Speaking in NYC, Herzog says Mamdani ‘makes no effort to conceal his contempt for Israel’

President Isaac Herzog criticizes New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, saying he doesn’t hide his “contempt” for Israel and made “outrageous” comments over a protest at a Manhattan synagogue.

“Recent developments in New York City have raised a red flag,” Herzog says at a gala event in New York City for Yeshiva University, according to a statement from his office.

“Here, we see the rise of a new mayor-elect who makes no effort to conceal his contempt for the Jewish democratic State of Israel, the only nation state of the Jewish people,” Herzog charges.

Herzog also refers to an anti-Israel protest outside an event encouraging immigration to Israel at a Manhattan synagogue last month, and Mamdani’s response to it.

“The incoming mayor’s response was to suggest that Jews who consider fulfilling the ultimate Zionist dream of making Aliyah are violating international law and the sanctity of the synagogue. This rhetoric is outrageous,” Herzog says.

“Delegitimizing the Jewish people’s right to their ancient homeland and their age-old dream of Jerusalem legitimizes violence and undermines freedom of religion,” the president says. “This is both anti-Jewish and anti-American.”

The president also addresses growing antisemitism and the need for action against it.

“Here in New York, and all across America, the turbulence is unnerving, and the challenges facing our people, the Jewish people, are growing,” Herzog says.

“Institutional antisemitism, Holocaust inversion, conspiracies left and right, Jew-hatred platformed on social media, and moral bankruptcy masquerading as social justice have all disturbingly increased,” he says. “Where Jews were once ‘Yids’ in America, Zionists are now called ‘Zios.’ Jews are always the first, but never the last, to be demonized, targeted, ‘other-ized.’”

“We must use any legal means at our disposal — advocacy, education, leadership, civic engagement, media, social networks — to combat this surge of hate and antisemitism,” Herzog says.