New York City, on the eastern coast of the United States, holds major symbolic significance not only as the country’s economic nerve centre, home to Wall Street, but also because of its unique social composition, demographic weight, and deep influence on American political and social life as a whole. It is a city of 3.1 million immigrants and eight million residents, nearly 70% of whom are people of colour. It is a city of art, media, global diplomacy, and human rights, making it a mirror of progressive policies in the United States and a barometer for public attitudes toward domestic and international issues.
What distinguishes the city most globally today, however, is that it represents the second-largest urban concentration of Jews in the world after Israel. Approximately 1.3 million Jews live across its neighbourhoods, alongside nearly one million Muslims. This has made New York a city of constant interaction between followers of different religions, particularly since 7 October 2023.
Around 33% of the city’s Jewish voters cast their ballots in favour of Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim candidate openly critical of Israel. This is a high proportion that signals the early contours of a sharp division within New York’s Jewish community, a community long portrayed by Zionist lobbying groups as a single cohesive bloc, capable of exerting influence and possessing the wealth and power necessary to impose its pro-Israel agenda on politicians and US administrations at all levels.
What relationship links Mamdani to New York’s Jewish community? What reality is reflected in the election of a mayor opposed to Israeli policies? Can his election be seen as evidence of a deep Jewish divide reinforced since 7 October? Does it signal the beginning of a crisis for Zionism and pro-Israel lobbying groups in the United States, or is it merely a convergence of interests that will quickly dissolve in the face of overriding loyalty to Israel? This article addresses these and other questions.
A Shift in Traditional Voting Patterns
Mamdani’s electoral campaign was far from easy, despite the charisma and popularity of the 34-year-old socialist. He confronted extremely challenging constituencies, including the city’s capital elites, whom he had threatened with higher taxes, and the police establishment, which he had previously called to abolish in line with the agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America. Yet the most difficult constituency proved to be the city’s Jewish population, divided between fears over Mamdani’s explicit opposition to Israel and concerns tied to his religious and ideological identity and what that might mean for their security and safety, amid a massive media and social campaign led by the official Zionist establishment in the United States.
Electorally, New York’s Jewish population of approximately 1.3 million people, around 15% of the city’s voting base, is divided into Jews who generally vote Democratic, including secular and unaffiliated Jews, as well as Reform and Conservative Jews. In contrast, ultra-Orthodox Jews concentrated in Brooklyn tend to vote Republican, while moderate Orthodox Jews split their votes between the two parties depending on the candidate and agenda. According to statistics from the Jewish News Syndicate, 20% of the city’s Jews are Reform, 19% Orthodox, 15% Conservative, while the largest segment, 47%, are secular or unaffiliated with any specific Jewish denomination.
These traditional voting patterns did not fully work in Mamdani’s favour. For the first time, the electoral race was not confined to a Democratic versus Republican contest, but featured a Muslim candidate strongly opposed to Israel and openly supportive of Palestinian rights. Early polls indicated that most Jewish voters would go to Andrew Cuomo, the independent candidate, who suffered a resounding defeat to Mamdani in the Democratic primary in June 2025.
Some argue that Mamdani’s campaign did not create a new rupture within the city’s Jewish communities so much as it exposed an existing fracture, driven primarily by generational gaps on one hand and ideological orientations on the other. Others contend that Mamdani, with his layered identity and disruptive agenda for a city like New York, generated confusion within Jewish ranks, with so-called liberal Zionist Jews among the most conflicted groups on the eve of the mayoral election.
Samuel Abrams, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, one of the most prominent policy think tanks in the United States, argues that Mamdani’s election laid bare the moral divide within a community long portrayed as a single powerful bloc, namely New York’s Jewish community.
Abrams notes that the share of Jewish voters who supported Mamdani reveals more than political division. It points to a geographic and moral split within the city’s Jewish population and raises deeper questions about what it means to be Jewish in New York today. In neighbourhoods such as Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Clinton Hill, support for Mamdani reached around 90% among Jews who are young, highly educated, professional, and creative, largely non-Orthodox, left-leaning, and heavily influenced by social media, at a time when the grip of the official Jewish establishment has weakened.
By contrast, across the river in Borough Park, Crown Heights, and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, support for Cuomo reached roughly 80%. These are traditional, wealthy Jews with large families, graduates of religious schools, organically tied to Israel, and still shaped by collective values and the institutional Jewish establishment.
