3 critical policy questions Zohran Mamdani must answer

The recent New York City primary created shockwaves in Jewish communities across the five boroughs. The 33-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani ran a campaign that powerfully and effectively tapped into New Yorkers’ concerns about affordability, a critical issue for residents. Election night numbers were so favorable to Mamdani that Andrew Cuomo, who had been predicted to win the mayoral primary, conceded before the final ranked-choice votes were in: “Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”

The newspapers called it an “upset.” But there was another kind of upset that evening in many Jewish communities. 

“We have to get our act together by November or Mamdani is literally going to put our lives in danger and ruin New York City,” social media influencer Lizzy Savetsky reacted in a viral video with nearly half a million views. That night, my feed was filled with similar sentiments from rabbis, friends, and other influencers, both from New York and abroad — notably, even Jews watching the election from Israel. 

Many pointed to Mamdani’s recent appearance on a podcast, where he refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” — and defended it by citing the US Holocaust Museum’s Arabic translation of a description of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising as an “intifada.” Many — including my husband, whose grandfather fought in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising — were outraged by the exploitation of Jewish history to sanitize a slogan used to justify the murder of Jews and that was proclaimed by a terrorist who murdered two Israeli Embassy Staffers this past May. The Museum itself publicly condemned the comparison on X.

Others pointed to his history of pro-Palestinian activism, including founding a chapter of SJP at Bowdoin College, and introducing the “Not on our Dime” bill to the New York State Senate, which attempted to “prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”

Jewish New Yorkers are right to address those concerns, but I worry that fear may lead people to express opinions that attack Mamdani’s identity as a Muslim American or his immigration from Uganda at age 7. Jews have experienced the slippery slope of attacks on ethnicity and faith — we have been the victims of that very kind of profiling and xenophobia. Our community leaders must make statements rejecting attacks on Mamdani’s identity and religion and focus their scrutiny on his policy proposals. We need to press Zohran Mamdani on his policies — not his religious beliefs and identity. Here are three important questions we need to ask Mamdani to determine what life will be like for Jews if he becomes mayor.

1.  New York City’s mayor sets priorities for the NYPD, appoints the police commissioner, and sets a budget for hate crime prevention. In 2024, “anti-Jewish crimes accounted for 54% of the 641 total hate crimes reported to police in the city in 2024,” according to the NYPD’s own data. Some of these crimes were committed in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza. Eric Adams increased police presence at synagogues and Jewish schools a number of times in the past two years. Will Mamdani divert additional police resources to synagogues and community institutions that receive threats he may view as anti-Zionist and not antisemitic? Will Jewish nonprofits be expected to expand their security expenditure during his tenure — or will he, like Adams, approve a larger budget to accommodate the real threats Jewish New Yorkers face?
2. Campus protests of the war in Gaza have become violent. Jewish students at Columbia, NYU, CUNY, Cooper Union, and The New School have expressed that they are living in fear. Some don’t feel safe walking around their campus encampments. In the past, Eric Adams and the NYPD arrested a number of campus protestors who were trespassing and had set up an illegal encampment. How will Mamdani respond to these encampments as they become increasingly hostile to Jewish students?
3. The NYC Mayor appoints the Department of Education’s Chancellor. I have spoken to a number of Jewish teachers and staff members at DOE schools who have expressed how intolerable the environment has become for Zionists. There have been many reports of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda being disseminated across DOE channels, including an email sent to faculty members at a Brooklyn elementary and middle school with the subject: “How Much Jewish Wealth From The Black Slave Trade Was Used To Help Create Israel?”, riddled with age-old conspiracy theories and hateful rhetoric. Who will Mamdani select for the DOE Chancellorship — and how will that person respond to the rising hostility experienced by pro-Israel and Jewish faculty in New York City’s public schools?

This is an inflection point for New York City’s 1.4 million Jews. The next months will be filled with campaigning, aggressive messaging, and debates about Mamdani’s ability to run the most populous city in the United States, both because of his history and inexperience. We will see more critiques of Mamdani’s past and additional attempts to clarify his position on Israel and Zionism. All of these are valid — but we can’t fall into the pitfalls of prejudice.

I was grateful for one such message shared by my own community rabbi, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun’s Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, responding to the despairing responses many shared after election results went public:

“The following won’t work. 

Hopelessness. Fixating on who ‘stabbed us in the back.’ Racism. Infighting.

Giving up.”

We deserve a mayor whose policies ensure a safe and livable city for our community — and for all New Yorkers. The primary results may have been shocking, but the Jewish community is strong. Let’s organize, challenge, debate, and make our voices heard in November’s election, in accordance with our values.