{"id":167922,"date":"2026-03-19T02:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/167922\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T02:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:41:10","slug":"orthodox-jewish-leaders-ripped-for-going-easy-on-israel-bashing-nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-easily-bought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/167922\/","title":{"rendered":"Orthodox Jewish leaders ripped for going easy on Israel-bashing NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani: ‘Easily bought’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prominent pro-Israel activist slammed Orthodox Jewish leaders for going easy on Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a meeting Monday, only to see Mamdani hours later accuse Israeli Jews of committing genocide in Gaza.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what Jewish betrayal looks like,\u201d fumed former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, in a videotaped statement on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the Jewish leaders who are for sale. Easily bought by Mamdani,\u201d said Hikind, who is himself Jewish.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov responded on X, \u201cThank you Dov for speaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani invited a small number of orthodox Jewish leaders to a meeting at City Hall<\/a>, which included Rabbi David Niederman, head of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg.<\/p>\n

Other attendees included Yeruchim Silber, New York government relations director for Agudath Israel, Rabbi Yaacov Behrman of Crown Heights and founder of Jewish Future Alliance, Yoel Rosenfeld, a leader in the Bobov community and Satmar community leader Rabbi Moishe Indig.<\/p>\n

One of the attendees did ask Mamdani if he would meet one of the hostages held captive by Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, Hikind and other sources said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor flashed his million dollar smile and surprise, surprise. He didn\u2019t say anything!\u201d said Hikind, who represented heavily orthodox Jewish Borough Park for 36 years, and was briefed after the meeting.<\/p>\n

Pro-Israel activist Dov Hikind slammed the Orthodox Jewish leaders who met with Mayor Zohran Mamdani earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Moishe Indig was one of the Orthodox leaders who met with Mamdani. x\/MoishIndig<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the day after, less than 24 hours after meeting with Jewish leaders, the mayor accuses Israel and the Jewish people of genocide. The next day, for God\u2019s sake!. How pathetic these so-called Jewish leaders are,\u201d he said, referring to Mamdani\u2019s comments during St. Patrick\u2019s Day events.<\/p>\n

One of the attendees, Yaacov Behrman, took issue with Hikind\u2019s condemnation, calling it misplaced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said the meeting was planned before recent controversies surrounding the allegedly anti-Israel actions of the mayor and his wife. <\/p>\n

The controversies include inviting accused Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil to Gracie Mansion<\/a> for Ramadan dinner and being recently introduced at an event by activist Abdullah Akl, who previously called for strikes on Tel Aviv. Also, First Lady Rama Duwaji drew controversy for doing artwork for Israel basher Susan Abulhawa.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting lasted as long, if not longer, than similar meetings I attended with the past three administrations, and I\u2019ve been to many such meetings over the years,\u201d Berhman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone present had the opportunity to speak. I used my time to respectfully and constructively raise concerns. I made a statement and did not ask a question, because my goal was to express my perspective and ensure the Mayor heard it directly from us.<\/p>\n

Mamdani compared the history of Ireland to the \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza at a St. Patrick\u2019s Day event at Gracie Mansion on March 17, 2026. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

Berhman continued, \u201cThe Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged Chassidim to show respect for the Office of the Mayor, even when there are disagreements or concerns. When invited to meet with the Mayor, boycotting a sitting Mayor is both misguided and foolish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berhman said he\u2019s known Hikind for a \u201cvery long time\u201d and that the former assemblyman did not call him about what transpired at the meeting with the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad he called, I am confident he would have agreed with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Michael Nussbaum, a Queens member of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said Mamdani should be consulting with a cross-section of Jewish New Yorkers, not just \u201cone segment\u201d \u2014 the ultra-orthodox community.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s office had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prominent pro-Israel activist slammed Orthodox Jewish leaders for going easy on Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3862,60,61,57,9,24,63,7714,87,14700,134,136,135,58,1424,82],"class_list":["post-167922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-antisemitism","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-orthodox-judaism","tag-politics","tag-satmar","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-us-news","tag-williamsburg","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}