The generational divide proved decisive in shaping Jewish attitudes toward Israel. A 2024 survey by the Pew Research Centre showed that 45% of American Jews under the age of 35 hold a positive view of the Israeli government and its policies, compared with 64% among those over 50.
Similarly, a Washington Post survey found that 56% of American Jews feel some degree of attachment to Israel, but this figure drops to 38%t among Jews aged 18 to 34.
Denominational affiliation also played a role. A 2021 Pew Research Centre survey found that 58%t of American Jews feel connected to Israel. This figure rises to over 82% among Orthodox Jews and falls below 60% among Reform and unaffiliated Jews.
Despite this general and often abstract attachment, Israel does not top the priority list for many Jews in New York. Daily living concerns and the high cost of life in the city take precedence. A September 2024 survey by Democratic Jewish Polling found that only 9% of American Jews ranked Israel among their top two life priorities. By contrast, 44% prioritised the future of democracy, 28% abortion rights, followed by a long list of economic, climate, and security issues. Israel ranked at the bottom of priorities for American Jews.
Fear Campaigns and Counter-Mobilisation
Pro-Israel rabbinical leadership, backed by major American media outlets, played heavily on fears of the threat Mamdani supposedly posed to Jewish communities in New York. This intimidation campaign was led by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park East Synagogue, one of the city’s most prominent Zionist voices, supported by around one thousand Zionist rabbis across the United States. The campaign spread rapidly through major outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
As with broader Zionist discourse, these warnings conflated criticism of Israeli policies related to occupation, genocide, and apartheid with antisemitism, claiming a conspiracy by supporters of Palestinian rights to endanger Jewish safety in New York and across the United States.
In his message to New York’s Jewish community, Cosgrove urged Jews to prioritise their religious identity and love for Israel over other concerns that might lead them to support Mamdani. He addressed undecided Jews, progressive Jews who backed Mamdani, critics of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, low-income Jews, and those influenced by social media. These are groups Cosgrove viewed as insufficiently engaged in confronting what he described as the Mamdani threat, thus reproducing the official Zionist narrative that refuses to separate Jewish identity from Zionism, a separation that has continued to widen, driven by atrocities committed in Gaza since 7 October.
The leading Zionist candidate was Andrew Cuomo, who sought to exploit Jewish fears to secure their votes. He declared himself a steadfast supporter of Israel, insisted that anti Zionism necessarily constitutes antisemitism, and pledged to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal team before the International Criminal Court.
Cuomo also attacked Mamdani as sympathetic to terrorism, a rhetoric that resonated among Zionists and US officials, including Donald Trump, Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and Democratic congresswoman Laura Gillen, who described Mamdani as a jihadist, a Hamas supporter, and someone calling for the slaughter of Jews. Following his Islamophobic campaign, Cuomo secured 63% of the Jewish vote, compared with 33% for Mamdani.
Progressive Jews, however, did not cede the field to Zionist leaders claiming to represent all Jews. Jewish networks and organisations active in social justice played a leading role in guiding Jewish voters. Jamie Beran, chief executive of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, one of the city’s largest progressive Jewish networks, praised Mamdani’s efforts and agenda aimed at protecting religious minorities, including Jews.
Likewise, the anti Zionist organisation Jewish Voice for Peace urged Jews to vote for Mamdani, viewing him as a correction of course and a source of hope for all, including Jews committed to the core ethical teachings of Judaism.
Mamdani also received support from prominent rabbis. Rabbinical letters bearing thousands of signatures from rabbis across the United States endorsed him, framing support as fidelity to authentic Jewish values of justice and compassion. These statements argued that Zionism has caused Jews far more harm than advocates of Palestinian rights, and that antisemitism and Islamophobia are two faces of the same racism.
In addition, Mamdani achieved quite gains within some of the city’s highest turnout Jewish communities. Two factions of the Satmar Hasidic movement, one of the largest Jewish voting blocs in New York, announced they would not endorse any specific candidate while condemning the systematic fear campaign against Mamdani. One faction issued a letter to its followers highlighting Mamdani’s commitments to protecting religious schools, facilitating free childcare, and providing affordable housing.
This neutral stance led segments of the Haredi bloc, estimated at around 80,000 voters, to abstain from voting altogether.
