Zohran Mamdani scares me, and maybe that’s the point

It seems like everyone was talking about Zohran Mamdani.

At lunch, my Israeli colleagues mentioned him between bites of schnitzel. Friends in New York called me saying they were going to make aliyah or move to Florida if he won. He’s been on Fox News, CNN, SNL, and even Eretz Nehederet, with an amazing impression by Omri Anghel.

During a coffee break a few days ago, an Israeli colleague asked, Nu, you’re from New York what do you think of him?

Simply, I get it.

I grew up in Jewish middle-class New York. My parents did what they were supposed to do — get educated, have kids, live in the nice Jewish community. But I still watched the 2008 recession eat through their savings. A crisis they never truly recovered from.

I was in college when Bernie Sanders burst onto the scene. I fell for it. I knew that I would have to work twice as hard to get anywhere close to where my parents were. A reality that has only gotten worse.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a more extreme version emerged: Zohran Mamdani.

Whatever you think about him (or his stance on Israel), one thing is clear: the system continues to be broken.

There is barely a path for low- and middle-income workers to get ahead anymore. A good job not only no longer provides a good financial future but also no longer provides for your current financial needs.

With threats of tarriffs and AI, a good job for the middle class no longer means financial stability.

Five years ago, I moved to Israel and took a 60 percent pay cut from my American salary. It was a steep drop, but the joy of living and building my life in Israel was worth it. It did help that there’s a thriving tech community in Israel. Fast forward, salaries have stagnated or declined after the tech boom and a two-year war, while rent has gone up in Tel Aviv by 40-50%

In a tale of two cities, both America and Israel are built on forward motion: next year in Jerusalem, the American Dream.

What New Yorkers call the Grind, we call Chutzpah. Progress is a kind of civic currency.

But lately, progress feels like a bad investment. The collective story that “hard work pays off” is yielding negative returns for millions.

When we say someone “scares” us, we usually mean physical safety. But economic fear is quieter. It hides in late-night Excel tabs and unopened credit-card statements. It seeps into your quality of life, your sleep, your sense of self-worth.

Mamdani isn’t introducing this fear; he’s naming it for the masses.

That’s why Zohran Mamdani’s message travels. We’ve been living with the emotional cost of living in a system that keeps telling you you’re lucky while you quietly calculate your overdraft.

Now, we’re trying to do to Zohran what was done to Bernie 10 years ago. We laughed at his idealism, dismissed his followers, and waited for him to fade. Instead, the frustration only grew. Now it’s back in a more radical, emotionally charged form.

It’s tempting to fight fear with mockery. But as any good therapist would say, looking outward to blame rarely brings healing. It just delays the reckoning.

So yes, Mamdani scares me, likely for the same reason he scares the people who read these blogs. But I’m choosing to lead with curiosity. I hope you join me.

By the time you read this, New York will likely have a new mayor. So why write this now, instead of waiting for the results?

Because it doesn’t really matter who wins.

The truth is the same.
The math still doesn’t add up.
And pretending it does might be the most dangerous illusion of all.