"New York City's mayoralty has been decided, but we don't yet know if the Jewish community's fears regarding Zohran Mamdani are truly warranted or not. That is, the fears that led many New York City rabbis to, amid some controversy, take to their pulpits to affirmatively urge their congregations to vote against him. Without question, the rabbis who did so were extremely well motivated."
"However, never in recent memory has a particular population of New York City been so motivated against any single polarizing candidate. Meaning, how Mamdani's sui generis radicalized commentary so troubled a significant religious population against him to encourage its clergy the way it did. With anti-Semitism at such a high point worldwide, New York City's rabbinate felt the uncommon need to take to their pulpits with jeremiads directed against this perceived enemy of the Jewish people."
Zohran Mamdani won New York City's mayoralty while many in the Jewish community remained fearful of his past statements. Numerous New York City rabbis publicly urged congregants to vote against him, motivated by concerns that his commentary posed an existential threat to the city's large Jewish population. Mamdani has stated his intent to protect, celebrate and cherish New York's Jewish residents. Uncertainty remains about how much influence rabbinical sermons had on Jewish voting patterns. With global anti-Semitism rising, rabbis delivered strong warnings from pulpits after Mamdani refused to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada." A narrator expresses a yearning to have heard Martin Luther King Jr. preach.
Read at www.amny.com
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