menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Jewish leaders issue fresh warnings about Mamdani in closing weeks of campaign

34 41
yesterday

NEW YORK — Jewish religious leaders and communal groups issued warnings about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani this week in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Mamdani is a state assemblyman representing part of Queens, a far-left, harsh critic of Israel, and, as the Democratic Party candidate, the heavy favorite to win the November 4 mayoral race.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Upper East Side’s Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue said Mamdani “poses a danger to the security of the New York Jewish community” in a Shabbat sermon.

Cosgrove cited Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan, “Globalize the intifada,” his refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, his vows to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his repeated accusations of genocide against Israel. Mamdani initially welcomed the intifada slogan, and later said he would discourage its use.

“Zionism, Israel, Jewish self-determination, these are not political preferences or partisan talking points,” said Cosgrove, a prominent leader in the Conservative movement. “We feel our connection to Israel and its people. It is the invisible string that has tugged at our hearts since the very beginnings of our people.”

The rabbi added that “Mamdani’s distinction between accepting Jews and denying a Jewish state is not merely a rhetorical sleight of hand or political naivete. His doing so is to traffic in the most dangerous of tropes and anti-Zionist rhetoric that, as we have seen time and again, in

© The Times of Israel