NYC mayoral candidates draw battle lines on Israel and antisemitism as primary nears

NEW YORK — Former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo sat down at a Torah scroll dedication ceremony in Times Square last month and chatted with the scribe who was completing the text. He then delivered a speech highlighting his friendship with the rabbi hosting the event, before posing for photos with children and gladhanding his way through the crowd while talking up his long ties to the community.

“Mr. President,” an attendee shouted to him, “Go for the presidency.”

The White House, though, was not the prize Cuomo was eyeing that day. Instead, he was seeking support to become the next mayor of New York City, home to over 8 million people and the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel.

Cuomo is currently leading the pack of candidates vying for the Democratic party primary slated for later this month, an election that will almost certainly determine the next leader of the mostly Democratic city.

Candidates are navigating a complex political landscape ahead of the vote as they contend with issues including the Gaza war, antisemitism, their past histories with Jewish communities and the varying political leanings of the city’s broad array of Jewish constituencies.

Jews make up around 16 percent of eligible voters in the June 24 primary, which is only open to registered Democrats, according to a recent poll, making the community a force in the election. Early voting begins on June 14.

Jewish issues have played a significant role in the campaign given the way news about Israel and Gaza has dominated headlines and activist spaces over the past year and a half, and due to the host of issues at play for Jews, such as hate crimes, street protests and yeshiva funding and oversight.

Candidates’ focus on antisemitism and Israel has itself elevated the issues’ weight in the race. City crime statistics show that Jews are targeted in hate crimes more than all other groups combined. During the campaign, Cuomo, and other top candidates have all released plans for combating antisemitism.

With a number of endorsements from important Jewish groups, such as the Bobov Hasidic movement, and a history of working with the Jewish community from his time in Albany, Cuomo is seen as the favorite among Jewish voters.

The poll last month, by Marist University, found that 26 percent of Jewish voters would place Cuomo first in the city’s ranked-choice voting system. Other polls have consistently shown him as the top candidate among all voters in the crowded field. The city’s use of a ranked-choice voting system means candidates can win the race without winning a plurality of first-choice votes.

The election’s bête noire for the Jewish mainstream is State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a leftist backed by the Democratic Socialists of America who is polling in second place. Mamdani has alarmed Jews with his harsh criticism of Israel, and some Jewish voters have rallied around Cuomo as the best bet for heading off a Mamdani administration.

Here’s a look at the top candidates in the race for the mayor’s seat, currently occupied by an unpopular Eric Adams.

Comeback Cuomo

Cuomo served as New York governor from 2011 to 2021, when he resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. During his tenure, he built out a track record of support for Israel and Jewish voters, and developed connections to Jewish communities — assets he is using in his campaign pitch to Jewish communities.

He has mentioned these ties during several speeches at synagogues in recent months and said combating antisemitism is his top priority. Last month, during a Shabbat speech at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in the Upper East Side, he received a warm welcome, with congregants flocking to shake his hand after he descended from the podium.

His tenure as governor has also granted him broader name recognition than other candidates.

Aiming at Mamdani, Cuomo has repeatedly railed against the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, in his pitch to Jewish voters, framing the vote as a referendum on the far left.

“You have a schism in the Democratic party right now and this election is in many ways a litmus test of that,” Cuomo told The Times of Israel in May. “They support BDS, they pledge never to visit Israel. That’s not what I believe is the fundamental relationship between Israel and the Democratic Party. As a Democrat, I think it’s synonymous that you support Israel.”

Cuomo’s candidacy comes with some baggage. He infuriated Orthodox and Hasidic voters when he imposed restrictions on gatherings during the COVID pandemic while he was governor. Religious Jews felt the rules targeted their communities, the Agudath Israel of America umbrella group sued Cuomo over the restrictions, and some bitterness still lingers.

A Brooklyn-based Jewish news site has described the race as “Jew targeter” Cuomo against “jihadi” Mamdani.

Cuomo has sought to make amends, meeting with Agudath and holding conversations with leaders of other communities such as the Chabad and Bobov movements. He said he imposed the restrictions due to advice he received at the time and, in retrospect, could have handled the situation differently.

