Fact-checking ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt’s attack on Zohran Mamdani

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 77 days to the election.

🥊 The ADL on the attack

• Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt accused Zohran Mamdani of overlooking Jewish New Yorkers in a CNBC interview on Monday. “There are questions we should ask right now, like, this candidate has visited churches and mosques, not a single synagogue,” Greenblatt said. He also said that Mamdani has not “met any mainstream Jewish leaders in a public forum.”

• The answers are out there. Mamdani went to Shabbat services with the Kolot Chayeinu congregation in Park Slope, which was co-led by progressive rabbi and activist Abby Stein, in February. The synagogue has an “Open Tent” philosophy that has made it a hub for anti-Zionist Jews alongside those who consider themselves Zionists or non-Zionists. Brad Lander, the city comptroller who cross-endorsed Mamdani in the primary, is a member.

• Mamdani also went to B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on the Upper West Side, for two mayoral forums in June. In May, he visited the Midtown offices of UJA-Federation of New York for a town hall co-moderated by New York Jewish Week’s Lisa Keys.

• Greenblatt also said Mamdani would not condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” because “he believes it.”

• It’s true that Mamdani has not condemned the pro-Palestinian protest slogan, which is viewed by its defenders as a call for liberation and by its critics as a call for attacks on Jews. Since his primary win, Mamdani has privately and publicly said he will “discourage” the phrase.

• Greenblatt also said that Mamdani “proposed legislation in Albany to restrict the ability of Jews to donate, or anyone to donate to Israeli organizations.”

• As a member of the New York Assembly, Mamdani sponsored a bill called “Not On Our Dime” that would have blocked charities from supporting “Israeli settlement activity.” Some Jewish nonprofit leaders have said that the bill, which did not pass, sparked concerns that any groups providing humanitarian services to Israelis could potentially be penalized.

🇮🇱 The Israel Day Parade will go on

• Mamdani’s campaign said he would not cancel or pull security from New York’s annual Israel Day Parade as mayor, according to Politico’s Playbook. The campaign said he believes in the right of New Yorkers to peacefully assemble.

• Mamdani has never indicated that he would curb or undercut the parade, which draws tens of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers to Fifth Avenue each June. But he is a sharp critic of Israel and has never joined in, even as he has attended other community parades in the city. His opponents all march regularly.

• Rabbi Marc Schneier asked Gov. Kathy Hochul about Mamdani’s attitude toward the parade when she appeared at his Hampton Synagogue on Sunday. Hochul promised the custom would continue, and said she believed Mamdani would not interfere.

• Politico reported that Schneier asked the question after Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which manages the parade, raised the issue during a synagogue event on Friday. Treyger said Mamdani’s support for the pro-Palestinian boycott of Israel had caused widespread concern.

• Last month, a Manhattan Orthodox rabbi who said he was open to meeting with Mamdani, unlike some of his colleagues, told us that the Israel Day parade was one of the top issues he would ask the candidate about.

💬 A word from Eliot Spitzer

• Andrew Cuomo wasn’t the first New York governor to resign amid a scandal, nor was Mamdani the first to build his reputation on fighting for low-paid workers. First, there was Eliot Spitzer.

• Spitzer, the prominent Jewish politician who resigned in 2008 after a prostitution scandal and now focuses on his family’s real estate empire, gave Vanity Fair his perspective on the mayor’s race in an interview on Monday.

• He said Mamdani was “absolutely right” that affordability was the main issue facing New Yorkers, but disagreed with the candidate’s proposed solutions. “Freezing rent won’t do it, unfortunately,” he said. “What it will do is inhibit capital inflow and lead to the significant deterioration of our capital stock. And that’s not going to be good for the city.”

• Spitzer had choice words for Cuomo, years after the last flare-up in their longstanding feud: “He and I are not drinking buddies.”

📊 Numbers to know

• A new survey from Gotham Polling and Analytics tracked with others handing Mamdani a commanding lead in the race. The poll taken on Aug. 11 predicted Mamdani securing 42% of the vote, followed by Cuomo with 23%, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa with 17% and Mayor Eric Adams with 9%.

• Follow our coverage of all the polls and what they’re saying about Jewish voters here.