Bridges of Liberation: Jewish & African Paths to Freedom

Views Expressed are Personal and Independent: This series of articles is a personal statement written in my individual capacity as a private citizen and Zionist Jew holding citizenships of the United States of America, Lithuania, and South Africa. My perspectives are deeply informed by my decades of study in international relations, genocide, and diaspora politics.

This content does not represent, nor is it endorsed by, the Republic of Togo, its government, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its official policy, or any related entity.

The titles and roles I hold—including Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo, Former Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union, former Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, and current member of its Executive Committee—are cited strictly for the purpose of establishing personal expertise and contextual authority on matters of diplomacy, Pan-Africanism, and diaspora engagement. I speak solely in my own independent voice and am not acting as an official spokesperson or representative of the Republic of Togo in these publications.

My comments regarding the policies, politics, and future of each country where I hold citizenship are asserted as my right and civic obligation as a citizen to enhance and contribute to the discourse of that nation, and they in no way relate to any official diplomatic position.

Announcing the Series: Response to Mamdani’s Racist Call

In the wake of a disturbing protest on November 19, 2025, outside New York City’s Park East Synagogue—a Modern Orthodox congregation and historic landmark on Manhattan’s Upper East Side—where over 200 anti-Zionist demonstrators chanted calls for violence and hurled antisemitic slurs, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has chosen to condemn not the hatred, but the Jewish event inside. This selective outrage, which frames the promotion of Jewish immigration to Israel as a “violation of international law,” exposes a deep-seated bias that undermines shared struggles for indigenous liberation. As a Zionist Jew, Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo since 2009, former Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union (representing all 55 African nation), member of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, and author of over 200 articles on Jewish history, genocide, and international relations in outlets like The Times of Israel, I am launching a seven-part series, “Bridges of Liberation: Jewish & African Paths to Freedom,” to counter Mamdani’s racist narrative and illuminate the profound connections between Zionism and Pan-Africanism.

The incident unfolded during a Nefesh B’Nefesh open house, a nonprofit event facilitating aliyah (immigration) for North American Jews to their ancestral homeland. Protesters from the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation shouted “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada,” “Resistance you make us proud, take another settler out,” “death to the IDF,” and derogatory insults like “f—king Jewish pricks,” while threatening to “make them scared”—repeated three times by a mob leader who stated, “It is our duty to make them think twice before holding these events.” This targeted a sacred synagogue space, drawing widespread condemnation from Jewish leaders as antisemitic incitement. Rabbi Marc Schneier criticized the police for allowing protesters directly in front, putting the community at risk; Comptroller-elect Mark Levine called it “reprehensible” and unacceptable for any house of worship; JCRC-NY CEO Mark Treyger labeled it a “direct threat” to Jewish safety; and UJA-Federation decried the chants as “incitements to violence against Jewish people.” Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams warned it augurs a “grim future” under Mamdani, equating it to attacks on any faith community.

Mamdani’s response, issued through press secretary Dora Pekec on November 20, 2025, was telling in its omissions. While “discourag[ing] the language used at last night’s protest,” he pivoted to attack the event itself: “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” This implies that encouraging Jewish return to Israel—rooted in indigenous rights and international mandates like the 1950 Law of Return—equates to illegality, possibly alluding to West Bank settlements despite the event’s general focus on aliyah. Notably absent: any acknowledgment of the antisemitism fueling the protest. As Former Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs to the African Union, I recognize Mamdani’s stance not merely as political disagreement, but as a deliberate effort to delegitimize the indigenous right of return for any scattered people—a position that is inherently anti-Black and anti-African because it targets the very restitution model that empowers Ghana, Benin, and Togo.

While Mamdani champions the rights of other oppressed castes and minorities in New York, his denunciation of the Jewish Law of Return is a profound, racist betrayal of liberation principles. His selective outrage proves that his ideology is not based on universal justice, but on a single, specific hate campaign against the Jewish people. This is the hallmark of the collaborator’s pathology that Jewish history warns against: a small group seeking acceptance by attacking their own, only to be discarded when they are no longer useful to the movement that truly seeks destruction.

Mamdani’s words are not just antisemitic; they are anti-Black, dismissing the very model of repatriation that empowers African diaspora communities through programs in Ghana, Benin, and beyond. By vilifying Jewish ingathering as unlawful, he undermines parallel African “Rights of Return” that heal slavery’s wounds and build economic affinity. This racism fractures the alliance against colonialism and jihadism, threats that endanger both Jewish and Black African lives.

This series builds on my previous writings, such as “BALM: Black African Lives Matter”, “BLM Really?”, and “Do Christian Black Lives Matter in Africa?”, which expose selective outrage ignoring jihadist atrocities in Africa while targeting Israel. It also draws from my Substack article “Zionism Is Pan-Africanism”, asserting that both are “the same fire burning in two different hearths” for indigenous peoples reclaiming ancestral lands. Over the coming weeks, “Bridges of Liberation” will provide in-depth explanations of Jewish-African solidarity, proving Zionism is Pan-Africanism. Here are the seven articles in the series (URLs will be provided in subsequent articles; I will also post the articles on my Substack after they have been published in The Times of Israel, where you can subscribe for free at https://grantgochin.substack.com:

We Want You Back

Jewish Contributions to Anti-Slavery

Exodus in African & Jewish Liberation

Jewish Support for African Independence

Debunking Myths of Jewish Slave Trade Role

Shared Scars: Jewish Diaspora & Slave Trade

Jewish Philanthropy in African Development

Together, these articles will dismantle Mamdani’s divisive rhetoric, affirming that our enemies—colonialism, racism, and jihadism—are the same, and our future must be one of unbreakable freedom.