NEW YORK — Ron Dov, an American-Israeli, watched his progressive LGBTQ+ community in New York City embrace anti-Israel politics following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and ensuing war in Gaza.
A chat group he had been in for years, focused on event tickets for the gay community, became a forum for anti-Zionism and accusations of genocide in Gaza. Any view that did not align with that consensus was immediately dismissed, Dov said, adding that the group had never before discussed politics.
Anti-Zionist activism came to the fore in community events such as NYC Pride and the Dyke March, and in queer art spaces and LGBTQ+ college clubs.
Prior to October 7, Dov said he had not experienced any similar issues in the LGBTQ+ community.
“I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’” said Dov, a 39-year-old with dual American-Israeli citizenship. “The LGBTQ community is probably the most anti-Israel and anti-Zionist community, and they’re the community that’s supposed to be the most welcoming, most understanding, and it’s become the exact opposite.”
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Dov began preparing a move to Israel due to the antisemitism and hatred toward Israel he witnessed in the LGBTQ+ community. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise last year sealed the deal for his decision to leave, Dov said. He made aliyah, or immigrated to Israel, in December 2025, weeks after Mamdani won the general election.
Mamdani’s win spurred discourse among Jewish New Yorkers about leaving the city, some of whom have followed through, decamping to Israel or nearby US states. Those who left pointed to multiple factors, including antisemitism on the streets and in schools, anti-Israel protests and the political climate.
An anti-Israel protester wearing a Hamas headband in New York City, September 23, 2025. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
The New York City primary election wins last month by Mamdani-backed anti-Israel candidates have solidified the decision for those who moved or are in the process of relocating.
Asked this month if he had any regrets about leaving, Dov said, “Zero. Oh my God, 0.000%.”
‘I was done’
Dov is not the only Jewish New Yorker who has left due to politics and antisemitism.
Robin Reiter, a single parent to a teenage son, moved from Manhattan’s Upper East Side to Jersey City, New Jersey, on June 26, three days after the primary elections. She cited antisemitism, concerns with the city’s public schools and politics as motivating her decision to leave.
“I was very sure as soon as [Mamdani] got elected that I was done,” Reiter said.
Robin Reiter, right. (Courtesy)
Mamdani, who identifies as an anti-Zionist, has made anti-Israel activism central to his politics. His ascendancy marked a sea change in New York City, where support for Israel in City Hall had been a given for generations. The recent Democratic Party primary wins by a trio of Israel critics indicated his victory was not a one-off.
The political transformation came after “thousands” of anti-Israel protests on city streets, antisemitic incidents in city schools and a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city, where Jews are targeted far more than any other group. Protests in the city regularly feature open support for Hamas and other terrorist groups, and calls to purge “Zionists.”
Mamdani, who often condemns antisemitism, has Jewish allies and supporters, and has pledged to combat anti-Jewish discrimination in the city, including by increasing funding for hate crimes prevention.
Critics argue that his anti-Zionist politics contribute to a hostile atmosphere against mainstream Jews and he has repeatedly clashed with prominent Jewish leaders.
Reiter added that she could no longer justify paying taxes to an educational system and a mayor who she felt was opposed to the Jewish community.
She said the results of the primary election the week she moved were another sign that she made the right choice.
“No part of me has regretted this,” Reiter said.
Protests, politics and a pull from Israel
Dov said that seeing hundreds of anti-Israel protesters streaming down his West Village street, coupled with anti-Zionism in the LGBTQ+ community and the changing political dynamics in New York, spurred his decision to leave.
There was also the draw of life in Israel. Dov said he was not running away from New York, but toward a life in the Jewish state. Making aliyah was something he had always dreamed about, and he sees upside to a long-term future in Israel, he said.
While there does not appear to be any updated data about Jews immigrating from New York to Israel or elsewhere, it seems clear that there is no mass exodus from the city. The vast majority of Jewish New Yorkers are staying in place.
There is evidence of an uptick in Jews who are considering a move, though. According to Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that facilitates immigration to Israel, applications to make aliyah from New York have increased since October 7, alongside a broader spike in North America. From the November 2025 mayoral election to July 2026, Nefesh B’Nefesh received 1,936 aliyah applications, a 31% increase over the 1,476 applications for the same period the previous year.
