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<\/a><\/p>\nMayor Zohran Mamdani marches in the 44th Annual National Dominican Day Parade on August 9, 2026 in New York City. (NDZ\/Star Max\/GC Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mamdani, an avowed Israel critic, has faced mounting scrutiny in recent months from Jewish leaders to tone down his rhetoric, including his recent comments referring to AIPAC as \u201cmonsters\u201d and calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a \u201cwar criminal\u201d and the \u201carchitect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Mamdani\u2019s attack on Netanyahu late last month, which came as he acknowledged he did not have the authority to arrest the Israeli leader, several critics of the mayor linked his rhetoric to a stabbing attack on two men, one of whom was visibly Jewish.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one was there trying to convince the mayor to change his views on Israel,\u201d said Rabbi Jonathan Leener, an attendee and the leader of the Modern Orthodox Prospect Heights Shul, in an emailed statement to JTA. \u201cBut there were certainly moments of tension and passion, particularly as people tried to convey how isolated and vulnerable many Jewish New Yorkers feel right now, and the extent to which some believe his rhetoric has contributed to that sense of vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leener said he felt that the mayor was \u201cgenuinely engaging with us, acting in good faith, and listening carefully to our concerns, particularly our plea to help turn down the temperature.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, I will judge him and his administration by their actions and by the results they deliver around making Jewish New Yorkers feel safe,\u201d Leener added. \u201cBut I do applaud them for inviting us in, listening and creating space for a candid and substantive conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Rachel Timoner, whose Reform Park Slope synagogue Congregation Beth Elohim hosted Mamdani for a meeting with congregants during the mayoral race, said that while she didn\u2019t know what the mayor\u2019s next move would be, she hoped the meeting would be a \u201cbreakthrough moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next time he criticizes Israel, I would like to hear him in that moment simultaneously say, \u2018The Israeli government is not the same as Jewish New Yorkers. It is not acceptable ever to take out your anger at the Israeli government against the Jewish people of New York. And if you are hearing me in that way, you are mishearing me. You are misunderstanding me,’\u201d Timoner said.<\/p>\n
Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of Mamdani\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism, told JTA in a statement Monday that the group of rabbis included \u201cseveral denominations, including Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Modern Orthodox, as well as unaffiliated groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the meeting focused on \u201cstrategies to strengthen Jewish safety and belonging, maintain candid lines of communication and collaborate on issues where we have shared values and goals,\u201d Wisdom said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an open, positive and constructive conversation,\u201d Wisdom continued. \u201cMayor Mamdani has and will continue to engage with Jewish life in New York City in order to meet the needs of our communities and reaffirm his commitment to the thriving of Jewish communities across the five boroughs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting quickly sparked criticism from Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, the leader of the Modern Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side, who was not invited to the meeting and said the mayor should have worked with the New York Board of Rabbis to coordinate the roundtable. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe could have reached out to the organized rabbinic community, but he chose not to because he was trying to just pick a group of people that he thought might be more congenial to his particular politics,\u201d Steinmetz told JTA.<\/p>\n
Steinmetz, who has long been critical of Mamdani, said that while he had attended a meeting with the mayor previously, he believed the mayor was \u201cabsolutely insincere about caring about our concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours after the meeting, Mamdani posted on X a series of images of himself celebrating Pakistan\u2019s Independence Day, a tribute that Leener said \u201creflects a broader pattern of double standards and the singling out of Israel,\u201d referring to Pakistan\u2019s expulsions of Afghans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst that backdrop, I found it striking that the mayor felt comfortable publicly celebrating Pakistani Independence Day while choosing not to attend Israel\u2019s Independence Day celebration in June,\u201d Leener said. \u201cThe contrast reinforces a concern many of us raised in the meeting: that Israel is too often treated by a different standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
As New York\u2019s Jewish leaders look for signs that Monday\u2019s dialogue will translate into action, Jacobs said he hoped the mayor would prioritize conversations across the spectrum of New York Jewry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that the mayor will prioritize, as he seems to do in other communities, to really be in conversation, be in dialogue, be in relationship \u2014 not just with the people who are broadly supportive \u2014 but also those of us who have been publicly critical, as I have been, and I know others have been as well,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cThat\u2019s the obligation of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n