The appalling smearing of Zohran Mamdani as 'anti-semitic'

I’ve gotta be honest: I didn’t really want to write this. In the last few weeks leading up to this Tuesday’s mayoral primary in New York City, I’ve tried to focus on the positives and hoped the trash would take itself out. But no such luck.

This final push towards primary day has seen a concerted effort to smear Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani—one of the frontrunners—as a big, scary, brown-skinned Israel hater who is going to terrorize this city’s large Jewish population. I’ve lived through (and written through) three Trump presidential campaigns and few other fabricated narratives have sickened me more. 

Mamdani, 33, was born in Uganda to Indian parents and moved here when he was seven. He is Muslim and a Democratic Socialist. He believes that everyone should have nice things instead of just the 10 billionaires supporting disgraced former Governor Cuomo. Mamdani also believes that Israel should exist with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. These are all facts that are apparently enough to drive people to mania. 

At the first mayoral debate, the candidates were asked where they’d take their first foreign trip as mayor. “I would visit the Holy Land,” Adrienne Adams enthusiastically replied. Cuomo, too, said Israel would be his first stop. Then Mamdani was specifically asked by the moderators—for reasons that went unstated but were obvious—if he’d ever visit Israel should he be elected mayor. “One need not travel to Israel to remain steadfast in their support for Jewish New Yorkers,” he said. As a Jewish New Yorker, I thought, “Yes, that’s true.”

My Judaism is not defined by Israel. And for the past 20+ months (and even well before then) there’s been immense pressure on Jews by fellow Jews and non-Jews alike to shape our worldview based on a country in which we do not live. And now there’s immense pressure on Jews in New York City specifically to define candidates for mayor through the lens of a country in which they will have no political power. 

“Is it true that Mamdani is antisemitic?” is a text I’ve received multiple times, and I think it boils down to the same problem that has pervaded nearly every conversation since October 7th: conflating antisemitism and anit-zionism. 

I also think the charges of antisemitism against Mamdani are just pretty plain and simple symptoms of Islamophobia. In a city that bore the brunt of the death and destruction on 9/11, Islamophobia ran deep—especially with Rudy Giuliani at the helm. The city wouldn’t allow a planned Muslim community center to be built in lower Manhattan because the negative associations were so strong. It’s nice to think we’ve progressed since then, but because of the city’s past, coupled with increased Islamophobia since October 7th, the project of painting the New York’s would-be first Muslim mayor as antisemitic was as easy as color by numbers. 

But there’s a reason so many progressive Jews are rallying around Mamdani: His vision for the city is better for everyone besides billionaires. And that includes Jews. He wants to freeze rent prices! He wants free and effective buses! He wants to protect immigrants from ICE and Trump in general! He wants no-cost childcare! He wants to tax the 1% who don’t even live here most of the time so that we can pay for all this shit! It’s all very, very good! He’s cross-endorsed by Comptroller Brad Lander who is a proud Jew! This is all entirely consistent with my values as a Jewish person, and I did not have a moment of pause when I filled in the #1 rank bubble for him today. 

Andrew Cuomo, on the other hand, wants to maintain the status quo in every single capacity. He hasn’t lived here for 30 years. He was forced to resign as Governor for multiple instances of sexual impropriety. He tried to conceal the number of senior citizen deaths at nursing homes during Covid. Billionaires are pouring last minute millions into his campaign because they know he won’t change a thing about their cushy lives. And as far as his attitudes towards Jews? When he was running for Attorney General of New York in 2006, he bitched about having to attend an event for the holiday Sukkot. “These people and their fucking tree houses,” he reportedly said. But at least he’s “good on Israel,” whatever that even means anymore. 

I went back and forth over whether I should write this, but a post on X on Friday from Elisha Wiesel, the son of Holocaust survivor and prolific author Elie Wiesel, sent me over the edge. The hedge fund manager posted a video of himself set to scary music imploring friends to “have the difficult conversation with friends saying they'll rank Mamdani on their list.” His evidence of Mamdani’s antisemitism is that in college he helped found his school’s chapter of Students for Justice for Palestine, and current chapters have expressed views towards Israel he doesn’t like.

“Hatred described as progress is no less dangerous,” Wiesel says amid images of concentration camps and Adolph Hitler himself. It is no exaggeration to say that it’s one of the most disgusting pieces of political propaganda and fearmongering I’ve ever seen. 

There’s a chance you already voted. There’s a chance your mind is already made up. But if you haven’t voted and are still open to changing your mind, my one specific plea is to not allow baseless attacks on a good man by people with vested interests in keeping him out of power to influence your vote. 

Early voting continues Saturday and Sunday. Primary day is Tuesday. You can find your polling place here and check out my voter guide if you’re unsure of how to rank the candidates. And whatever you do, don’t rank Cuomo.