Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman who is the frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race, donned a white kippah and sat between Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and state comptroller Brad Lander during Kol Nidre services on Yom Kippur.
The services, held at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, were run by Lab/Shul, which self-identifies as an “artist-driven, everybody-friendly, God-optional, pop-up, experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings.”
Mamdani, who had no speaking role, reportedly received a standing ovation.
Nadler, the dean of the Congressional Jewish Caucus who recently said he doesn’t intend to seek re-election, has backed Mamdani’s campaign. The congressman’s non-denominational congregation, B’nai Jeshurun, emailed congregants last week stating that Mamdani would not attend services there, after a New York Times article suggested that he would.
“Yom Kippur is a holy day of deep spiritual significance, of introspection and prayer,” the congregation wrote. “Not a time for political campaigning.”
Major Jewish groups oppose Mamdani, who has said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the premier were to visit New York City, and who declined to say that the essence behind the phrase “globalize the intifada” incites violence against Jews.
David May, research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, responded on social media to a picture of Mamdani at the service and wrote, quoting from the Hebrew prologue to Kol Nidre, “we allow praying with sinners.”
