From the Liveblog of
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Mamdani receives warm welcome at Hasidic celebration in Brooklyn
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLuke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
New York City Mayor-elect attended a celebration hosted by the Satmar Hasidic movement in Brooklyn last night, a leading political organizer in the community says.
“The Satmar community was honored to welcome Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani,” says Rabbi Moishe Indig.
The event marked Kuf Alef Kislev, an annual celebration marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Satmar Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum’s escape from the Nazis in 1944.
Teitelbaum later immigrated to New York to build the Satmar movement, one of the leading Hasidic movements in New York.
Images shared by Indig show Mamdani, wearing a kippah, meeting community leaders on the stage at the front of the event.
“It’s our great honor to welcome the honorable Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani,” a speaker tells the crowd in the video, to applause.
The Satmar community was honored to welcome Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the #KufAlefKislev event at Waterfront Square. This day is celebrated by Satmar communities worldwide in gratitude to Almighty G-d for saving the late Satmar Grand Rebbe, Z”L, from the clutches of the Nazis pic.twitter.com/Fjh3uxR6Xx
— Rabbi Moishe Indig (@MoishIndig) December 11, 2025
“Before the elections, the mayor-elect promised Rabbi Moishe Indig that he will be the new friend of our community, and now even before taking the oath of office, he’s honoring that promise by joining us tonight,” he says.
Indig’s endorsement of Mamdani in the mayoral election sparked a split in the Satmar community.
Indig later defended the decision in an interview with Mishpacha magazine, saying the endorsement was in the interest of the community.
The Satmars are non-Zionist, but on theological grounds, and are not aligned with the anti-Israel activist movement that Mamdani is affiliated with.
Mamdani has opposed stripping public funding from yeshivas — a priority for the Hasidic community — that are out of compliance with state education standards.
The Satmar enclave in south Williamsburg, Brooklyn, overwhelmingly voted for Mamdani’s opponent, Andrew Cuomo, in the mayoral race.
The Times of Israel Community.