An Open Letter to Zohran Mamdani
Dear Mr. Mamdani,
As a rabbi-activist for more than five decades, I have sought to raise a voice of Jewish moral conscience when our community, and human rights more broadly, have been threatened. I did so when opposing the candidacies of David Duke, Pat Buchanan, and, more recently, Jamaal Bowman. I feel compelled to speak now with the same clarity about your mayoral candidacy. Let me explain why.
While I recognize that aspects of your agenda are grounded in what you view as social justice, you fail to understand something fundamental: Judaism is not only a religion. It is a people and a nation rooted in a land. The very first charge G-d gives to Abraham is: “Go to the land that I will show you.” To oppose Israel as a Jewish state is to strike at the core of Judaism. Good people can disagree vigorously on policy – but when one undermines the basic being of a people, one has crossed a line.
One of the heroic moral voices of our time, Natan Sharansky, articulated the “3-D Test” for identifying when criticism of Israel crosses into antisemitism: delegitimization, demonization, and double standards. I believe your public statements fail all three. By denying Jewish nationhood, by labeling Israel’s actions as “racist” and “genocidal,” and by doing so while remaining virtually silent regarding actual ongoing genocides in Nigeria, China, Yemen, and Sudan, you enact precisely the delegitimization, demonization, and double standard we’ve been warned against.
With the election just days away, I ask that you clearly and unequivocally:
- Affirm that the Jewish people have the right to a Jewish state.
- Demand that Hamas – whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews everywhere – disarm and demilitarize.
- Condemn the slogan “global intifada,” which directly endangers Jews in New York and worldwide.
- Reject the BDS movement, which aims to undermine the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
I remain hopeful that New Yorkers across religious, ethnic, and political lines understand that when one community is threatened, every community is at risk – and will vote accordingly.
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Avi Weiss
Avi Weiss is a rabbi, theologian and activist. He is the author of Spiritual Activism: A Guide to Jewish Leadership and Repairing the World. His new book, Defending Holocaust Memory, is scheduled for publication this winter.
A Plea to Voters
For the first time in my five decades of Jewish public service, I am making a political endorsement. I will be voting for Andrew Cuomo to be the next mayor of the City of New York.
I don’t take this position lightly. The stakes are just too high in the mayoral contest for me to remain silent. Of course, I have concerns for the future of the city should an avowed socialist act on his pledges to make the city affordable by potentially bankrupting its finances. But as a proud Jewish New Yorker, having an occupant of City Hall who:
- Denies the Jewish right to self-determination in their ancient and now modern homeland,
- Rejects the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state,
- Slanders Israel as an apartheid state, ignoring its Declaration of Independence which guarantees social and political equality to all inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex,
- Falsely accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza,
- Refuses to repudiate the blatantly antisemitic slogan “Globalize the Intifada,”
- Uses the term “Zionist” as a pejorative,
- Supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which delegitimizes Israel,
- Threatens to illegally arrest the democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel should he step onto New York City’s soil, and
- Desists from calling for Hamas to lay down its weapons
would put at risk the residents of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. A vote for a Republican who has no chance of winning is essentially a vote for the Democratic Party nominee identified with socialism, an ideology long steeped in antisemitism. While former Governor Andrew Cuomo, whom I have known over many years and have been with him in Israel, has his baggage, there are absolutely no acceptable alternatives.
Early voting has already begun. The fate of the city and its Jewish citizenry will depend on your vote and the election’s outcome. Your vote truly matters. Make sure you are registered and vote for Andrew Cuomo for mayor.
Rabbi Michael S. Miller
CEO Emeritus, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York
The Jewish Press’s Necessary Endorsement
Despite Curtis Sliwa’s preferable position on the issues, your editorial endorsement of Andrew Cuomo is advisable, since he is the only candidate who has a chance of defeating Mamdani. Cuomo may be flawed, but supporting him is far more palatable than the Allies support of Stalin over Hitler in World War II. In fact, this afternoon I listened to excerpts of Mamdani’s Saturday campaign rally, and especially during AOC’s rant, I could close my eyes and, allowing for a different vocal pitch, I could easily imagine I was listening to Hitler or Mussolini. And listening to the crowd chanting “Tax the rich” is truly theater of the absurd, when it is the rich and super-rich who are funding Mamdani and the entire Leftist apparat.
Polls suggest Mamdani may receive as much as one-fourth to one-half of the Jewish vote. How could anyone vote for a man who has no objection to globalizing the intifada, and whose economic policies – free public transit, free childcare, rent control, and government-run grocery stores – are sure to cause disaster?
In the words of Elvis Presley, “it’s now or never” to stop New York City before it goes over the cliff.
Richard Kronenfeld
Phoenix, Ariz.
Don’t Call Dead Hostages ‘Deceased’
A simple, but important, request for every media outlet to immediately substitute one word in their press coverage when referring to the dead bodies being returned to Israel: They are not merely “deceased hostages” – they are “murdered hostages” – and the world needs to be reminded of that whenever they are referred to.
They were murdered – either killed by ammunition, or starvation, or having their medication withheld. “Deceased” refers to anyone who passed away, usually from natural causes.
Let us pray together for the immediate return of our murdered brethren, Hy”d, for proper burial.
Paul E. Brody, M.D.
Via E-mail
Fighting The Genocide Allegation
Hamas has already won the public relations war, having convinced many Americans and citizens of the world to believe the Big Lie that Israel is committing genocide. TV and videos show violence in real time, more graphically than the Nazi atrocities that were not witnessed even by most of today’s older generation.
This is jeopardizing present and future military support of Israel and present and future economic trade.
I respectfully believe that just as the military war now seems far from over once again, there is still time for the Israelis to win the public relations war or at least cut their public relations losses. I therefore propose that Prime Minister Netanyahu and every Israeli and Jewish spokesperson say virtually nothing else for public consumption except to quote or paraphrase the most relevant and authoritative findings and conclusions of John Spencer, formerly a U.S. Army officer and the current chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute, host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast at West Point, and a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare.
Spencer concluded that Israel’s military did more to protect enemy civilians than any other army in history by routinely using both high-tech and low-tech in unprecedented ways to help Gazan civilians escape imminent harm, thereby saving more enemy civilians than any other army in world history.
It has been widely reported that, by contrast, certain non-Israelis tried to prevent Gazan civilians from escaping in order to drive up the numbers of civilians killed and drive up the numbers of people available to serve as human shields.
This is in addition to unprecedented quantities of food transported from Israel to Gaza and often hijacked by a certain group of Arabs (again that euphemism), thereby preventing much of the food from reaching ordinary Gazan civilians.
Nothing else should be said in public speeches about the war, so the media will finally be compelled to cover these life-saving efforts of the Israelis and spread the word. Words can kill or heal. Let’s encourage everyone to simply place every action in context, in which case the allegations of genocide will be made only against the true perpetrators of genocide in this war, who did their most notable work on October 7, and were proud of it – who videotaped and publicized it (also pretty much unprecedented, showing real-time evidence), who would surely have continued had they not been stopped, and who pledged to do it again in the future, if given the opportunity.
Ari Rice
Via E-mail