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Billionaire philanthropist donates $250,000 to Mamdani super PAC

The philanthropist Elizabeth Simons reportedly made the largest contribution to the group to date.

Demonstrators for Zohran Mamdani
A demonstrator holds up a sign supporting New York state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani ahead of the June 24 Democratic primary, during the “No Kings Protest” in New York City, June 14, 2025. Credit: MoonlightonaSnowyNight via Wikimedia Commons.

Elizabeth Simons, a philanthropist and daughter of the late mathematician turned billionaire hedge-fund manager James Simons, donated $250,000 to a pro-Zohran Mamdani super PAC, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.

New Yorkers for Lower Costs, the “official Zohran Mamdani super PAC,” claims that it has raised “millions from over 10,000 donors.”

Simons’s represents the largest in the PAC, the Post reported.

Mamdani, a state assemblyman and Democratic Socialist who is running as the Democratic candidate in the race for New York City mayor, has drawn extensive criticism from Jewish groups and others for his censure of Israel and rhetoric that appears antisemitic. Mamdani has said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the latter visited the Big Apple.

A super PAC supporting Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who lost in the Democratic primary to Mamdani and is running as an independent, reportedly raised more than $26 million.

Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that the memorandum of understanding is a “disaster” that “stabs Israel in the back.”
“You can’t send an 18-year-old off to college without filling in many blanks before they leave, about why being Jewish is important,” the longtime Jewish communal leader told JNS.
“I am the one always encouraging students to get comfortable with opposing ideas,” a professor at Seattle Central College told JNS. “This is not it.”
“The defendant exploited the barbaric acts of terror perpetrated on Oct. 7, 2023, to attract donors to his fraudulent ‘humanitarian’ causes,” the U.S. Justice Department alleged.
A transcript of the deal’s text read aloud by a senior U.S. official in a call with reporters on June 17.
“Am I going to say I’m going to take you to court?” the U.S. president told reporters at the G7 summit in France. “No, we’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement.”