Click here for another perspective on how the Jewish community should relate to the mayor of New York.
The time has come for the Jewish community in New York City to stand up against Mayor Zohran Mamdani. We should not meet with him, invite him to our events or provide platforms that legitimize his views.
This is not a step taken lightly. It comes only after repeated efforts to engage Mr. Mamdani in good faith.
We have tried to explain why denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland is antisemitic. We have tried to explain why equivocating about the slogan “global intifada” — even as it inspires attacks against Jews worldwide — is morally reckless. We have tried to explain why falsely accusing Israel of genocide while showing virtually no concern for real genocides in Sudan, Nigeria and China reflects a selective moral outrage directed uniquely at the Jewish state. Those efforts have failed.
While some Jews have met with him, hoping to persuade him otherwise, Mr. Mamdani has consistently turned these dialogues into validation of his views. What makes his antisemitism especially dangerous is that he is politically gifted, media savvy and rhetorically persuasive.
We must never lend credibility to racists by sharing platforms with them while they continue to espouse hateful views. Nor should we normalize those who traffic in antisemitism, even when it is cloaked in the fashionable rhetoric of progressive activism.
Some Jewish leaders have told me that maintaining ties with the mayor is a practical necessity – that the Jewish community depends on City Hall for protection and support. But the mayor’s obligation to protect Jewish New Yorkers does not arise from our willingness to flatter or accommodate him. It arises from the oath of office he swore to uphold. He is duty-bound to serve all New Yorkers equally, including Jews.
In America, no public official governs unchecked. Ours is a system of checks and balances. If a mayor fails to meet his obligations, there remain city agencies, law enforcement, the courts, the City Council and countless civic allies prepared to uphold justice and public safety.
Ultimately, history will render its judgment. The Jewish people have endured every movement that sought to marginalize, isolate or demonize us. Those movements faded. The Jewish people endured. And we will endure long after today’s antisemites have passed from the stage of history.
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