Leading NY rabbi remains ‘worried’ after meeting with Mamdani

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, a prominent Reform leader in New York City, says he remains deeply concerned after a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani last night.

Hirsch is the president of the New York Board of rabbis, the head of Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, and a national leader in the Reform movement.

He and other rabbis met with Mamdani last night, weeks before Mamdani takes office on January 1.

“While we were pleased to be able to discuss our concerns with the mayor-elect, those concerns remain. We’ve never before had a mayor who has expressed this kind of ideological hostility to the very existence of Israel,” Hirsch writes on X.

The post comes hours after Jewish Insider published an interview with Hirsch in which he said he left the meeting with Mamdani “encouraged,” saying, “He is making an effort to reach out to as many representatives, particularly in the Jewish community, as he can.”

But in his X post, Hirsch writes, “It is not about policy differences; rather, it is about the denial of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state at all. I continue to worry deeply about the upcoming four years and conveyed to the mayor-elect that anti-Zionist rhetoric and anti-Israel policies will threaten Jewish safety in NYC and will, inevitably, lead to an unproductive and tense relationship with the Jewish community.”

“What Mr. Mamdani says and which policies he pursues is up to him — he will be the mayor — but I emphasized that the Jewish community will energetically oppose any and all anti-Israel rhetoric and action,” Hirsch says.