In NYC, Election Day arrives with all eyes on Jewish voters

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❗ It’s Election Day in New York City

• Many New Yorkers are thinking far beyond the five boroughs as they cast their votes in an election some see as a referendum on the Middle East.

• Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers — two populations of about the same size, both nearing 1 million — are being closely watched today, as views on Israel, Palestine, antisemitism and Islamophobia mobilize voters with intense enthusiasm.

• Polls show Cuomo, a proud defender of Israel, leading with Jewish voters. And Mamdani’s longtime pro-Palestinian activism tapped into a movement of New Yorkers galvanized by the Gaza war, pollsters say.

• “There’s a large swath of New Yorkers, particularly those that were showing up at these protests, who in 2025 were looking for something to latch on to, some sort of organized effort,” Democratic pollster Adam Carlson told The New York Times. “There’s a lot of natural overlap between those groups, and I think that just fueled momentum.”

• Some anti-Zionist Jews, like members of the increasingly influential group Jewish Voice for Peace, strengthened Mamdani’s rise as he won the primary and held onto a strong lead in general election for months. But many others say they are worried about Mamdani’s views on Israel setting the stage for a “political normalization” of anti-Zionism that can bleed into antisemitism.

• Polls are open until 9 p.m. today, and election officials say results could come within an hour of that time. Find your polling site here.

💭 A Mamdani Israel policy?

• If Mamdani is elected mayor, how could he actually take action on his pro-Palestinian advocacy?

• We dug into Mamdani’s greatest push for a new Israel policy in the state Assembly, where he proposed the bill “Not On Our Dime” to target donations to Israeli settlements. The legislation, which never advanced, faced a backlash from lawmakers in both parties, including Jewish Democrats.

• Shortly after winning his Assembly seat in 2020, Mamdani also called for a boycott of Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island, a campus of Cornell University that partners with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, because of the Israeli university’s ties to the military. His comment on the “Talking Palestine” podcast with Sumaya Awad resurfaced during the primary and again this week after a spokeswoman told The New York Times that, if elected, he would assess the Cornell partnership.

• Mamdani has said he does not intend to invest city funds in Israel bonds as mayor, in keeping with current Comptroller Brad Lander’s decision in 2023. But we also found that two of New York City’s five public pension funds could be vulnerable to a mayor-backed divestment push.

• Mamdani would be able to stack the boards of these two pension funds to put divestment from Israel on the table, and his supporters are pushing for that move.

• He will also face pressure from the Democratic Socialists of America, which counts him as a member, to implement boycott, divestment and sanction moves against Israel.

• On Sunday, the party’s “NYC Palestine Policy Committee” held a meeting to “iron out policies that the anti-war working group membership would like to see implemented at the municipal level,” according to a schedule on the D.S.A. website.

📞 Corbyn hosts Mamdani phone bank

• Former U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was booted from his party amid an antisemitism scandal, hosted a phone bank for Mamdani on Sunday evening.

• The event was co-led with the New York City D.S.A. chapter and paid for by Mamdani’s campaign, according to a post shared on X by Corbyn.

• During the Zoom call, Corbyn said that Mamdani “will ensure that the world doesn’t pass by on the other side while the terrible genocide goes on in Gaza, which has been so terrible for the Palestinian people,” according to the Forward.

• We covered the accusations against Corbyn, including a 2020 government watchdog report that said his leadership was responsible for “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” against Jews.

• Cuomo pounced on the alliance. “Having Jeremy Corbyn – someone whose party was found to have committed unlawful acts of discrimination against Jewish people under his leadership – phone-banking for @ZohranKMamdani says everything you need to know,” he said on X.

🏆 Trump and Musk endorse Cuomo

• Cuomo got an official endorsement last night from President Trump, who has frequently opined on the race and insulted all of the candidates.

• “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

• Trump also warned voters away from Republican nominee Sliwa, who is polling third. “A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” he said, referencing the red hat that Sliwa wears as the founder of the Guardian Angels.

• Cuomo is balancing his outreach to Republican voters with criticism of the president, who is deeply unpopular in New York City. “The president is right. A vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani, and that’s why this election is now up to the Republicans,” he said in response to Trump’s post on 77 WABC.

• Mamdani, who has repeatedly linked Cuomo to Trump, pounced on the endorsement. “The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him,” he said in Astoria, according to Politico.

• Elon Musk also urged New Yorkers to vote for Cuomo, and to “bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is.”

🚨 Last call for Jewish voters

• Sliwa promised to protect Jews at the Society for Advancement of Judaism last night. “I’m standing outside of a synagogue on the Upper West Side tonight, as I’ve stood for many many years outside of synagogues, protecting Jews as they worship during their High Holidays all over this city,” he said on Instagram, referencing again his role in defending Jews during the 1991 Crown Heights riots.

• In a pointed gesture of solidarity with Jews, Cuomo posted his condolences for the family of Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American Long Island native whose body was returned by Hamas to Israel on Sunday.

• Dov Hikind, an Orthodox Jewish politician and former top surrogate of Sliwa’s who recently switched to Cuomo’s side, said in a Yiddish video that Jews would no longer be able to live in New York if Mamdani is elected.

💰 Following the money

• Super PACS spent more than $29 million in the general election through Sunday. By today, that figure will likely surpass the $30.1 million spent ahead of the primary.

• Cuomo has the most money behind him. He received about $10 million in support, with another $13.6 million spent on negative ads against Mamdani, reported Politico.