Jewish New York's reckoning with Zohran Mamdani: He's become a vehicle for our tensions'

"To be clear, unequivocal, and on the record: I believe Zohran Mamdani poses a danger to the New York Jewish community, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Conservative Upper East Side Park Avenue Synagogue said in a sermon last weekend, a line endorsed by more than 1,000 American rabbis and echoed in the op-ed pages of some of the US's biggest papers."

"Cosgrove called on his listeners to band together to persuade other Jews to prioritize their Jewish selves and love of Israel in the election. His proposed targets? The undecided, the proudly Jewish yet unabashedly progressive, the affordability-anxious, Netanyahu-weary, Brooklyn-dwelling, and social media-influenced who need to be engaged. What Cosgrove overlooked, however, is that many of them already are engaged. In fact, Mamdani is engaging them."

"Mamdani's outreach comes at a moment of flux. Over the summer, as the campaign was heating up, famine was spreading through the Gaza Strip and photos of children starving to death dominated the news. Hundreds of rabbis signed letters urging Israel to let more aid into the besieged territory. Clergy who call themselves Zionists were arrested protesting outside the Israeli consulate in New York; others spoke in increasingly forceful terms from the pulpit in their weekly sermons."

Zohran Mamdani is a New York City mayoral hopeful and a prominent Palestine supporter poised to gain traction among Jewish voters in the city. Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove warned that Mamdani poses a danger to the New York Jewish community, a stance endorsed by over 1,000 rabbis and amplified in major op-eds. Cosgrove urged Jews to prioritize Jewish identity and support for Israel, targeting undecided, progressive, affordability-anxious, Netanyahu-weary, Brooklyn-dwelling, and social-media-influenced voters. Many of those voters are already politically engaged, and Mamdani's campaign is actively reaching them amid summer reports of famine in Gaza, rabbinical letters demanding more aid, and clergy-led protests.

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