New Yorkers faced the choice of a miscreant former governor and a radical Democrat socialist for the position of mayor in the Democrat primary. Prior to Zohran Mamdani’s election in the primary, his absurd and speculative plans to provide all kinds of freebies to the citizenry were the talk of the town:

Mamdani’s platform focused on a number of issues that have animated socialists in the Democratic Party, including raising the minimum wage, hiking taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans, cracking down on delivery apps, as well as investing in affordable housing and creating city-owned grocery stores.

His campaign proposes a new minimum wage law that would raise the wage floor for jobs in the city to $30 an hour by 2030, which would then be automatically increased

Mamdani has proposed raising the corporate tax rate in New York City to match the state of New Jersey’s tax rate of 11.5%, which his campaign believes will bring in $5 billion.

His extreme proposals go even further than that, but once you move beyond his economic agenda, what’s genuinely repugnant (as opposed to merely stupid) is his attitude toward Jews and Israel. Even so, many New York Jews voted for him. It’s worth noting his offensive positions and then reviewing why Jews may still have helped to elect him.

Here are some of his positions regarding Jews and Israel, positions even the left-leaning Forward seems to find troublesome:

During the campaign, Mamdani did not shy away from controversies, Jewish and otherwise. He said he would not visit Israel, breaking with a tradition upheld by mayors since 1951 to show solidarity with the fledgling nation and with Jewish constituents at home. He is the first Democratic nominee to pledge to publicly back the movement to boycott Israel as mayor, which some in the pro-Israel community see as an assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish state’s existence — and some even say is antisemitic.

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Mamdani has been accused of engaging in antisemitism, attending some of the pro-Palestinian protests across the city just after Oct. 7 and defending the campus protests.

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Mamdani’s record on Israel, including his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the country and a recent defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” sparked significant backlash. Mamdani co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine group at Bowdoin College when he attended from 2010 to 2014.

While Mamdani insists that he is not, in fact, antisemitic, his denial says otherwise:

Mamdani has repeatedly said accusations he is antisemitic are politically motivated or efforts to censor him.

“The conflation of anti-zionism and antisemitism is a conflation that seeks to distract, delegitimize, and really, what it is, is an attempt to silence,” Mamdani said in an interview with the South Asian Avant-Garde in 2021.

Only those who are anti-Semitic deny there is a link between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. People can disagree with Israeli policies and positions, but once they cross over into denying Israel’s right to exist, the lines are fully blurred.

In an effort to avoid this hard fact, Mamdani lapses into incoherence:

“My support for BDS is consistent with the core of my politics which is non-violence,” Mamdani said in a May interview with the UJA-Federation, which his campaign referred to POLITICO. “I think it is a legitimate movement when you are seeking to find compliance with international law and I think we have seen the Israeli government out of compliance with international law. ”

For him to say that BDS is “legitimate” because Israel is “out of compliance with international law” begs the question: What law is that, and how does it justify sanctions against Israel? Mamdani can’t answer.

Meanwhile, as Mamdani gives voice to stealth antisemitism, antisemitic acts in New York increase:

If elected mayor, Mamdani would take over a city grappling with rising antisemitism. Antisemitic incidents were up 18% in New York last year, with 68% of the 1,437 incidents occurring in New York City, according to the Anti-Defamation League. In the first quarter of 2025, New York Police Department data shows antisemitic acts made up 62% of all reported hate crimes citywide.

A recent poll of likely Jewish voters showed that 76% of respondents agreed that antisemitic hate crimes are a very serious problem, and that the city must do a better job protecting its Jewish residents.

Despite rising antisemitism in New York and Mamdani’s covert embrace of that ideology, there were Jews who voted for Mamdani, but they were mainly from the political Left:

Mamdani won some Jewish support during the campaign. He won endorsements from the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace activist group and the leftist Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ) through that group’s electoral arm, the Jewish Vote.

Sophie Ellman-Golan, a spokesperson for JFREJ, said Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian stance was one factor in his appeal and credited him with “opening up a new era in what is deemed acceptable within mainstream politics.”

It’s unclear which “mainstream politics” Ellman-Golan is referring to. But there is nothing new or mainstream about socialist ideas and antisemitism.

One Jewish Republican group sees the implications of voting for Mamdani:

Tonight, Democrats AGAIN failed to stand with Jewish Americans, this time in New York City.

Raging Antisemite, Anti-America, Anti-Israel, Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani will be a total DISASTER for Jewish residents—and Democrat leaders @SenSchumer, @hakeemjeffries,… https://t.co/ZTL9LohjA1

— RJC (@RJC) June 25, 2025

Tonight, Democrats AGAIN failed to stand with Jewish Americans, this time in New York City. Raging Antisemite, Anti-America, Anti-Israel, Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani will be a total DISASTER for Jewish residents—and Democrat leaders @SenSchumer, @hakeemjeffries, @GovKathyHochul, let it happen; their silence, dereliction of duty, and capitulation to this madness is embarrassing and pathetic. This is yet another data point proving that Democrats continue to nominate and acquiesce to extreme, radical candidates who are antithetical to the priorities of the Jewish community. So long as Democrats refuse to change course, they will continue to hemorrhage Jewish support. JC@RJC https://x.com/RJC/status/1937699916249247774

There is one other reason Jews might support Mamdani, and it’s the self-abuse of what should be a virtue: their compassion for others (or so they say). Over the centuries, Jews have almost always supported the underdog. With many New Yorkers suffering from the high cost of living in New York (a product of leftist programs), Jews likely believe they can help those who have less by taking on the extreme financial burden that Mamdani is promising.

It is a plan for disaster for the Jews.

They need to either vote Mamdani out—or, as the RJC said, leave the city.

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