Which hostage families was Zohran Mamdani quoting? Here’s what we learned.

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 35 days to the election.

👂 Unpacking Mamdani’s quote from hostage families

• We looked into Mamdani’s citation of hostage families in comments criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said on Friday, “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.’”

• Mamdani’s spokesperson Dora Pekec said he was citing Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod has been held hostage since Oct. 7, 2023. Cohen is the most vocally anti-Netanyahu of the remaining hostage families.

• Phylisa Wisdom of New York Jewish Agenda said Cohen, who has spent significant time in New York while lobbying for his son and the other Israeli hostages, is a Mamdani supporter. She said Mamdani had heard from hostage families in an event organized by her progressive organization.

• “NYJA hosted a briefing for elected officials in August 2024 with hostage family members, where they did indeed call for a ceasefire deal and exchange of hostages/prisoners. Zohran was one of about 30 elected officials who attended and heard this call directly from them,” she said. “It is also common to hear ‘all for all’ or “everyone for everyone’ at Israeli-led protests, including by Israelis for Peace here in the city.”

• But Mamdani’s citation of hostage families didn’t sit well with all of them. We asked Alana Zeitchik, a New Yorker who had six family members taken hostage on Oct. 7 and has two — David and Ariel Cunio — who remain in Gaza, what she thought about Mamdani’s comments. “Disingenuous and like we are being used as a political talking point not unlike the way his adversaries might use us,” she answered. Zeitchik is close to Brad Lander, Mamdani’s most prominent Jewish ally, and supported him in the primary.

⏳ Pressure mounts on Curtis Sliwa

• The anti-Mamdani forces of New York City are training their efforts on Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, the last obstacle to a two-way race between Cuomo and Mamdani.

• “You should follow Eric’s lead for the good of NYC,” Jewish billionaire Bill Ackman said to Sliwa on X.

• The Editorial Board of the New York Daily News implored Sliwa to drop out, calling him “the last holdout” of “guaranteed losers.”

• Even John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican donor and Sliwa’s longtime employer and friend, gently encouraged him to quit on Sunday. “I would say to Curtis, if he wants to run, to keep running another week, two weeks, three weeks,” Catsimatidis said on WABC radio. “But if he reaches a point that he feels that he’s not turning it around, then at some point he should do the right thing.”

• But Sliwa isn’t budging. “I can clearly say to John or anyone else, ‘I’m not dropping out under no circumstance, unless a Mack Truck would hit me and turn me into a speed bump,’” he told Politico.

🔎 Mamdani’s office hired woman who previously tore down hostage posters

• Frances Hamed, a Hunger College graduate and former Mamdani intern, was captured tearing down posters of Israeli hostages in Oct. 2023, according to Fox News. She was reportedly a constituent services intern for Mamdani from February to May 2025.

• Fox cited the Canary Mission, a controversial website that targets pro-Palestinian activists and has been used by the Trump administration to deport foreign students and academics.

🎤 Sliwa said what?

• A woman on the street told Sliwa that “the Jews are robbing people of their homes” in Brooklyn, according to Politico reporter Jeff Coltin. Coltin said Sliwa replied, “Deed theft.”

• When asked why he did not correct the woman’s remark, Sliwa said, “If I shut people down based on what they say you’d never hear the rest of the story.”