Mayor Zohran Mamdani is receiving more negative than positive reviews by Jewish voters in New York City, according to a poll released Sunday by a group that aims to demonstrate that Mamdani’s anti-Israel views are not widely held among Jews.
The poll, commissioned by The Jewish Majority, also found that 82% of Jewish voters — including two-thirds of those who voted for Mamdani — were concerned about the “rise of antisemitism in New York City.” More than half of them — 58% — said they believed the rise “was linked to the “normalization of anti-Zionism.”
The survey comes months after The Jewish Majority, an advocacy group led by AIPAC veteran Jonathan Schulman, circulated a letter signed by over 1,100 rabbis and cantors calling out the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism among figures like Mamdani.
The poll, conducted by Mercury Public Affairs, surveyed 665 Jewish New York City voters from Feb. 17 to 28. It found that opinions of Mamdani’s performance as mayor among Jews were split, with 32% saying he was doing an “excellent” or “good” job, while 18% rated his performance as “only fair” and 40% said he was doing a “poor” job.
Exit polling during the November election found that about a third of Jewish New Yorkers voted for Mamdani. The Jewish Majority poll found that 26% voted for him.
A recent poll found that 48% of New Yorkers overall approved of the mayor’s performance in his first 100 days, with 30% disapproving.
The Jewish Majority survey appeared to suggest that half of Jews rated Mamdani’s performance at least as “fair.” But Schulman, the executive director, noted that it had been conducted prior to the mayor’s veto of a “buffer zone” bill that would have insulated educational facilities from protests, a decision that drew criticism from many Jewish groups.
A different City Council bill creating buffer zones around houses of worship passed with a veto-proof supermajority.
The poll found that 84% of respondents supported “new legislation to establish a safe perimeter” around houses of worship, while 7% opposed. It did not ask about the schools buffer zone legislation.
“When you look at these fundamental questions of Jewish safety and Mamdani not being in sync with the Jewish community, I think there is a question of where those approval ratings would sit today,” Schulman said.
The poll also asked Jewish voters about their sentiments on issues related to Israel and Zionism. Two-thirds of respondents said they agreed with the statement that “opposing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state undermines Jewish identity,” while 22% said that they disagreed. Among Mamdani’s Jewish voters, 84% said they would support a two-state solution if it would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When asked whether Mamdani’s previous refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” had “emboldened pro-Hamas protesters,” 61% of respondents said they agreed while 19% said they disagreed. An additional 14% said they were unsure.
Asked whether they believed that “Jews who support movements that seek to delegitimize or dismantle Israel are acting in the best interests of the Jewish community,” 14% said yes and 14% said they were unsure, while 58% said no. The poll had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.
For Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue who told his congregants in October that Mamdani’s rhetoric served to “encourage and exacerbate hostility towards Judaism and Jews,” the poll demonstrated that the majority of Jews remain outside the anti-Zionist politics embraced by the mayor.
“I think it’s important for clarification,” Hirsch, who also signed onto the rabbinic letter opposing Mamdani’s candidacy, said. “Is it going to change Mayor Mamdani’s mind? I don’t know. I tend to doubt it, but it’s just another important piece of information for shedding light on the reality in the Jewish community, and how out of the mainstream the mayor’s positions are when it comes to Israel and issues that are at the center of the American Jewish community.”
Mamdani has criticized antisemitic incidents since taking office and appointed as the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism the leader of a liberal Zionist Jewish political advocacy group in the city.
“Since taking office, Mayor Mamdani has made it a priority to consistently show up for and build relationships across New York City’s Jewish communities — listening to a diverse array of Jewish voices, celebrating holidays, and engaging with the full richness of Jewish life across neighborhoods and traditions,” Phylisa Wisdom, his appointee, said in a statement responding to the poll.
“He also shares the concerns many Jewish New Yorkers have about the rise of antisemitism,” she added. “That is why every day, we are working to protect and support Jewish New Yorkers— including developing the nation’s first municipal-level plan to combat antisemitism.”
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