New York stands on the edge of a moral and political precipice.
If Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor, it will mark the most radical turn in the city’s modern history – and the gravest danger the Jewish community has faced from an elected official since the city’s founding.
In 1727, New York became the first city in the American colonies where Jews could be naturalized as citizens – a milestone in the history of freedom. The achievement came after more than 70 years of Jewish settlement and civic involvement, dating back to the Dutch colonial period when the rabidly racist, antisemitic, and anti-Catholic Governor Peter Stuyvesant was prevented by his superiors in Amsterdam from expelling the first 23 Jewish immigrants from New Amsterdam. That act of reluctant tolerance – Stuyvesant slapped them with a special “Jew tax” and wouldn’t let them build a synagogue or serve in the militia – evolved over generations into recognition and full citizenship.
From merchants who helped finance the American Revolution, to the business and financial leaders who were instrumental in creating Wall Street, Broadway, and the Garment Center, to the philanthropists who built and sustained the city’s world-class universities, hospitals, and museums, the Jewish community became inseparable from New York’s astonishing success and unique identity.
So much for history. If Mamdani wins the mayoralty, by 2027 – three centuries after that forgotten milestone of inclusion – New York Jews are likely to again find themselves in a precarious position as barely or conditionally tolerated second-class citizens. This time, however, their status and safety will depend on their degrees of identification with Israel and Zionism – the remarkable movement of Jewish national liberation and self-determination.
The peril is all too apparent to be downplayed or ignored. The man who, as of this writing, is heavily favored to become New York’s 111th mayor, presents himself as a reformer in the LaGuardia tradition. In truth, Mamdani is a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) demagogue who sees New York as a platform for radical change. The DSA’s program is clear: dismantle capitalism, reengineer society along Marxist lines, and sever America’s alliance with Israel.
Mamdani’s words and record make plain his prejudices and allegiances. Though he avoids explicitly uttering the annihilationist Palestinian terrorist – and radical left-wing – slogan “from the river to the sea,” his rhetoric and associations unmistakably reflect its meaning: a rejection of Israel’s right to exist as the world’s only Jewish state. He has championed the BDS movement, which seeks to isolate Israel economically and culturally, and has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide while showing no genuine empathy for Jewish victims of Palestinian terrorism.
Mamdani has even reaffirmed his outrageous vow to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York, citing the International Criminal Court’s warrant, though a mayor has no legal authority whatsoever to do so, and the United States does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Mamdani’s comfort with anti-Israel – and anti-American – extremists is visible in the company he keeps. Among those he has publicly embraced is an imam who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, though never charged. The Brooklyn-based cleric later appeared as a character witness for the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy and other offenses related to terrorist plots on American soil, and helped raise funds for the assassin of Rabbi Meir Kahane. Over decades, the imam’s sermons and statements have been marked by hostility to Western democracy and contempt for LGBTQ people.
Mamdani’s decision to appear with and praise such a man speaks volumes about the candidate’s instincts and sympathies. It reveals a deep ideological alignment with those who see both America and Israel as enemies.
Mamdani’s hostility toward Zionism is foundational to his worldview. From an early age, he absorbed an anti-Israel narrative at home; what began as inherited ideology has hardened into conviction, shaping his political identity. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of political science, anthropology and African studies, has for decades advanced the postcolonial theory that Western nations – and by extension, Israel – owe their prosperity to colonial conquest and exploitation, portraying the Jewish State as a settler-colonial project born of injustice. It is through that prism of postcolonial dogma and ideological hostility toward the West that Zohran Mamdani has learned to see the world.
His manipulative instinct is evident in his cynical assurance that “Zionist Jews would also be welcome” in his administration. Delivered with an air of magnanimous tolerance, the statement is actually offensive. It presumes the right to classify Jews according to their political reliability – to divide Jews into “acceptable” and “suspect” factions based on their connection to Israel.
Which makes sense because Mamdani has effectively become the local leader of the international intersectional left, a gender- and race-obsessed revolutionary movement that mixes Marxism and postcolonial theory to recast humanity in binary terms: oppressor and oppressed. America is branded the chief oppressor; Israel, its outpost. The duality is strikingly similar to the Islamist Iranian regime’s designation of America as the “Great Satan” and Israel as the “Little Satan.”
Intersectionality demands that every social question – from policing to housing to education – be filtered through a lens of colonial legacy and guilt. In this warped moral universe, success is theft, order is oppression, and the Jewish people – history’s most persecuted minority – are recast as privileged aggressors.
And Third World countries, no matter how backward or brutal, repressive or reactionary, are regarded as inherently virtuous. Hence Uganda-born Mamdani’s apparent lack of discomfort with retaining his Ugandan citizenship – the 34-year-old only became a naturalized citizen of the United States seven years ago – despite the African country’s notorious anti-gay laws that includes the death penalty for some infringements.
Mamdani’s rise isn’t accidental. It’s the result of years of left-wing ideological infiltration of America’s universities, unions, and the Democratic Party. Now, after capturing several congressional seats (see “the Squad”) and ahead of the 2026 midterm and 2028 presidential elections, the movement audaciously aspires to its greatest prize to date – political control of America’s greatest city, home to nearly one million Jews and the largest Jewish population center outside Israel.
That the DSA’s Mamdani has gotten this far despite his glaring lack of qualifications is a testament to the success of the far left and its mainstream media enablers.
Mamdani has never managed a business, run a municipal or state agency, or held a position that demanded accountability for budgets, payrolls, or public safety. His resume reads more like that of a campus activist than a leader. Before entering politics, he worked as a tenant organizer and campaign volunteer. He has no record of creating jobs, meeting a payroll, or balancing competing public priorities.
