NY Jewish leader tells Mamdani: Your absence at Israel parade ‘will be long-remembered’

The head of the UJA-Federation of New York, a leading Jewish organization in New York City, shares an open letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticizing his decision to boycott Sunday’s annual Israel parade.

The march, called Israel Day on 5th, serves as the de facto Jewish community parade in the city. Mamdani, who has identified as an anti-Zionist, is the first mayor to boycott the event.

“You are the first mayor in the history of New York City — home to the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world — to refuse to participate in this parade because you fundamentally reject Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” the federation’s CEO, Eric Goldstein says in an open letter to Mamdani.

Goldstein says Mamdani’s refusal to participate is not “criticism of a particular Israeli government or policy,” but is rooted in a “refusal to acknowledge the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.”

“Your refusal to attend the parade is simply the latest in a pattern of demonizing anti-Israel rhetoric and actions that continue to place the Jewish community of New York at greater risk,” he writes.

“Mr. Mayor, you cannot close your eyes to the deadly impact of this incendiary rhetoric that is playing out in Jewish communities across the world, from Bondi Beach to Boulder to Washington, DC. Nor should any of this suggest that we seek to silence debate and criticism about Israel,” Goldstein says, referring to deadly terrorist attacks against Jews in the past year.

“Our community in all its diversity will show up in multitudes not because we believe Israel’s government is beyond criticism, and not because we all agree on the right way forward. We do not. We will show up because we believe in the vital importance of a Jewish and democratic homeland for our people,” Goldstein says. “Your absence — and what it represents — will be long-remembered. ”