Radio host Sid Rosenberg deleted a social media post calling New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a “cockroach” and later issued an on-air apology after the remarks drew widespread condemnation.
Rosenberg, who hosts a program on WABC Radio, had written on X that Mamdani is an “America-hating, Jew-hating, Radical Islam cockroach,” as well as a “terrorist sympathizer” and “jihadist.” The post was later removed.
Addressing the controversy Wednesday morning, Rosenberg said, “Not nice to call somebody a bug, I get it,” adding that the remark “had nothing to do with anybody’s religion or faith.”
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, called the language “painfully familiar” but said he has more pressing responsibilities than responding to provocations. He added that he is not ashamed of his faith and that “time will tell” whether Rosenberg’s apology is sincere.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Politico the comments were “wholly inappropriate and deeply harmful,” adding that rhetoric demeaning someone’s religion “cannot be tolerated.”
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, also condemned the remarks, stating that Rosenberg’s “latest comments are vile, hateful and deeply divisive.”
“Referring to the mayor as a ‘jihadist’ based simply on his faith or background is abhorrent, and using the term ‘cockroach’ is beyond the pale,” she wrote. “We can have substantive policy debates where we don’t agree. But we cannot normalize rhetoric that dehumanizes people because of their religion.”
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, called Menin’s remarks “false, antisemitic and disgusting.”
“At no time did Rosenberg call Mamdani a jihadist due to his ‘faith.’ He called him a jihadist due to Mamdani’s support for jihad, e.g., his inability to condemn the slaughter of Jews around the world, which is the simple meaning of ‘globalize the intifada,’” Menken wrote.
“This is demonizing the victim,” he continued. “Mamdani refused to condemn a call for the murder of Rosenberg and his family, and Menin has decided that it is Rosenberg who is the bigot. New York deserves better.”