In a city that depends on practical competence to function – from sanitation to policing to housing – Mamdani offers only slogans and ideology. His inexperience alone disqualifies him from serious leadership.
Nowhere is Mamdani’s radicalism more obvious than in his assault on law enforcement and public safety. He has vowed to close New York City’s largest jail complex, Rikers Island, and decriminalize entire categories of crime – an agenda guaranteed to make New York less safe for families, businesses, and entire communities.
He has also declared his intention to disband NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), the 600-officer unit responsible for monitoring and controlling demonstrations as well as responding to citywide mobilizations, civil disorder, major emergencies, and mass shootings. Mamdani made this pledge as part of his campaign, specifically citing the SRG’s alleged role in mistreatment of protesters and the high costs of lawsuit settlements arising from its actions. And he reiterated his commitment to eliminating the unit even as he tried to distance himself from his broader “defund the police” rhetoric, insisting he will keep police funding flat – but certainly not hire more officers – and his social media posts, dating back to 2020, labeling the NYPD as “racist,” “wicked and corrupt,” and “a major threat to public safety.”
In fact, disbanding the SRG threatens public safety; it’s a reckless act that will invite chaos in the streets. The specialized unit is often the only line between peaceful protest and violent disorder. The unit’s elimination will embolden pro-Hamas rioters and all but ensure more violence, vandalism, and intimidation across the city.
Mamdani’s disdain for the NYPD’s intelligence unit is equally troubling. He has clearly stated positions supporting the scaling back of surveillance practices, particularly those linked to post-9/11 policing and federal task force collaborations that he claims disproportionately impact minority and “activist” communities – code for Islamist and radical leftwing groups. Moreover, he has advocated dismantling databases and intelligence systems, including the NYPD’s “gang database” and surveillance in Muslim communities, in favor of so-called community-driven safety and oversight models.
As part of the effort to clean up his anti-police image, Mamdani has said he will consider keeping Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the respected, tough-minded professional who embodies competence and accountability – and is a proud Jew whose prominent family has a long history of support for Jewish philanthropy in New York and Israel.
But Mamdani’s promise isn’t an act of moderation. It’s political theater. The very idea that a DSA standard-bearer who seeks to dismantle the city’s law-enforcement framework would retain the person most identified with maintaining order is absurd. The promise is meant to mislead – to create an illusion of balance and pragmatism in a campaign built on radical repudiation of public order.
New Yorkers should recognize Mamdani’s moves for what they are: calculated deceptions aimed at disarming legitimate fears about safety, governance, and the direction of the city.
Beyond such gestures lies a program that threatens the very foundations of public life. In education, Mamdani’s war on excellence will abolish public school gifted-and-talented programs and cripple the public school system’s independently operated charter schools that serve striving immigrant and minority families. His “free bus” scheme will cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually while turning the city’s buses into a rolling refuge for drug addicts and the homeless – undermining safety, reliability, and public confidence in mass transit. His proposed tax hikes on corporations, professionals, and property owners will drive businesses, jobs, and high earners out of the city, leaving behind a shrinking tax base and rising despair.
The language associated with these policies – an endless drumbeat of resentment and class warfare – divides New York by turning ambition into guilt and success into sin. His policies will replace a city of opportunity with a city of envy, driving out the people and institutions that make New York thrive.
The agenda is unmistakable: end excellence in schools, punish productivity, and stigmatize success. That isn’t governance; it is ideological warfare. And make no mistake: the victims in this conflict will include Jewish families and institutions reliant on the city’s economic vitality.
The danger Mamdani poses is practical, immediate, and catastrophic. His policies and programs will fuel violent crime, accelerate business flight, hollow out neighborhoods, and spark waves of anarchy that the city will be powerless to stop. Neighborhoods that are thriving will be targeted and abandoned. The Jewish community will face heightened risk and an unprecedented sense of vulnerability.
What is sure to follow is entirely predictable – a cascading collapse in tax revenue, a retreat of private investment, mass exodus by those who can leave, and a city plunged into chronic fear and decline.
At this stage, the evidence speaks for itself. Behind Mamdani’s practiced smile and polished rhetoric of justice and inclusion lies a cold contempt for the institutions and communities that hold this city together: the police who risk their lives to protect it, the teachers who inspire and uphold academic achievement, the entrepreneurs and professionals who keep the economy alive, and the Jewish citizens whose faith, peoplehood, and historic connection to Israel he treats as negotiable. His campaign is built on inversion – calling division unity, hostility tolerance, extremism progress.
Mamdani is betting that New Yorkers, while traditionally priding themselves on being too street-smart to fall for a fraud, will buy his act – as unsuspecting immigrants and tourists once believed they could buy the Brooklyn Bridge. At the turn of the 20th century, confidence man George C. Parker swindled people out of their savings by “selling” the span itself, complete with forged deeds and convincing paperwork. Some victims, believing they’d made a sound, life-changing investment, even tried to erect tollbooths at the bridge entrances before police stopped them. Parker’s cruel con preyed on the yearning of outsiders to get rich quick by owning a piece of America.
Mamdani’s con is far more menacing. Like all great swindles, it feeds on belief – on the seductive promise of easy solutions and schemes that are too good to be true. It draws strength from genuine frustrations: the anger over sky-high housing costs, the despair of worsening income inequality, and the hope that radical change might somehow fix it all.
But this time, the price isn’t just lost savings, bad as that was for Parker’s many marks. It’s Gotham’s future. Mamdani’s rule will make life miserable for all New Yorkers – including those who vote for him – and could destroy the city.