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.
👍 Messinger sends a message
-
Ruth Messinger added a significant Jewish voice to Zohran Mamdani’s camp on Monday. She endorsed him in Manhattan during the first stop of his “Five Boroughs Against Trump” tour.
-
Messinger was the first and only Jewish woman to win the Democratic nomination for New York’s mayor in 1997. She also served as Manhattan borough president and a City Council member.
-
After losing her mayoral run to Rudy Giuliani, she led the American Jewish World Service for 17 years.
-
She supported Brad Lander, the Jewish city comptroller, in the primary. A cross-endorsement between Lander and Mamdani gave Mamdani credibility with some other Jewish leaders, even as he faced scrutiny for his outspoken criticism of Israel.
-
Messinger said she believed that Mamdani was the best candidate to support immigrants and educators like her ancestors. “My maternal grandfather was born here to a newly arrived immigrant family 140 years ago, and he became a public school principal and taught English to Yiddish-speaking parents of the children in his school,” she said.
👂 Who are Mamdani’s closest Jewish advisers?
We spotted several of them in a new New York Times report on his inner circle.
-
Brad Lander, the city’s highest-ranking Jewish official, has fiercely defended Mamdani from accusations of antisemitism.
-
Morris Katz, a 28-year-old political strategist, has become a right-hand man to Mamdani. He recently represented the nominee in meetings with Jewish leaders who are concerned about his pro-Palestinian advocacy.
-
Micah Lasher, a state Assembly member, has also liaised with Jewish New Yorkers on Mamdani’s behalf. In a post on X after the primary, he announced his endorsement even while saying that he hoped Mamdani “can come to better appreciate the deeply personal and historical importance that the survival of Israel as a Jewish state holds for Jewish New Yorkers.”
-
Julian Gerson and Andrew Epstein have critically shaped the communications, outreach and agenda of Mamdani’s campaign, according to The Forward.
⚔️ Mamdani’s tour against Trump
-
Mamdani’s tour against Trump continues as he visits a different borough every day this week, arguing he is the best candidate to fight the president.
-
“Trump-proofing NYC” is part of Mamdani’s platform, though it’s a bigger focus of his general election campaign than it was in the primary. He says he will defend New Yorkers from ICE agents and family separations, rising prices from tariffs and federal threats to social services.
-
On Monday, he campaigned at the headquarters of the influential labor union 1199SEIU, which endorsed him after backing Cuomo in the primary. He was joined by three Jewish endorsees: Rep. Jerry Nadler, assemblyman Harvey Epstein and Messinger.
-
Mamdani is tying his three main challengers to Trump. He and his allies pointed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo reportedly coordinating on the phone with Trump, Mayor Eric Adams having a corruption case dropped by the Justice Department and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa sharing Trump’s political party.
-
His opponents are pushing back. Cuomo threatened that New York would face the fate of Washington, D.C., where Trump announced a takeover of the police department on Monday, if Mamdani became mayor. “Trump will flatten him like a pancake,” he said on X. A spokesman for Adams said the mayor was “supposed to work with presidents — not wage war against them,” according to The New York Times. And Curtis Sliwa has urged Trump to stay out of the race.
📊 Numbers to know
-
A new poll from the Siena Institute joined others in showing both a commanding lead for Mamdani and high unfavorable ratings for his opponents (though the poll focused on statewide issues).
-
A reminder that we’re tracking all the polls in one place here, with a focus on what we know about Jewish voters.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