That outreach has proved successful, as Orthodox groups started lining up behind Cuomo in the past week. He won coveted endorsements from prominent groups in Queens and the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Boro Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Williamsburg. Some of the endorsements took aim at Mamdani as a threat to Jewish and Israel-affiliated institutions.

“In the past, our groups have endorsed different candidates,” two groups in Crown Heights said in a joint statement. “We believe it is vital to stand together and speak with one voice. Andrew Cuomo is the only candidate who can stop Zohran Mamdani in the primary.”

Primary candidates Zellnor Myrie, a state senator, and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams are also seen as reliable allies for Orthodox Jewish communities, but unlikely to defeat Mamdani. Businessman Whitney Tilson has leaned into Jewish issues during his campaign, but is polling near the bottom of the field.

Orthodox areas in the city backed US President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but many community members in the city are registered Democrats who can vote in the primary.

Cuomo has also been criticized for announcing the formation of a pro-Israel advocacy group in 2023, before his candidacy, that has done little since its official launch last year.

Surging anti-Zionist Mamdani

Mamdani, 33, is a state assemblymember representing part of Queens who was relatively unknown when he entered the mayoral race, but has made a surprising climb to second place in polls with an energetic campaign, kitschy social media videos and a successful fundraising run.

His strongest support is among white, young, college-educated liberals, including Jews, who are drawn to his progressive policy proposals, despite questions about how the plans would be funded and implemented.

Mamdani has said pro-Palestinian advocacy is “central to my identity,” and has long been an activist for that cause, co-founding Bowdoin College’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine while he studied there in the 2010s.

In 2021, the year he was elected to the state assembly, Mamdani told a rally that he identified as an anti-Zionist, according to footage first reported by The Times of Israel. He also protested alongside anti-Israel activists who have backed terrorist groups.

As a state assemblymember, he co-sponsored legislation that sought to strip nonprofit status from organizations with links to Israeli settlements. Jewish groups condemned the bill, saying it would hurt charity groups helping needy populations that have only tenuous ties to West Bank communities and that do not advance settlement activity. He has also been accused of not signing onto resolutions condemning the Holocaust, which he has denied.

On October 8, 2023, reacting to the Hamas massacre that had taken place in southern Israel hours earlier, Mamdani focused his criticism on Israel. A widely condemned rally in Times Square that day celebrating the terrorist onslaught was backed by his Democratic Socialists of America party.

He has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide, participated in anti-Israel protests, and has vowed that if elected, he would arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit New York, although the international court that issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu has no jurisdiction in the US.

He condemned Israel during an appearance with the popular streamer Hasan Piker, who has a history of antisemitism. He has also repeatedly declined to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Despite this, Mamdani is polling in third place with Jewish voters, at 14%, the Marist poll said. A more recent poll with a smaller sample size put Mamdani in second place with Jews, edging out Jewish progressive Zionist Brad Lander. Mamdani won the endorsement of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace and has made some outreach to Jews, including by making an appearance at the Council of Jewish Organizations of Flatbush.

Last month, he appeared with other candidates at a mayoral forum hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and on Sunday, spoke to a Jewish audience alongside other candidates at the B’nai Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side. He has acknowledged the city’s problem with antisemitism and released a plan for combating hate crimes.

He and Lander secured a joint endorsement from the leftist group Jews for Economic and Racial Justice via the organization’s electoral arm, the Jewish Vote.

Mamdani has come under fire from both sides for his Jewish outreach. After his appearance in Flatbush, Jewish state assemblymember Kalman Yeger condemned Mamdani as “one of the most vile antisemites in public office.”

And after he affirmed Israel’s “right to exist as a state,” anti-Israel activists lashed out, accusing the candidate of “affirming a settler colony in the middle of a live-streamed extermination.”

Brad Lander

New York City Comptroller Lander, the city government’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, is polling around third place, behind Mamdani.

The May Marist poll put Lander in second place for Jewish voters, with around 17% selecting him as their first-choice candidate.

