Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, whose online biographies identify him as a media liaison to Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters, told JNS that he hosted Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, in his sukkah on Sept. 29 in his personal capacity.
The visit during the Sukkot holiday came hours after the mayor released what he called a whole-of-government strategy on Jew-hatred, which Jewish leaders told JNS is “frankly unworthy of the mayor and administration” and akin to “writing a report on lung cancer without mentioning smoking,” since it ignored anti-Zionism.
Behrman is depicted in two photos that City Hall posted on an official social media handle. In one, the rabbi smiles along Mamdani, as the mayor eats a grape, smiling. In the other, the mayor and the rabbi can be seen through latticework. Mamdani listens, as Behrman talks, with his right hand raised.
Mamdani campaigned on arresting the Israeli prime minister, though he admitted more recently that he lacks the legal authority to do so, and he has accused the Jewish state of “genocide.” Major U.S. Jewish organizations have said that the mayor’s rhetoric has made Jews less safe.
JNS asked Behrman if anything about his conversation with the mayor changed the way he thinks about Mamdani and his concern for the safety of New York Jews.
“He was in the neighborhood for an event, and my family and I hosted him afterward in our sukkah to share some of the beauty and meaning of the holiday,” the rabbi told JNS.
City Hall said on Tuesday that the mayor would “celebrate Sukkot with Jewish New Yorkers” in a closed-press event.
JNS learned that the mayor also visited the sukkot of Devorah Halberstam, whose son Ari was murdered in the 1994 Brooklyn Bridge terror shooting, and of Brad Lander, former city comptroller and Democratic nominee in a safe congressional district.
Behrman told JNS that at his sukkah, “we spoke about Sukkot, family and the lessons of the sukkah that Jews have celebrated for thousands of years.”
“Our children told him about the ushpizin, the spiritual guests we welcome into the sukkah,” he said. Last night the “guest” was the High Priest Aaron, brother of Moses from the Bible, “known for promoting peace,” Behrman said.
“We blessed the mayor that he should be a uniter and bring New Yorkers together,” he told JNS.
