week he would not march in the parade “so long as Israel continues violating international law and Palestinian human rights in Gaza and West Bank.”<\/p>\n

Lander’s opponent, Rep. Dan Goldman, who is also Jewish, said he would march.<\/p>\n

“Antisemitism cannot grow in our city and in our country”<\/p>\n

From school groups and synagogues to families and community organizations, the parade stretched for blocks through the Upper East Side.<\/p>\n

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch served as grand marshal and marched alongside former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Hochul marched as well.<\/p>\n

“Hate against one is hate against all, and I, as the governor of the greatest state in the in the nation, will not tolerate it. Let’s march everybody. Let’s march,” Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Eric Adams joined the parade, surrounded by large contingent of Israeli dignitaries.<\/p>\n

“I just want to send a loud message. I am going to boycott antisemitism. Antisemitism cannot grow in our city and in our country,” Adams said.<\/p>\n

“We are proud Jews”<\/p>\n

Others who took part in the event said they wanted the focus to be on the long-standing tradition for Jewish New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

“This is the second time my son is coming to this parade. We are proud Jews. We’re proud of Israel, and we need it. We needed to be there,” Jacqueline Rozov said.<\/p>\n

“It’s amazing. It’s a day to celebrate everybody, to show love and support and prayers for peace,” attendee Ali Schimel said.<\/p>\n

City officials said security for this year’s parade was the most extensive in the event’s history. The NYPD maintained a heavy presence along the route from start to finish.<\/p>\n

Many attendees said they felt extremely safe during the event.<\/p>\n

“The police have been great, better than ever,” one said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people lined Fifth Avenue on Sunday for the annual Israel Day Parade, but this year’s event…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":835588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12648,22807,5289,99,5371,12862,22809,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-835587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-antisemitism","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-eric-adams","tag-israel","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-michael-bloomberg","tag-mike-lawler","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116671812962472519","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835587","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=835587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}