Rabbi Scott Roland of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood has been long troubled by remarks that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has often spoken since he was elected on Nov. 4, 2025.
So, when Roland found out about a letter that rabbis and cantors from around the United States were signing that called on Mamdani to apologize for comments he made at a June 18 rally ahead of the New York Democratic primaries, where he described the AIPAC as “monsters,” the rabbi jumped at the chance to do so.
“I have been quite concerned for some time about Mayor Mamdani’s rhetoric and the danger it has the potential to bring to Jews in New York and elsewhere,” Roland told the Cleveland Jewish News. “The mayor thinks he can separate anti-Zionism from antisemitism. In practice, I do not believe this is possible.”
Over 700 clergy from 39 states and Washington, D.C., signed the letter, which was published on June 26 and organized by the Jewish Majority advocacy group, which is headed by AIPAC veteran Jonathan Schulman.
Roland said the letter was circulating around several rabbinic listservs and “when I received it from the Zionist Rabbinical Coalition, an important organization on whose board I serve, I clicked and read through the statement.”
Twenty members of the clergy from Ohio signed the letter.
Eight are from the Cleveland area: Rabbi Daniel Olgin of University Heights; Rabbi Steven Denker of Beachwood; Rabbi Daniel Kasdan of Cleveland; Rabbi Richard Block of Beachwood; Rabbi Matthew Eisenberg of Mayfield Heights; Cantor Larry Josefovitz of Beachwood, Rabbi Binyamin Blau of Beachwood and Roland.
Rabbi John Spitzer of Canton and Rabbi Seth Sernstein of Youngstown also signed.
The Columbus area had five rabbis sign: Rabbi Morris Allen, Rabbi Cary Kozberg and Rabbi Harold Berman, all of Columbus; Rabbi Gary Huber of Dublin and Rabbi Howard Apothaker of New Albany.
The Cincinnati area had five representatives: Rabbi Ezra Goldschmiedt, Rabbi Gerry Walter, Rabbi Margaret Meyer, Rabbi Gary Phillip Zola and Rabbi Lewis Kamrass.
“We are rabbis and cantors from across the United States,” the letter said. “We serve different communities, hold different political views, and do not speak with one voice on every question concerning Israel, American politics or the war in Gaza. But we are united in our belief that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent speech about pro-Israel civic participation is dangerous, unacceptable and beneath the office he holds.”
During the rally in Brooklyn, attended by Vermont Sen.Bernie Sanders, Mamdani said that “now is the time of monsters” and that “these monsters take many forms today.” He then singled out AIPAC, a bipartisan American lobbying group and grassroots organization that advocates for strong political, strategic and economic relations between the United States and Israel, as one of those “monsters.”
“In AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars,” Mamdani said.
He also claimed that AIPAC moves “millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal: to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary.”
“Using the language of “monsters” against political opponents is an act of dehumanization, and when the targets of that dehumanization are overwhelmingly associated with the Jewish community the consequences become especially dangerous,” the letter said. “History demonstrates that campaigns against Jews often begin with rhetoric portraying them as uniquely sinister, uniquely powerful and somehow less deserving of equal treatment. Mr. Mamdani’s words invoke a familiar story about Jewish power, Jewish money and Jewish manipulation of public life.”
Singling out AIPAC is one of many ways that antisemites, under the guise of anti-Zionism, single out Jews, Roland said.
“There are many reasonable arguments to be made for campaign finance reform in our country,” he said. “Only one of more than 2,500 Super PACs is regularly flung about as a slur or an ideological litmus test. Not to mention Mayor Mamdani’s use of well worn antisemitic tropes alongside his criticism of AIPAC.”
The wide array of clergy from different backgrounds coming together in this instance was important, Roland said, because it is crucial for “majority voices to rise above the noise of the news cycle.”
“Every poll in recent history has shown that the vast majority of American Jews are supportive of the Jewish State,” Roland said. “Reading the news, one may think otherwise. It’s incumbent upon all Jews to take a stand against the misinformation campaigns that are threatening our people and its safety. I encourage my rabbinic colleagues to add their names to this important statement and I encourage affiliated Jews to insist their rabbis to do the same.”