After New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a video last week calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, several Jewish leaders responded by accusing him of fueling antisemitism and making Jewish New Yorkers less safe. Those accusations intensified after the brutal stabbing of a Jewish man outside a Manhattan synagogue.

Those responses, however heartfelt, continued a path of confrontation with Mayor Mamdani that had begun long before he took office. If we are to combat antisemitism effectively—and build the alliances necessary to counter every other form of hatred—we need to choose a different path.

Here is a letter from Jewish leaders that might have taken us in a better direction.

Even before you were elected last November, many in our community were so concerned about your positions on Israel and Palestine that they publicly urged Jewish New Yorkers not to vote for you. It was not an auspicious beginning.

After your election, some continued to sound the alarm, announcing their intention to monitor your policies and actions even before your administration had taken shape.

Many Jewish communal leaders chose a path of confrontation rather than engagement. However understandable that choice may have been, there were, and are, better ways to begin a working relationship with the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world.

The events of last week make it clear that we need to reset that relationship. Your video calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest Netanyahu for war crimes and the brutal stabbings of an Asian man and a Jewish man that followed have heightened an already tense situation that cannot be resolved through confrontation alone. We need to sit at a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)