Lander defines himself as a progressive Zionist, is at home among the city’s pro-Israel activist left, and has long ties to progressive Jewish groups in the city. Before the Gaza war, he protested against the Netanyahu coalition’s judicial overhaul and often demonstrates with anti-occupation Israeli leftists.

His campaign has focused on issues such as public safety and affordability, some of the priorities for Jewish voters.

Politically to Cuomo’s left, he has tacked to the center during the campaign, for example, by moving away from his past calls to scale down the police force.

Lander has outlined plans to combat crime, condemned antisemitism at anti-Israel protests, and denounced the DSA, calling the DSA-backed celebratory rally on October 8, 2023, “abominable.”

Lander clashed with Cuomo in April over Jewish outreach during the campaign after the former governor told an event at the West Side Institutional Synagogue that the comptroller and other candidates were far-left foes of Israel.

The following morning, Lander cursed Cuomo in Yiddish, and weeks later, hit back in a speech at the same synagogue, saying that Cuomo was weaponizing antisemitism for political points, and that using antisemitism as a political wedge was dangerous for Jews.

“He stood up in this synagogue and called all his opponents – including the highest-ranking Jewish official in New York City – antisemitic, with absolutely zero basis. Why? Not to help us. To help himself,” Lander said.

Just behind Lander in the polls is Scott Stringer, another Jewish former city comptroller who has appealed to Jewish voters with a centrist, pro-Israel message. Stringer joined the New York branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum during the city’s annual Israel parade last month, the only candidate to march with the group.

He also delivered a speech at the West Side Institutional Synagogue that included criticism of Cuomo.

“I am a proud Jew, and a proud Zionist. I am not confused. I am not fearful. I do not pander. I know who I am. I am also a proud New Yorker,” said Stringer, who is the first-choice candidate for 8% of Jews, according to Marist.

Before serving as comptroller, Stringer represented Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the state assembly, an area with a large Jewish population, and was the Manhattan borough president, making him a known quantity for many voters.

Solidarity PAC, a pro-Israel fundraising group in New York, has made donations to the Cuomo and Stringer campaigns.

One city, many shtetls

New York is home to an array of Jewish communities, from secular leftists to conservative Orthodox, Russian-speaking immigrants to Syrians and Bukharians. Each has its own election priorities. In Hasidic communities, for example, funding for the yeshiva system, a minor issue for other Jews, is a priority.

Even for Hasidim, there are local differences. The Satmar Hasidic movement in Williamsburg is distinct from the Chabad Hasidic community in Crown Heights; the Satmars are theologically non-Zionist, for example, while Chabad members are more openly supportive of Israel and its military. The Satmars are divided into two movements that sometimes make opposing campaign endorsements.

No candidate can be everything to everyone, a dynamic that is reflected in the polls showing none of the mayoral contenders winning more than a slice of the Jewish vote.

Different neighborhoods also have their own relationships with local lawmakers, adding another cross-current to the stormy sea of city politics. For example, Cuomo’s Times Square event was led by members of the Chabad community, where he draws from a wellspring of support.

Members of the Crown Heights Chabad community are also close to Myrie, a state senator who represents part of the neighborhood, and Mayor Eric Adams, a pro-Israel stalwart with deep ties to Brooklyn Jews.

Adams presents another wrinkle for the Jewish vote. He is running for reelection as an independent, so will not be in the primary, and will likely compete with Cuomo for centrist voters in November’s general election. Adams has firmly backed Israel and the Jewish mainstream as mayor and, despite his low overall approval numbers, has maintained support among Jews. Some of the endorsements for Cuomo have specified they are for the primary, leaving the door open for other candidates in the general election.

Adams has petitioned to run in the general election on an “EndAntiSemitism” ballot line, recently set up an antisemitism task force in his office, announced a council meant to shore up economic cooperation between New York City and Israel, and issued an executive order recognizing the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Cuomo, too, has filed to run as an independent, meaning he can compete in the general election if he does not win the Democratic primary.

And even for Jewish voters, Jewish issues are only one part of the picture. A recent Siena College poll found that Jews were more focused on housing, crime, pedestrian safety and affordability than discrimination, even if antisemitism remains a major concern.