Controversial frontrunner makes mayoral race a test for Jewish New Yorkers 

New York City goes to the polls on November 4 and Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has a double digit lead.

Last October, he entered a field of eleven hopefuls vying to be the Democratic candidate in the November election. In June, the three-term NY State assemblyman seemingly came out of nowhere to surge to victory in the primary election.  

In the past, Mamdani’s positions would have killed his campaign in a city where about a quarter of the population is Jewish. He supports BDS and use of the a-word (apartheid) and the g-word (genocide), and has refused to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada” which he said in an interview “means different things to different people”. 

But a recent poll shows 38% of Jewish voters still support Mamdani, just 4% behind those who support his nearest rival former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

As the New York mayoral election draws near, more than 850 rabbis and cantors from across the United States signed a letter voicing their opposition to mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.

The letter, titled “A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future,” cited Mamdani’s previous defence of the slogan “globalize the Intifada,” his denial of “Israel’s legitimacy” and his accusations that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza.

The letter quotes Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, who told his congregants in a YouTube address last week that Mamdani’s rhetoric will “delegitimise the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews.”