Like Dov, Arielle Sabol had long considered moving to Israel. Sabol, 35, moved to New York in her early twenties. She grew up in a Massachusetts community with few Jews, and one of the reasons she relocated to New York was because the city felt so Jewish, she said.
Sabol, a mother of two young daughters, said she no longer felt at ease in New York, citing protests that flooded her Brooklyn community, hearing “genocide” accusations from hecklers while picking up Shabbat candles from Chabad emissaries, and the politics becoming more anti-Israel.
She said that, while speaking Hebrew on the playground with her daughters, “People would scoff at me and walk away,” and that she no longer felt comfortable sending her 4-year-old to a non-Jewish school.
Arielle Sabol, center right, with family members, in New York City. (Courtesy)
Sabol and her husband, Alex, started contemplating a move to Israel in June 2025. In early 2026, after Mamdani was elected, they decided to start the aliyah process. Sabol and her family, including her mother, will move to Israel later this month.
“I definitely think the mayoral election and the rhetoric around it, there’s like this overwhelming community that’s just against you,” Sabol said. “The [primary] election that just happened, that is more evidence we made the right decision.”
‘No doubts in my mind’
The immigrants from New York are part of wider trends in the Diaspora and Israel. The Immigration and Absorption Ministry reported a 25% jump in immigrants last year from the United States, France, Britain and Canada.
At the same time, thousands of Israelis have immigrated abroad amid the war and domestic political turmoil. Israel recorded a negative migration balance in 2024 and 2025.
Jewish immigration is not only to or from Israel, either. Some Canadian Jews are weighing a relocation to the US, for example.
A 2024 Pew Research Study found that Jews are far more likely to immigrate than other religious groups.
Experts have said that Jews, like other migrants, are influenced by a range of factors in addition to antisemitism, such as socioeconomic conditions and education.
Police protect a Jewish center during an anti-Zionist rally in Brooklyn, New York City, May 12, 2026. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
Abby Brody, an education expert and author who left New York City before Mamdani’s election, said concerns about schools and antisemitism had pushed her to move from Manhattan’s Greenwich Village after 24 years.
Brody had never considered relocating until a New York University protest encampment appeared in her neighborhood. Brody said she had tried engaging with the protestors, but was labeled a “Zionist agitator,” physically surrounded and pushed out of the encampment. She could hear protesters chanting outside her first-floor apartment, where she lived with her husband and two sons.
At the same time, her sixth-grade son received group texts from classmates with images of Adolf Hitler and a statement that said, “Any Jews here wanna go to the chambers.”
Two screenshots show antisemitic messages received by Abby Brody’s son. (Courtesy)
Brody said her school’s lack of a response, coupled with the protests and the overall climate in the city, spurred her decision to leave New York. She moved to Westport, Connecticut, in May 2024. She said her two sons are enrolled in public school and her family has not experienced any antisemitism in their new home.
“My kids have created the most incredible friendships. They’re really proudly Jewish and have no fear to wear their Stars of David,” Brody said. “That, to me, is the most important thing right now.”
She has set up a group, called Found a Tribe, to connect Jews and allies who lost friendships due to antisemitism.
While she left before Mamdani became mayor, she felt his victory vindicated her move.
“I felt very much a sense of betrayal when Mamdani won,” Brody said. “What Jews have brought to New York City, the arts, all the things, to have this man elected, I felt was an ultimate betrayal.”
A swastika on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, May 13, 2026. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
Some Jewish New Yorkers plan to leave the city, but are earlier in the relocation process.
Martha Tabachnikova, 40, a Brooklyn lawyer, said she and her husband were working on a long-term plan to relocate.
Born in Odesa, Ukraine, Tabachnikova moved to the United States as a Soviet Jewish refugee when she was three years old. She has been living in her childhood home in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, for nearly thirty years and has two boys, ages nine and 12.
After the anti-Israel candidates swept their primaries last month, Tabachnikova said she and her husband began discussing a move, although they do not yet have definitive plans.
“I have no doubts in my mind that my children should be planning their lives elsewhere,” Tabachnikova said.