Mamdani Seizes the Moment
Mamdani’s rejection of a Jewish state and support for boycott activism prompted hundreds of traditional rabbis to mobilise against him and rally support for Cuomo. Yet this did not deter Mamdani from continuing to build bridges with Jewish communities. He attended Jewish holiday prayers at major synagogues such as Kolot Chayeinu and Lab Shul, visited Hasidic leaders during Sukkot in South Williamsburg, addressed members of Congregation Beth Elohim, gave an interview to the Yiddish language magazine Der Moment, and published an article in Hasidic Yiddish outlining his plans to combat antisemitism and improve living standards.
He met publicly and privately with hardline Jewish leaders, including the New York Board of Rabbis and prominent opponents such as Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Rabbi Emil Hirsch of Stephen Wise Synagogue, and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the board’s executive director, all known for their Zionist alignment.
With the support of left-wing Jewish activists backing his mayoralty and Palestinian rights, Mamdani reached influential Jewish communities across the city, often through closed and discreet meetings to avoid vilification campaigns led by hardline Zionist groups.
These engagements resulted in reassurances regarding protection and combating antisemitism and anti-Jewish hate. At the same time, Mamdani did not compromise his criticism of Israel or his support for boycott activism and popular mobilisation for Palestine. He pledged to avoid slogans that Jewish leaders view as inciting or violent, such as calls for killing the occupation army or globalising the intifada.
Mamdani affirmed his intention to increase police presence outside synagogues and double investment in anti-hate programmes. As a gesture of goodwill, he retained police commissioner Jessica Tisch, signalling that opposition to Zionism would not be a criterion for selecting his administration.
Through charisma and diplomatic skill, Mamdani forged an unusual alliance between segments of the Hasidic community, progressive Jews, and some liberal Zionists. He secured backing from senior Jewish officials in the city, including Ruth Messinger, who viewed his economic agenda as a source of hope for less privileged residents, including low-income Jews.
He was also endorsed by prominent Jewish figures in Democratic politics, such as New York City comptroller Brad Lander and Congressman Jerry Nadler. Other Jewish Democrats, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, remained neutral, reflecting the deep divide between partisan and national affiliation on one hand and religious and ideological identity on the other.
An Old Fracture and New Shifts
Felice Wiseman, director of Jewish New York Agenda, which strongly supports liberal Zionists committed to Israel’s Jewish and democratic character, highlights the internal struggle now shaping the conscience of New York’s Jews. This struggle is driven by atrocities in Gaza and the collapse of prospects for a two-state solution. According to Wiseman, Gaza paved the way for Mamdani. What once seemed unthinkable, voting for an anti Zionist candidate, has occurred, with some anti-Netanyahu Zionists supporting him despite everything.
In a satirical article titled I Hate My Options: How Mamdani’s Candidacy Split New York’s Jews, CNN presented testimonies from Zionist Jews divided over whether to focus on city policies, viewing Mamdani as New York’s mayor rather than Tel Aviv’s envoy, and over fears of retaliation driven by his positions on Zionism. Responses ranged from a minority voting for Mamdani, to a majority choosing Cuomo while openly acknowledging his corruption and their dislike of him as the lesser evil, to a small group voting Republican or abstaining entirely.
Zionist Jewish orientations in New York still strongly prioritise protecting Israel, yet a crack has undeniably emerged in once unified positions. Despite their heavy support for Cuomo, their reluctance to disclose personal views or voting preferences points to a deep crisis between a reality increasingly rejecting Zionism and an old dream that once portrayed it as the shield protecting Jews.
For the rest of New York’s Jews, the fracture is deeper and more visible. The coming period signals profound transformations in what was long described as the unified Jewish community in New York and beyond. Once Mamdani’s mayoral victory was announced, leaders of progressive synagogues issued an open letter urging Jews to fulfil the biblical injunction of the prophet Jeremiah to work for the peace of the city and to cooperate in good faith with its administration.
Similarly, Bend the Arc Jewish Action viewed the post-election phase as an opportunity to rebuild bridges within Jewish communities and repair the rifts exposed by Mamdani’s campaign. The organisation stressed the need for compromise and coalition building that transcends ideological and generational divides, and for the Jewish community to find in Mamdani’s mayoralty a path toward reconciliation and confronting genuine hatred without exaggerated or misplaced fear. This underscores that the tear has grown wider than those attempting to mend it, and that the notion of a single unified Jewish voting bloc capable of making and unmaking political fortunes no longer holds.
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