No, supporting Mamdani isn’t the Jewish thing to do
There is something rather grotesque in watching a group of New York City rabbis twist and contort the oldest imperatives of Judaism for their own political vanity in their support for Zohran Mamdani. These rabbis, who mistake politics for principle, claim to be upholding Judaism’s lengthy legacy of justice in their embrace of a politician who has spent a rather brief but highly visible career demonising the Jewish state and cosying up to those who repeatedly spout antisemitism.
The rabbis behind this endorsement – Rabbi Andy Kahn, Rabbi Abby Stein, Rabbi Barat Ellman, Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener, Rachel Goldenberg and Rabbi Miriam Grossman – frame their backing of Mamdani and ‘mensch co-endorser Brad Lander’ by invoking the tropes of garment workers, civil rights activism and the like, as if this lineage automatically validates their politics. Invoking history, though, is vastly different to learning from it.
Their argument boils down to the idea that since Jews have historically stood for righteousness and fairness, then supporting Mamdani is a natural extension of that tradition.
The issue is that Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly aligned himself with pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel ‘activists’ whose actions and words often go beyond whatever shred of ‘activism’ they are able to dig up to hide the majority of their antisemitic fear-mongering. Mamdani has consistently refused to clearly disavow the phrase ‘globalise the intifada,’ choosing instead to brush it aside with academic detachment as if it were a mere case of misunderstood semantics.
Except it isn’t. The First Intifada, from 1987-1993, left 200 Israelis dead. The Second Intifada, which lasted five years from 2000-2005, left 1,000 Israelis dead, a considerable amount of which died by suicide bombings.
The rabbis behind this endorsement, mentioned in the second paragraph, wrote a piece in the Blogs earlier this week titled, We are NYC rabbis who support Zohran Mamdani – Here’s why. In it, they used a paragraph to minimise concerns about Mandani’s positions on Israel and Israeli actions as little more than attempts to silence Muslim voices. It is, after all, an easy accusation to make: Jewish-Muslim relations have certainly been strained in the wake of the Israeli response to October 7, 2023. Jews, though, have every reason to be wary of politicians who downplay calls for violence against them specifically. The word ‘Intifada’ may simply mean ‘struggle,’ but since when has a word ever been restricted to only one meaning, only one set of connotations?
These rabbis argue that fighting antisemitism is less about confronting antisemitism and standing up for Israel, and more concerned with investing in bus lanes, rent caps, and coalition building. Antisemitism, they assume, can be solved indirectly rather than head-on.
Their piece ultimately demands Jews to accept a trade-off: overlook the graffiti, the violence against synagogues, the antisemitism that makes them feel unsafe in their homes and shuls, all in exchange for a seat at the progressive table. All in the name of Judaism.
Judaism, contrary to their belief, does not require – nor does it even ask – Jews to ignore antisemitism in the name of politics. The rabbis in this letter have lost sight of that. They have mistaken politics for principle, and in doing so have left their own community behind.
