{"id":883744,"date":"2026-06-22T00:24:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/883744\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T00:24:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:24:31","slug":"rabbi-accuses-mamdani-of-inciting-violence-antisemitism-during-campaign-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/883744\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi accuses Mamdani of inciting violence, antisemitism during campaign speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been blasted for fueling antisemitism and \u201cinciting violence\u201d against Jews after the socialist branded the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its pro-Israel supporters \u201cmonsters\u201d at a campaign rally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side, said he was stunned by the mayor\u2019s flagrantly incendiary comments during a June 18 campaign rally with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a slate of Democratic Socialists of America and progressive candidates ahead of Tuesday\u2019s primary elections. <\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani is accusing AIPAC of being a monster that subverts democracy, supports genocide and wants to divide Americans. This is pure incitement,\u201d Steinmetz raged on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaking at a rally in support of a progressive New York City congressional candidate in Brooklyn on June 18, 2026. Nathan Posner\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The rabbi said comments like the mayor\u2019s inspire Jew haters <\/a>l<\/a>ike Elias Rodriguez \u2014 the man charged with killing two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, DC, in May 2025 \u2014 to \u201ctake violent action against AIPAC and its supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m an AIPAC supporter. And Mamdani is inciting hatred against people like me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a fiery 30-minute tirade at the rally, Mamdani accused AIPAC of being \u201cmonsters\u201d for spending \u201cmillions in dark money\u201d to ensure pro-Israel candidates win seats in the November midterms. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time of monsters. These monsters take many forms today. In those who fund\u2026 bad faith attacks\u2026 those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be made to pay in taxes,\u201d Mamdani said during the event at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu\u2019s wars,\u201d the mayor continued.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Manhattan\u2019s Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue called out Mamdani for calling AIPAC supporters \u201cmonsters\u201d in his campaign rally speech. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThey move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Steinmetz says it is Mamdani who is \u201cturning New Yorkers against each other in order to grab power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York already has an antisemitism problem. Right now, you are pouring fuel on the fire,\u201d he wrote, directly addressing Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cI shudder to think what happens next. But you will be responsible for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s cover on the murders of two Israeli Embassy staffers at the \u00a0Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC in 2025.<\/p>\n

The head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, also slammed Mamdani\u2019s inflammatory remarks about AIPAC as abhorrent and bigoted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe claim that AIPAC exists not to pursue a political agenda, but to spread discord and wield influence for its own sake, is not new,\u201d said Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Jim Berk.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSoviet anti-Zionist campaigns and earlier antisemitic movements similarly portrayed Jewish organizations as pursuing power not to achieve political goals, but because Jews themselves were said to crave influence and control,\u201d Berk continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suggestion that Jewish political participation is inherently suspect, illegitimate, or secretly manipulative is abhorrent. This is the same old story, retold in a new language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and progressive candidates Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier. AP Photo\/Ryan Murphy<\/p>\n

The prominent Jewish activist said many advocacy organizations lobby, organize, and support candidates \u2014 and their motives are assumed to be political.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when Jewish organizations alone are portrayed as uniquely divisive or corrosive, we cross into territory where old prejudices take root,\u201d Berk said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s comments come amid a rise in antisemitism<\/a>, growing opposition to Israel in the Democratic party and turmoil in the Middle East involving the US, Iran, Israel and Iranian-terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The pro-Palestinian mayor is an ardent foe of Israel, and supports the boycott<\/a>, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state. <\/p>\n

He has repeatedly claimed Israel\u2019s military has committed \u201cgenocidal war\u201d in Gaza <\/a>and even vowed last year to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <\/a>for alleged war crimes.<\/p>\n

The Post has reached out to Mamdani for comment.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League issued scathing statements demanding that\u00a0Mamdani apologize for likening AIPAC supporters to \u201cmonsters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c@NYCMayor\u00a0\u00a0Mamdani must apologize. Referring to members of the Jewish community who advocate for causes they care about as `monsters\u2019 wielding `dark money\u2019 is shockingly offensive and unacceptable for a mayor who claims to represent all New Yorkers,\u201d\u00a0a statement released by ADL\/New York-New Jersey said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about political disagreement, it is about crossing a dangerous line by invoking dehumanizing and conspiratorial rhetoric with a long and troubling history in antisemitic tropes. We cannot allow fearmongering, conspiracy theories, or the demonization of Jews to become normalized in our public debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said ADL National CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, \u201cThis is the kind of bigoted conspiracy mongering that you expect from unhinged streamers or white supremacists. It\u2019s not the language that we should expect from the mayor whose jurisdiction suffers from the highest levels of antisemitism of any city in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a principled disagreement. This is prejudice pure and simple. It is deliberate, dangerous and disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been blasted for fueling antisemitism and \u201cinciting violence\u201d against Jews after the socialist branded…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":883745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[110582,5229,12648,4526,83,99,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,31235,80,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-883744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aipac","tag-america","tag-antisemitism","tag-gaza-strip","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-palestinians","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116790917067621069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883744","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=883744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}