New York Jewish Week — New York’s primary elections are on Tuesday, and there’s no shortage of races that Jewish Americans should be keeping an eye on.

In New York City, a number of congressional seats are up for grabs — including the most Jewish district in the country, NY-12. Plus, will it be a rabbi or a Jewish lawyer who wins a state Assembly race on the Upper West Side?

Meanwhile, as a pair of pro-Israel congressmen take on Zohran Mamdani-backed progressives who are vocally pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel, Tuesday’s results will provide the latest reflection of where Democratic voters fall on the issue.

Outside the city, a Democratic primary will decide who challenges pro-Israel Republican congressman Mike Lawler for the NY-17 swing seat in November.

NY-12: The crown jewel

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a progressive stalwart and Congress’ most senior Jewish member, announced last fall that he would retire at the end of this term, leaving an open seat in the crown jewel district of New York politics: NY-12, which covers the Upper West and Upper East Sides, as well as midtown Manhattan. It is the most heavily Jewish district in the country, and a deep-blue district whose Democratic nominee is sure to succeed Nadler in Congress.

Four candidates (with double-digit polling numbers) are left standing: Micah Lasher, Alex Bores, Jack Schlossberg and George Conway.

Lasher and Bores, both members of the State Assembly, are leading in the polls, and are seen in many ways as very similar candidates, including in their pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu stances. They’ve also both supported much of the same state-level legislation aimed at combating antisemitism.

Lasher, however, has the support of his former boss, Nadler, and much of the West Side political establishment. Bores, meanwhile, has built a coalition that includes both pro-Israel moderates and progressive groups critical of the Jewish state.

NY-10: Jewish incumbent vs. Jewish challenger

Many wondered what would become of former city comptroller Brad Lander after he reportedly stumped for Zohran Mamdani in hopes of a role in his administration that he didn’t receive.

Now Lander, who was Mamdani’s most prominent Jewish ally, has the mayor’s full-throated support in his run to supplant incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in NY-10, which includes Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn, for which Lander was a three-term City Council member.

Lander has homed in on Goldman’s endorsement from American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group that’s become anathema for progressives. (Goldman’s AIPAC endorsement has also been a sticking point for a number of his progressive critics.) Goldman, in turn, has emphasized that he’s endorsed by both AIPAC and the progressive J Street — two ideologically dissimilar pro-Israel groups — as evidence that he comes by his views independently.

The two candidates have made similar commitments to issues like fighting the Trump administration and ICE, but Lander has separated himself on the issue of Israel.

While Goldman has resisted growing calls for Democratic politicians to support conditioning military aid to Israel, Lander says Israel has committed a genocide and opposes aid to Israel for both offensive weapons and the Iron Dome defensive missile........

© The Times of Israel