Work is just beginning for New York City Jews

Months’ worth of handwringing ended on Election Day, only to usher in a more vigorous form of it.

The fear of a Socialist, Muslim mayor of New York City—one who is loudly anti-Israel—has been realised, bringing with it more fear of what this portends for the most “Jewish” city in the world outside of Israel.

Since the primaries, Jews in New York have shuddered at the theoretical prospect of a mayor who supports “globalize the intifada,” threatens to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits, promotes BDS, and links his disdain for the New York City Police Department and the Israeli Defense Forces by saying, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”

The election was so eclipsed by the Democratic nominee’s radical, anti-Israel ideology that usually benign issues were viewed from that skewed lens. Antisemitism was the invisible referendum on the ballot, and it won. Indeed, after the primary earlier this year, a poll showed that the now mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian advocacy was a motivating factor for most of the New Yorkers who voted for him at that point, with a whopping 83% saying “his support for Palestinian rights” drove them to the voting booth.

As is typical of Jewish consideration, I got numerous messages from friends and family in Israel on Nov. 4, wanting to know how I am holding up. They expressed concern and offered sympathy.

One might comment on how the tables have turned. After years of worrying about our brethren in Israel, Jews in the Diaspora are now on the receiving end. The link has become somewhat inverted after Oct. 7, with events that took place in Kibbutz Be’eri and Kfar Aza directly influencing events taking place in New York; in Dearborn, Mich.; and in Manchester, England.

That common denominator explains why the dangers facing Jewish New Yorkers are not limited to those the city. What happens in Israel doesn’t just stay in Israel.

Take the tenable ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump brokered between Israel and Hamas, which seems to have produced an unnatural lull in Israel. While everyone rejoiced at the return of the living hostages, fewer rejoiced at the cost, as the future is as unpredictable as the Arab partners that endorsed it.

That’s because the real battle against Israel’s enemies cannot be conquered by a 20-point plan or even a 100-point plan. It was Jew-hatred that triggered the war, and no quantity of dealmaking or boots on the ground can quell the spread of antisemitism that Oct. 7 unleashed on the world without addressing the root cause.

Even if Hamas were to lay down its arms, the damage of the past two years has produced the likes of Mamdani, who is, in large part, a creation of the war in Gaza. His championing of “free Palestine” was as central to his campaign as his championing of free buses and free groceries.

Elan Carr, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during the first Trump administration, blamed Mamdani’s growing popularity, particularly among younger voters, on “indoctrination.” As he said, “If you allow American educational institutions to become mechanisms of indoctrination against American values, against Jews, against Israel, then you’re going to turn out a generation of people like The Squad in Congress.”

This is the real conflict that Jews face. Israel may have won a bittersweet victory over Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran for now, but the war continues to grow in America, Europe and around the world. In the classic sense, it is a matter of winning the battle but losing the war. That is because the combat zone is increasingly centred in people’s minds, from where it springs into action.

Month after month of disinformation, incitement and blood libels against the Jewish state have not only produced diplomatic acts of antisemitism, such as recognition of a Palestinian state by major democracies, but acts of antisemitic violence around the world.

We have reached a point where organisations once centred on fighting terrorism in Israel are now hosting conferences in New York centred on fighting antisemitism in the Diaspora. I attended one such event last week, the second annual Rage Against the Hate Conference in Lower Manhattan. It was sponsored by the Israel-based Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre, whose founder, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, is a champion of the legal and economic fight against terrorism in Israel. She now sees the necessity of defending Jews outside the Jewish state.

As more evidence of Mamdani’s Jew-hatred became known throughout the mayoral race, Jewish New Yorkers desperately tried to galvanise efforts to defeat him. But even an aggressive get-out-the-vote initiative was not enough.

New Yorkers who are loath to see the ruin of this once-great city are busy bemoaning the trajectory that got us to this point; had more people voted in the primaries, had Andrew Cuomo been a better candidate, had Curtis Sliwa dropped out of the race, etc.

We need to channel this Monday morning quarterbacking into action.

Pro-Hamas activist Linda Sarsour, Mamdani’s mentor in the campaign, bragged about the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-funded Unity and Justice Fund PAC as being “the largest institutional donor to the pro-Zohran super PAC in New York.” This is the same CAIR that is under scrutiny for bankrolling Islamic terrorists. And Sarsour warned that she will hold the mayor “accountable” to his donors and his campaign promises, which include dismantling the NYPD unit that polices terrorism threats, protests and riots.

This is a direct threat to Jewish communities in the city, and not all Jews have the luxury of fleeing to Florida. As New Yorkers, we have to take the theoretical lessons from this election and practically apply them for our own protection. That means using all means possible—legal, financial, organisational, political, educational—to hold the mayor “accountable” to all his constituents. As Americans, we cannot afford to watch this catastrophe spread.

With the election behind us, our work has only just begun.

Sara Lehmann is an award-winning New York-based columnist and interviewer.

JNS