Andrew Cuomo: A Mensch for New York City Mayor

At a time when the State of Israel is engaged in an existential military conflict against Iran, those of us living in New York City must not forget that the upcoming Democratic mayoral primary is of monumental importance. We can either have a mayor who identifies with the city’s Jewish community and who has never made a secret of his support for Israel, or we can have a mayor whose sympathies lie with the proponents of virulent antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is far from perfect, and he does not claim to be. But in this regard, as in many others, he stands head and shoulders above the other candidates competing for the Democratic mayoral nomination.

For starters, lest any of us forget, Cuomo has actually run the State of New York successfully for more than ten years after serving as the state’s attorney general and as US secretary of housing and urban Development. This means that he has the experience to run the most complex and most complicated city in the world.

He is also the only viable candidate on the primary ballot who is not a creature of the ideological left. He is a centrist Democrat in the tradition of President Bill Clinton, of his father, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and of the brilliant and erudite US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

This makes him precisely the type of mayor who might — just might — bring a semblance of normalcy and perhaps even unity to New York City.

Equally important, he has dealt with President Trump before, often at loggerheads, at times cooperatively, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when his daily briefings provided a critically needed intellectual and emotional life preserver that avoided all out panic.

The multi-faceted population of New York City requires its next mayor to be able to simultaneously work with and against the Trump administration. We cannot afford a complete standoff that would play right into the hands of the most extremist far-right elements in MAGA world.

Ideology is important. Pragmatic street smarts no less so.

From a Jewish perspective — and I write as a Jew and a Zionist committed to social justice and human rights for all, including Jews, Israelis, Palestinians, and the members of the LGBTQ+ community — Andrew Cuomo has an admirable track record regarding both Israel and antisemitism that sets him apart from the other candidates.

First, Cuomo is a proven fighter against antisemitism and a strong supporter of the State of Israel who traveled there three times as governor to demonstrate solidarity and signed an executive order barring his state from doing business with entities that support the BDS movement.

“My support for Israel is unwavering and as Mayor I will fight antisemitism wherever it exists,” he declared only a few days ago. “Silence is complicity — New York City must lead the way forward to make it clear that we have zero tolerance for antisemitic acts, and I will make sure that nothing ever comes between New Yorkers’ special relationship with the Jewish state of Israel.”

“Antisemitism is not a problem of the past, it’s a challenge of the present,” Cuomo posted on X, formerly Twitter. “As Mayor, I will do everything in my power to combat Antisemitism and ensure that all New Yorkers are safe.”

“I am sorry for the pain and anguish you felt on October 7 and every day since,” he said at New York City’s West Side Institutional Synagogue earlier this year. “I’m sorry for any antisemitism you have experienced and the repugnant behavior of demonstrators masked as Hamas that you have endured. I’m sorry if you have not felt safe on the streets right here in your own hometown. I’m sorry for the unimaginable pain and hardship the hostages and their families endured and continue to endure.”

“I’m sorry for my mistaken assumption that widespread antisemitism could never happen again in modern, sophisticated, educated society, and certainly not in New York City. I thought it was a lesson from the past but could never happen in the present. A lesson grandparents shared to teach us about history. That it was like polio, a terrible disease yes but that it was cured—never to threaten again. I was wrong.”

In that same speech, Cuomo addressed the surging antisemitism on university and college campuses: “We must also stop the disinformation being spoon fed in many of our educational institutions. We must hold the colleges accountable for their professors and the actions on their campuses. We must stop the flow of funding from countries dictating a biased curriculum. If they want to teach bias and misinformation, then it should be called for what it is. If they want to hatemonger, then they should pay the price. If they want to be an institution of higher education, they must hold themselves to a higher standard or we will.”

“The Jewish community is important to me first on a personal level,” Cuomo told The Times of Israel in a recent interview. “They are literally members of my family, they’re an important part of New York and they are under stress right now with the scourge of antisemitism.”

All of which contrasts Cuomo diametrically and dramatically with his leading primary opponents, who do not seem to be able to differentiate – or affirmatively do not want to differentiate – between legitimate opposition to policies of the Netanyahu government and unbridled antagonism toward Israel as a whole.

We simply cannot risk electing a NYC mayor who demonizes Israel and supporters of Israel to score cheap political points, or who can find common cause with supporters of Hamas terrorism. But that is precisely what some of Cuomo’s leading opponents, such as former NYC Comptroller Brad Landers and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani have done and are certain to continue doing if elected.

As governor, Cuomo was a steadfast force against all manifestations of antisemitism, and he can be relied on to be so as mayor as well.

I also recall being with Cuomo at Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 2020. “I’m moved beyond words to visit Auschwitz on the 75th anniversary of its liberation,” Cuomo tweeted on that occasion. “With anti-Semitism on the rise, the message of the Holocaust survivors is especially powerful today. We must understand the Jewish community. Understand the Holocaust. Understand what happened.”

Andrew Cuomo is, to use an underappreciated concept in our present-day, often cutthroat political environment, a mensch who will have the Jewish community’s back.

I do not know whether my endorsement will carry any weight with any New York City voters, but on the off-chance that it does with some of them, Andrew Cuomo has the enthusiastic and unequivocal support of this New Yorker.