You can’t simultaneously fan the flames of Jew-hatred, pose with a hose for a photo op and convince others that you’re serious about putting out the fire.
To the surprise of at least some of this year’s religiously and politically diverse attendees at the annual Passover seder at City’s Winery in Manhattan, Zohran Mandani, New York City’s openly anti-Zionist mayor who has mischaracterized Israel as illegitimate, colonial, genocidal and apartheid, served as guest speaker. During his Passover address, he acknowledged “the rising tide of antisemitism” and how it has caused “enormous pain for so many Jewish New Yorkers. Doors are locked that used to be open, routine subway journeys feel fraught, and synagogues that once felt like sanctuaries now require armed protection,” he said.
The speech also contained references to “the ruptures that have defined so much of Jewish history.”
There is, of course, deep irony that Michael Dorf, the Jewish owner of New York City Winery, seeks to lend legitimacy to a mayor who refuses to recognize the Jewish people as indigenous to the State of Israel during a seder that culminates in the Israelites’ entry into the land of Israel.
According to the Torah, God separately promised possession of Israel to each of the biblical Jewish forefathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all their descendants. It is a land in which Jews have a 3,000-year continuous presence—an ancestral homeland central to the Jewish faith, Jewish culture, Jewish identity and the Jewish pilgrimage holidays, Passover among them.
Even Mohammed, the founder of Islam, whose words Mamdani is fond of quoting, states in the Quran that Israel is the “holy land” that God assigned to the children of Israel.
Speaking against Jewish hatred may have successfully appealed to the nearly one-third of Jewish New Yorkers who have already supported him and whose support he continues to court.
However, his reference to protecting Jews in their synagogues is little more than political campaigning, especially given that Mamdani had used an executive order to revoke legislation that would create a buffer zone between protesters and worshippers. He did so not to stop them from hateful slogans and epithets, mind you, but to keep the anti-Zionist protesters that spewed them at a safe distance from the worshippers. He is still mulling with his lawyers whether or not to publicly support the “buffer zone bill,” also known as the “Schools and Houses of Worship Access and Safety Act,” recently passed by the New York City Council.
Its aim is to maintain safe physical access and prevent physical injury, intimidation or interference. Mamdani is more concerned about freedom of speech for the anti-Zionist protesters and the potential misuse of police authority.
Along with the mayor’s mischaracterizations of Israel that allow for neither nuance nor cooperation, his alliance with Islamic associations whose support he has courted, coupled with the agenda he has supported, remain a concern for those not bedazzled by the 34-year-old’s smile and salesmanship.
He has aligned himself with political groomers, advisers and new friends who promote hatred of Jews and who sanction violence against the Jewish state and the West. In a city where the only cheap commodity may be words, the mayor has woven into his speeches references to the Palestinian plight at mosques, even during a celebration of Irish culture on St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s the mayor’s actions, however, that illuminate the lies—and the controversial ties.
The mayor came to power through the Democratic Socialists of America, a far-left group that, according to the American Jewish Committee, advances anti-Zionist campaigns and tacitly endorses antisemitism. He received financial backing during his mayoral campaign indirectly through the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Congress recently designated CAIR as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financial trial and an organization with links to Hamas.
The old proverb, “Show me your friends (and associates), and I’ll tell you who you are,” doesn’t speak so well for Mamdani.
Some 20% of Mamdani’s advisers have come under scrutiny for alleged ties to antisemitic, anti-Zionist or anti-Israel biases and activities. Among them is Ramzi Kassem, the mayor’s chief counsel, known for having downplayed the 9/11 terror attacks, and for providing legal defense to an Al-Qaeda terrorist who bombed an oil tanker in Yemen. Kazi Fouzia serves on Mamdani’s Committee on Worker Justice. He was cited for a Facebook post stating “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” one day after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hassan Chaudhary, Mamdani’s transition adviser, helped designate any criticism lobbed at the mayor as “Islamophobic.”
Mamdani is also pictured with a wide smile, his arm around Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has called for Israel’s annihilation. Mamdani’s political mentor, Linda Sarsour, a longtime anti-Zionist activist who has called for “dehumanizing Israelis.” Mamdani has documented connections to Samidoun, a Palestinian prisoner solidarity network and a government-designated front organization for the terrorist designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), according to the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
But his associations are closer to home.
In a picture at Gracie Mansion, Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, is seen serving dinner during Ramadan to pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil at an Iftar dinner the couple hosted at Gracie Mansion. That is the same Khalil who led the student protests at Columbia University against Israel—and Jewish students and faculty—disseminated Hamas propaganda and justified attacks on Israelis as part of the Palestinian struggle.
The invitation came shortly after the discovery that Duwaji had liked social-media posts that referenced Hamas’s sexual violence on Oct. 7 as a “mass rape hoax” and that described the attack (and ensuing massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 others) as “collective liberation.”
Mamdani’s own response was most telling, calling his wife the “love of his life.” He failed to comment on the posts’ content. His comment (and lack thereof) makes one further wonder what type of life Mamdani is leading. What values does he hold?
While it may take a village—and even free preschool—to help raise a child in Manhattan, it appears to take a deeply entrenched, well-funded red-green allied political machine, and those with like-minded beliefs, to “raze” the world’s pre-eminent city.
Don’t expect free buses anytime soon. But if you support the one Jewish state in the world, getting kicked under the bus remains a popular option.
