With the New York City mayoral election days away, a reported 30% of Jewish New Yorkers seem to support Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani. Considering that this candidate has gone on record making statements like “globalize the intifada” and the “IDF laced the NYPD’s boots,” this statistic is bewildering to many Jews and observers around the world.
The solution lies in another recent headline. On Oct. 19, four thieves stole Napoleon and Empress Joséphine’s diamond necklace from the Louvre Museum in Paris in broad daylight. The crown jewel, valued in the tens of millions, vanished in less than five minutes on the back of a motorcycle.
While some suspects have been apprehended, the question on everyone’s mind remains: What could the thieves have possibly done with these diamonds? As the world’s most recognized stolen jewelry, they are practically unsellable. The only option would be for them to cut them up into new, smaller pieces of jewelry and attempt to sell those at a greatly reduced price.
These two conundrums—Jews who support Mamdani and the fate of the stolen jewelry—are both connected to the Torah portion of Vayera. Following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s daughters notoriously intoxicated their father and conceived children with him.
While most people find these actions utterly misguided, the rabbis of the Talmud made an astonishing statement. They claimed that Lot’s daughters weren’t motivated by perversion but actually performed this act l’shem shamayim, “with holy intentions” (Nazir 23a). After witnessing the destruction of their hometown, they believed that humanity had been wiped out and were merely trying to restart the human race.
The Midrash builds on this, stating that Lot’s daughters prophetically knew that the Messiah would one day descend from them and believed that seducing their father would usher in the redemption of the world (Ruth Rabbah 7:15). In short, they had good intentions but tried to implement them through their own flawed understanding rather than through God’s desired path.
This pattern of pure intentions leading to disastrous actions has repeated itself throughout Jewish history. Most famously, in the early 20th century, as communism swept across Europe, countless Jews joined the party ranks. While they may have started with good intentions—a utopian, classless society—in the end, the movement slaughtered millions and destroyed the rich tapestry of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
What is it about utopian movements that causes them to so strongly capture and attract the Jewish psyche?
In 1913, the sixth Rebbe of Chabad—Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneersohn (aka the “previous Rebbe”)—answered this question. He was traveling by train when a fellow passenger asked him: Which political system does Judaism support—monarchism, socialism or communism? His response was: “All good things are found in Torah, because Torah is perfection.”
What he meant was that each of these political ideologies contains sparks of Divine truth within them. These utopian visions are essentially distorted reflections of fundamental Jewish concepts, such as redemption and the coming of the messianic age. Every “-ism”—communism, socialism, progressivism—emerges from holy Jewish neshamahs (“souls”) yearning to usher in a time when “knowledge of God will be accessible to all,” resources will be shared and humanity “shall not know war anymore.”
This is precisely why Zohran’s promises resonate with so many Jewish voters. Free groceries, free buses, “free Palestine”—these tap into the deep Jewish yearning for a future of universal peace and equality. Just like Napoleon’s diamonds, the crown jewels of Torah—unity, equality and abundance—have been reduced to sparkly imitations. Like Lot’s daughters and the Communist revolutionaries, holy ideas have been severed from their source, making them very dangerous.
The truth is, Mamdani’s pledge to “globalize the intifada” doesn’t represent justice or peace; it’s a call for violence and Jewish bloodshed. His economic proposals don’t lead to the Torah’s vision of shared prosperity, but instead will result in forced redistribution that has characterized the worst authoritarian regimes.
The Jewish spirit wants utopia. We see injustice, and we yearn to repair it. This instinct is holy. But the path matters. To truly achieve the messianic era, let us keep the crown jewels intact. Let’s follow God’s authentic path that leads not to oppression disguised as equality, but to true redemption.
