Why I am voting for Alex Bores
Although Alex Bores endorsed Zohran Mamdani in last year’s New York City mayoral election, so did Micah Lasher and Jack Schlossberg, the other leading contenders for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 12th Congressional District. And it is important to note that Bores has publicly differed with Mamdani on numerous Israel-related issues.
Most specifically, Bores publicly refers to himself as a Zionist, is an outspoken supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “that guarantees a secure, democratic Israel alongside a sovereign, independent Palestinian state,” and has emphasized that “we need to make it acceptable for there to be people in progressive spaces that still believe in the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself.”
Bores was among the thousands who marched in the May 19 Salute to Israel Parade. At the same time, he was sharply critical of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s presence at that event. “It’s alarming that Bezalel Smotrich, an extremist with a long history of racist, Islamophobic, and homophobic beliefs—and even comments denigrating Reform Jews—came to this parade,” Bores wrote on X.
In so doing, Bores expressed the sentiments of many of us who balance our unwavering support for Israel and its legitimacy with our condemnation of many of the policies of the Netanyahu government that are epitomized by the likes of Smotrich and the equally unsavory National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
As a member of the New York State Assembly, Bores has supported providing state funding for social services for Holocaust survivors living in poverty and advocated for Holocaust educational programs for public school students.
In conversations with him, I have been impressed by his unequivocal commitment to fighting against all manifestations of antisemitism and other forms of bigotry as well as by what I believe to be his fundamental decency.
For all these reasons, and more, I will be voting for Alex Bores in the Democratic primary.