NYC Muslim Mayor Blues

New York City is where the cultural coordinates for the phrase “New York Jew” originated and where the people fitting that description can still be found. Outside of Israel, it is the most Jewish city in the world. The five boroughs introduced seltzer, bagels, deli and Middle East cuisine—even the clandestinely Jewish sitcom “Seinfeld”—to the American masses.

Despite all that ethnic gravitas, however, there’s a good chance that come November, New York City will be governed by an antisemitic mayor.

That’s right, if the Democratic Party retains its time-honored hold on the city electorate, the next Hizzoner will be an avowed Jew-hater.

The woefully inexperienced Zohran Mamdani’s triumphant march to Gracie Mansion would also result in the first Muslim leading a major American city. (Is a neo-Marxist even allowed to live in a mansion?)

Diversity imperatives of the Democratic Party aside, everything about Mamdani is wrong: too young, slavish woke convictions, casualness about crime, antagonism toward the NYPD, hostility to big business, utterly naive understanding of municipal finances, a manifestly socialist agenda forced upon a capitalist colossus, an open disdain for whiteness and an actual get-out-of-jail-free card for all minorities—except Jews.

If he wins, Mamdani will be anointed the male version of AOC—she, the erstwhile Millennial bartender and Squad leader; he, a failed rapper who found his voice as the darling of the pro-Hamas, pro-Ayatollah, anti-American, anti-Western and, of course, antisemitic in-crowd.

AOC and Mamdani may soon become the Ruth and Gehrig of the Democratic Party. This Murderer’s Row, however, would end up killing Manhattan. Expect to see an exodus of thousands of wealthy New Yorkers who for nearly a half century expanded the city’s tax base and restored the squalid SoHo, Tribeca and Times Square, and developed Battery City, The High Line and Hudson Yards.

AOC and Mamdani may soon become the Ruth and Gehrig of the Democratic Party. This Murderer’s Row, however, would end up killing Manhattan.

Occupy Wall Street will finally have been given the key to the city. Racism and Islamophobia will be charged against anyone who stands in their way. Such calling cards are powerful trump cards, even against Trump.

The 1960s was known for its agonizing “white flight” from New York City. People left after far too many electricity blackouts and race riots, rising crime that turned subways and Central Park into deathtraps, striking teachers and sanitation workers—all of which nearly bankrupted the city. Get ready for an even more consequential stampede—possibly unrecoverable, this time.

Jews were among those who abandoned the city in those days—although not because they were unwelcome or singularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence. But today, the movement that Mamdani represents is openly hostile to Jews.

Those keffiyeh-masked hordes who intimidated Jewish students and took to city streets calling for New York’s very own intifada, will now feel even more emboldened knowing that their mayor participated in and endorsed such spectacles—without ever hiding behind a mask!

Those keffiyeh-masked hordes who intimidated Jewish students and took to city streets calling for New York’s very own intifada, will now feel even more emboldened knowing that their mayor participated in and endorsed such spectacles—without ever hiding behind a mask!

How bad is Mamdani’s resume for Jewish New Yorkers and those who care about Israel?

While in college at Bowdoin, he co-founded the chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. He has long accused Israel of apartheid and genocide. He has declined to condemn the slogan “Globalize the Intifada!” insisting that it has multiple meanings.

I wonder which one he favors.

He’s the first mayoral candidate pledging to boycott Israel. As mayor, he will never visit the Jewish state—largely because he does not recognize it as a lawful nation. When he was an assemblyman, he declined to co-sponsor Holocaust Remembrance Day resolutions.

Mamdani promises to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested when he attends the United Nations General Assembly. Such are the wishes of the International Criminal Court, a body that has no jurisdiction over Israel or the United States, but Mamdani will oblige them anyway.

So far in 2025, antisemitism in the city that Mamdani would lead is up 18 percent, and well over 200 percent since the start of the October 7 Gaza War. His solution: send in “violence interrupters” to assist Jews. Let the actual police protect everyone else.

Mamdani is unlikely to change his mind about Israel. His father teaches the evils of “settler colonialism” at Columbia University, serves as advisor to pro-Hamas students, and has compared Israel to the Nazis. His son vowed that as mayor he would not send the NYPD to break up future anti-Israel encampments.

Should he win, Mamdani’s effect on Jewish life in New York City would be incalculable. Jews arrived at Ellis Island like so many of the “huddled masses yearning to be free,” words written on the base of the Statute of Liberty and penned by a female Jewish poet. Generations later, all that earnest yearning resulted in unimaginable social mobility for Jews—arguably the most triumphant of all immigrant success stories in America.

Still breathing free, of course, but Jews should not expect to breathe as comfortably in a Mamdani administration.

Admittedly, his emergence reflects the chaotic times in which we live, with its extreme breakdown in social cohesion and the rule of law.

After all, Americans who identify with Mamdani are actually rooting against their own country—waving Iranian flags, cheering on Hamas, wrapping keffiyehs around a statue of George Washington. It is the most extraordinary display of national self-hatred America has ever known.

After Hamas launched its surprise attack, life in the Big Apple, especially for Jews, began to rot. How far has New York City already strayed from its Jewish-American moorings? One of its most iconic mayors, Fiorello La Guardia, had a Jewish mother and was fluent in Yiddish. Mayors Abe Beam, Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg added Jewish seasoning of their own. When civil rights activist and presidential aspirant Jesse Jackson derisively referred to New York City as “Hymietown” in 1984, he was roundly condemned—everywhere!

The same word out of Mamdani’s mouth will earn him a Nobel Peace Prize.

We saw this coming but were too afraid to acknowledge the evolving mission creep of Jew-hatred. During the 2012 Democratic Convention, there was a floor fight to remove language in its platform proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Jewish women who co-founded the Women’s March in 2016 were benched when they were informed that “Jews financed the slave trade.” Black Lives Matter took an equal interest in spreading the message that Jewish lives don’t matter. Hillels on college campuses have been denied entry in progressive circles unless they denounce Israel.

Those holding signs reading “Jews for Mamdani” and “Queers for Palestine” should enter into a same-moron marriage.

Meanwhile, Jewish Democrats continue their insufferable plight as political masochists. Unable or unwilling to discern friend from foe. Hopelessly devoted to a party that demonstrates, time and again, how much it despises Jews and Israel. It’s starting to resemble an abusive relationship, devoid of self-respect, like showing up to a party, uninvited.

That winning slogan of the 1970s, “I Love New York,” adopted to revive the city’s fortunes, won’t be chanted by Mamdani’s minions. Such affections are no longer felt—especially not for Jews.