Zohran Mamdani says the ADL does not represent Jewish New Yorkers

This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 36 days to the election.

👋 Adams is out — but who will get his votes?

• Mayor Eric Adams quit his reelection bid on Sunday, ending an unpopular, scandal-ridden administration and a longshot campaign to hold onto Grace Mansion.

• Adams was consistently polling fourth, behind Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. But Jews made up an important part of his base. According to a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month, of the 12% of voters who favored Adams, 42% said they were Jewish.

• Adams did not endorse another candidate but took an implicit shot at Mamdani, saying, “Beware of those who claim the answer is to destroy the very system we built together over generations.”

• It remains to be seen where Adams supporters will end up. Cuomo, who hopes they will help him beat Mamdani, praised Adams’ decision on X. “I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition,” said Cuomo. “We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them.”

• Sliwa, who could also win some Adams voters, insisted he would not end his bid and blasted his remaining rivals. “Cuomo made our city unsafe, victimized New Yorkers, and resigned in disgrace. He’s dangerous. Mamdani is proudly anti-police, during a public safety crisis,” he said on X, adding, “I’m the only candidate who will make this city safe.”

• Mamdani gave a cutting obituary to Adams’ administration, saying he made the city “nearly impossible” to live in. He also slammed his opponents over reports that President Trump weighed an appointment for Adams, potentially as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, to tempt him out of the race and tip its outcome in Cuomo’s favor.

• Adams exits as a staunch Israel supporter during a time when public opinion of Israel has soured in New York City. Days before leaving the race, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and watched him address the U.N. General Assembly.

🥊 Mamdani torches Adams for Netanyahu meeting

• After Adams met Netanyahu and thanked him for “defending the western world,” Mamdani responded with fiery remarks on Friday.

• “I can’t even begin to explain the offense that that brings to New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” said Mamdani. “How can we describe the killing of a child once an hour every hour for close to two years as a defense of our way of life? That is not a way of life that any of us practice in this city.”

• Asked to speak about the Israeli hostages in Gaza, Mamdani quoted hostage families who he said have asked Netanyahu to agree to a prisoner exchange with Hamas. “My politics is built on a universality, and I can think of no better illustration of that than from the words of the hostage families themselves: ‘Everyone for everyone,’” he said.

🎙 Mamdani says ADL’s Greenblatt does not represent Jews

• Mamdani said Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, does not speak for Jewish New Yorkers in an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan.

• Greenblatt has repeatedly criticized Mamdani for his positions on Israel, as the ADL has drawn an increasingly hard line against anti-Zionism.

• “I think there are far better representations of the concerns of Jewish New Yorkers than the ADL and Jonathan Greenblatt,” said Mamdani, adding that he would not seek a meeting with Greenblatt.

• As a counter to Greenblatt, Mamdani described a woman he met at the progressive Kolot Chayeinu synagogue in Brooklyn on Rosh Hashanah. She gave him stickers of bagels and lox that said, “Reject the smear campaign — join the schmear campaign.”

• Mamdani has expanded his outreach to Jewish political and communal leaders since the primary, seeking to convince them that his criticism of Israel won’t prevent him from protecting Jews against rising antisemitism.

• He also addressed his pledge to arrest Netanyahu, a move that some experts say falls outside his legal purview. Mamdani downplayed the logistics of the arrest, emphasizing more broadly his desire to bring New York City in line with international law. “To be clear, I’m going to operate within the bounds of the law,” he said. “I’m not Donald Trump seeking to create my own legal system as I make my own decisions.”

💰 Following the money

• Wealthy New Yorkers are banding together through several super PACs to fight Mamdani’s likely victory, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads and canvassing, according to The New York Times.

• Fix the City, the largest anti-Mamdani PAC, received $50,000 this month from Jewish philanthropist Deborah Simon, daughter of the billionaire shopping mall magnate Melvin Simon. She is a major donor to Democrats as well as Jewish causes, including the ADL and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Other recent Jewish donors to Fix the City include Ronald Lauder, who gave $750,000.