Swastikas on NYC school bring antisemitism into focus a day after Mamdani victory

NEW YORK — A vandal scrawled swastikas on a Brooklyn Jewish school early Wednesday morning, prompting political barbs about antisemitism in New York City, a day after the far-left Israel critic Zohran Mamdani won the election to become the city’s next mayor.

Photos from the scene showed two red swastikas scrawled on a wall and a window of the Magen David Yeshiva in Gravesend, Brooklyn.

The school had already made news in the election when it required parents to prove they were registered to vote, amid Jewish community concerns over Mamdani.

Surveillance footage showed that a vandal clad in black, wearing a fedora and riding a bicycle, had inked the swastikas at around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group in New York City, accounting for 62% of all bias incidents reported to police last month. The incidents range from harassment to vandalism and physical assaults.

The swastika graffiti drew extra attention because it targeted a school and due to the proximity of the election. Mamdani’s critics say his anti-Israel rhetoric sometimes veers into antisemitism, or fuels hostility against Jews, and some of his opponents pointed at his election win after the graffiti was discovered.

New York State Assemblymember Kalman Yeger, a Jewish Democrat who represents a nearby part of Brooklyn, said, “As new guy was taking his victory lap last night, this was happening in Brooklyn.”

As new guy was taking his victory lap last night, this was happening in Brooklyn.
Our grandparents weren't warned.
We were. pic.twitter.com/dYh43WrBto

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— Kalman Yeger (@KalmanYeger) November 5, 2025

“Our grandparents weren’t warned. We were,” Yeger wrote on X.

“The Mayor-elect must unequivocally condemn this hateful graffiti…Time to represent and protect ALL New Yorkers,” said US Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican whose district covers Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

Mamdani condemned the graffiti, calling it a “disgusting and heartbreaking act of antisemitism.”

“It has no place in our beautiful city. As mayor, I will always stand steadfast with our Jewish neighbors to root the scourge of antisemitism out of our city,” he said.

Mamdani has repeatedly condemned antisemitism in New York and announced plans to combat discrimination against Jews, even as his anti-Israel rhetoric has alarmed swaths of Jewish New Yorkers.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, and other elected officials also spoke out against the vandalism.

“To all those in this community who are feeling anxious, especially the parents of the school, the children, know that we stand here to protect you,” Hochul said at a press conference in Brooklyn.

Jewish issues also came up at Mamdani’s first press conference after his election win. During the event in Queens, Mamdani said that he will serve all New Yorkers, including Jews who didn’t vote for him.

“I look forward to being the mayor for every person that calls this city home. That includes the Jewish New Yorkers that voted for our campaign, and those that didn’t. My responsibility is to all eight and a half million New Yorkers,” he said.

Leading Jewish groups in New York refrained from congratulating Mamdani on his election win and vowed, respectfully, to hold him accountable if he goes against the community’s beliefs and priorities.

Some of those tensions already surfaced at the press conference, when Mamdani was asked about criticism from Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt, and an ADL program announced earlier in the day that will track Mamdani’s administration.

“I have not spoken to Jonathan Greenblatt. I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously, and last night in my speech, I spoke about how my City Hall will stand steadfast with Jewish New Yorkers in fighting the scourge of antisemitism across the city,” he said.

“I think anyone is free to catalog the actions of our administration. I have some doubts in Jonathan’s ability to do so honestly, given that he previously said I had not visited any synagogues, only to have to correct himself,” Mamdani said.

Greenblatt said in an interview in August, after Mamdani won the city’s primary, that Mamdani had not visited any synagogues, although Mamdani had been to the far-left congregation Kolot Chayeinu and attended a mayoral debate at B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan during the primary.

Greenblatt later said that Mamdani had not visited “a single mainstream synagogue or Jewish community since the primary.”

The ADL’s program will “track and monitor policies and personnel appointments” in Mamdani’s incoming administration. The effort aims to protect Jewish New Yorkers, the ADL said in a statement.

“Mayor-Elect Mamdani has promoted antisemitic narratives, associated with individuals who have a history of antisemitism, and demonstrated intense animosity toward the Jewish state that is counter to the views of the overwhelming majority of Jewish New Yorkers,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “We are deeply concerned that those individuals and principles will influence his administration at a time when we are tracking a brazen surge of harassment, vandalism and violence targeting Jewish residents and institutions.”

The platform includes an antisemitism tip line for New Yorkers to report discrimination; research into policies, appointments and funding at City Hall that relate to Jews; and a “Mamdani monitor” that will track the administration.

Scott Richman, the New York and New Jersey regional director at the ADL, told The Times of Israel that the program was in line with other ADL initiatives to track “issues that are of a concern for us.”

“I don’t think it’s so revolutionary. It certainly is a step that we don’t take lightly, but we feel the situation warrants it, given the concern in the Jewish community,” Richman said.

As Jewish groups girded for Mamdani’s mayoralty, his allies celebrated his win as a victory for Palestine.

The national branch of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America said, “Zohran wasn’t afraid to say boldly what his voters and the majority of Americans believe: that Palestine should be free, and that the US shouldn’t be complicit in Israel’s genocide.”

“We will continue to fight for a free Palestine,” the party said in a statement.

Mamdani, a longtime DSA member, has said he joined the party due to its pro-Palestinian stance. He ran in the mayoral race as the Democratic Party candidate.