When Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, I cleared my calendar for November 4. This cannot be another year in which the mayoral election is decided in the June primary.
New Yorkers must object to electing radicalism to the mayor’s office.
It feels as if Mr. Mamdani represents the institutionalization of radicalism and antisemitism on college campuses. What is at the core of his ideas? He evidences tolerance for antisemitism, spews racial divides, and pitting one New York against the other.
Who supports him? Largely young voters, who are the same people who tried to take over campuses with violent protests, hate speech, and virtue signaling at colleges that had tolerated antisemitism on their campuses for far too long.
It took enormous effort to eradicate this behavior, yet now the same ideology is running a candidate for one of the most important offices. This needs to be stopped.
Response to antisemitism
Mamdani showed his true colors amid the deluge of antisemitism seen on college campuses. When Jews were being harassed, threatened, and denied access to classrooms at New York’s own Columbia University, he threw his support behind the pro-Palestine protests. The safety of Jewish students and staff needed protection, but he said he would not send police to respond to new encampments.
Why would a New York City led by him be any different? Yet, this candidate is currently leading the polls to run the largest city in the United States; the home to the second-largest Jewish population outside Israel. If he is voted in, instead of not being able to walk on a college campus, Jews, Israelis, and their supporters will not be able to safely cross Times Square.
Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) all but cheered the October 7 terrorist attack, defending the killing spree that resulted in the most horrific and largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
He was also quick to condemn Israel the day after the attacks, blaming the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s declaration of war – with zero mention of Hamas, the perpetrators of the horrific acts.
Mamdani refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a democratic Jewish state and a home and haven for Jews established by the United Nations after the Holocaust. His lack of empathy is not the mark of a leader.
A question of rhetoric
“Globalize the intifada” is a call for the destruction of Israel. Mamdani declined to condemn the slogan in multiple interviews and news conferences, defending his use of the term. Only recently did he begin to shift his stance around that language – amid backlash at his endorsement of it and pressure to clarify his position – as he aims to consolidate support in his bid to become New York City mayor.
Mamdani’s failure to understand its meaning is concerning and cannot be wiped clean by his broadly denouncing antisemitism. There is only one meaning of that phrase: It is a call for violence against Jews. He doesn’t “believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech.”
Would he say the same thing about people calling to globalize slavery? Child abuse? Hating Islam? The LGBTQ community? Of course not, nor should he. It seems this candidate does not want to police anything – be it speech or the city of New York. As a leader, he would sooner defund those who serve and protect his would-be constituents.
Mamdani has demonstrated the same void of leadership evidenced by university presidents and heads, now ousted for allowing protesters to terrorize, intimidate, and call for antisemitic actions toward Jews and for the annihilation of Israel. That is not freedom of speech or demonstration. It is wrong and dangerous. Voters should oust him from their ballots, come Election Day.
I will be the first to admit that, historically, I have not participated in mayoral election voting. That changes this year. Here’s my ask to every New Yorker: Get out and vote. Just look at the voter turnout from the primaries; precincts won by Mamdani saw 36% average turnout, according to Bloomberg, compared to those won by Andrew Cuomo, which saw an average turnout of 27%.
There are millions of New Yorkers who can help stop this – because it is happening.
He is unfit to lead the city of New York as its mayor. Democrats and Republicans, free speech supporters and egalitarians alike, must object to electing antisemitism to the mayor’s office. No matter your political beliefs or party affiliations, don’t sit idly by during this election.
The writer, a native Israeli, is founder and CEO of Capitolis, a financial technology company with offices in New York, Tel Aviv, and London.