USA
More than 800 US rabbis sign open letter opposing NY mayoral frontrunner Mamdani
‘We will not accept a culture that treats... Jewish inclusion as something to be “granted”.’
October 24, 2025 10:11
‘We will not accept a culture that treats... Jewish inclusion as something to be “granted”.’
October 24, 2025 10:11More than 850 rabbis and cantors from across the United States have signed an open letter stating their opposition to frontrunning New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
The letter, titled A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future, begins by saying: “As rabbis from across the United States committed to the security and prosperity of the Jewish people, we are writing in our personal capacities to declare that we cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism and its political normalisation throughout our nation.
"When public figures like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani refuse to condemn violent slogans, deny Israel’s legitimacy, and accuse the Jewish state of genocide, they, in the words of New York Board of Rabbis president Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, ‘Delegitimise the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews’.”
The New York mayoral elections are due to take place on November 4. According to the most recent polling, Democrat Mamdani is likely to win the race, beating out opposition from independent candidate, and former state governor, Andrew Cuomo and Republican activist Curtis Sliwa.
Mamdani has a long history of anti-Israel activism – co-founding his college’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine while at university – and has accused Israel of “indiscriminate,” “limitless” and “criminal killing of civilians”. He also said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he came to New York City.
The 34-year-old recently drew ire from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum when he claimed, while defending the phrase “globalise the intifada,” that it had used the word “intifada” to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The museum later released a statement saying: “Exploiting the museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitise ‘globalise the intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors.”
In one section of the letter – which was organised by the new Jewish Majority advocacy group, led by AIPAC veteran Jonathan Schulman – the rabbis state: “We will not accept a culture that treats Jewish self-determination as a negotiable ideal or Jewish inclusion as something to be ‘granted’. The safety and dignity of Jews in every city depend on rejecting that false choice.”
They conclude by saying: “Now is the time for everyone to unite across political and moral divides, and to reject the language that seeks to delegitimise our Jewish identity and our community.”
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