Last week I visited New York City, a place that for generations has represented the magnificence of the American experiment.

The economic dynamism of Wall Street, the fine arts of Broadway, and the sports sanctuaries of Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium have all made the city exceptional.

My early-morning walks downtown along the Hudson River, with the Statue of Liberty in sight, reminded me why America is a beacon of opportunity for people from every corner of the world — including my grandparents, who came to escape religious persecution in Eastern Europe.

But as I returned home to Auburn, Ala., I learned New York Democrats had chosen Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist with a track record of anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric, to be their party’s mayoral nominee.

He’s someone who wants to destroy that opportunity.

A quick look at Mamdani’s record tells a story of racial divisiveness in the world’s melting pot.

His platform calls for shifting the tax burden to “whiter” neighborhoods, and he has repeatedly defended using the term “globalize the intifada.”

He has even pledged to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should the Israeli leader speak at the United Nations, or visit the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel.

I fear for the future of our country’s great city.

If only Mamdani and his ultra-progressive supporters would take a lesson about the very principles they preach — equality, community and opportunity — from my friends here deep in the heart of Dixie.  

I’ve spent the past two decades living in the American South and barnstorming every major city and college town as a men’s basketball coach in the Southeastern Conference.

Alabama, like much of the South, has a lot to teach the left.

First and foremost, Alabamians are a religious people. Their adherence to the Judeo-Christian tradition fosters caring, committed and prosperous communities. 

Moreover, ever since I moved to Alabama, I’ve been welcomed like family. I haven’t sensed a whiff of antisemitism, and I’ve been treated with profound respect by my Evangelical brothers and sisters throughout the state.

Faith plays a deeply unifying role here.

Just this season, my Auburn Tigers basketball team adopted the “Call God” hand gesture as the signature celebration move for a squad that reached the second Final Four in our school’s history.

When my players mimic a phone receiver with one hand and hold it up to an ear, they are visibly embracing their faith and the way it strengthens their bonds with each other.

We also celebrate, rather than demean, the entrepreneurs driving economic development and financial opportunities. Meritocracy is core to our spirit here.

I experience this every day as a coach working tirelessly to put together a winning program.

I teach my players that while there are obstacles to their success, there are no roadblocks.

And above all else, we love our country.

Our patriotism binds us.

Alabama provides an antidote to the very cultural and social woes that Mamdani and his left-wing compatriots misdiagnose.

The left’s obsession with racialism and insistence on boxing people by identity creates resentment and mistrust.

But my state provides an alternative vision: Cherishing faith and country fosters a healthy pluralism that represents America at her best.

We can clearly see the crisis of progressive culture on our college campuses, especially the so-called “elite” ones.

Over the past 20 months our country’s allegedly finest colleges and universities exploded with anti-Western and antisemitic protests praising Hamas’ Islamofascism.

Perhaps even worse, administrators at these institutions failed to condemn and curb this appalling behavior.

It’s no surprise that the base of Mamdani’s support — under-40, college-educated (notably, not working-class) voters — is a product of these institutions.

Once again, Alabama has the fix. At our state institutions, pro-Hamas demonstrations were few and far between; when student activists did organize, they remained civil — and administrators enforced law and order.

That’s in stark contrast to the “elite” private institutions that have become hotbeds for progressive ideology, leaving almost no room for dissenting voices.

Once they celebrated excellence. Now they’re havens for hatred.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card evaluates colleges and universities on how well they keep students safe and combat discrimination.

The University of Alabama (my bitter rival) has an “A” rating, better than any Ivy League institution.

Meanwhile, Mamdani’s hoity-toity alma mater Bowdoin College — where the candidate founded a chapter of the anti-American Students for Justice in Palestine — gets a “C”.

I know many New Yorkers don’t want to live in a nation hindered by racialism and resentment.

Many still believe in an America that praises achievement, celebrates excellence and embraces pluralism.

For a place where those values still thrive, look to my sweet home Alabama.

Bruce Pearl is the head coach of the Auburn Tigers’ men’s basketball team.