Now that\u2019s chutzpah!\u00a0<\/p>\n
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is the true Chosen One for a generation of NYC Jews, whose adoration only intensified the more critics called him an antisemite, his top legal adviser boasted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what our campaign has shown is that the real political leader of the young Jewish community in New York is Zoran Mamdani, and so there\u2019s a huge disconnect between some of the standard bearers of that community and their own youth,\u201d\u00a0 lefty lawyer Ali Najmi <\/a>told Oberlin College President Twillie Ambar in a recent podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (right) is the true Chosen One of young NYC Jews, according Ali Najmi (left), his top election lawyer during his mayoral campaign and transition to city government. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n Even Ambar, who heads one of the most liberal institutions in the free world, was taken aback.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a bold statement,\u201d she responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n After all, Mamdani supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the Jewish state, has accused Israelis of committing genocide in Gaza and associates with left-wing radicals considered antisemitic<\/a>, such as Hasan Piker and Linda Sarsour.<\/a><\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s critics have also expressed concern over the mayor\u2019s refusal to condemn the \u201cglobalize the intifada\u201d rallying cry for violence against Jewish people.\u00a0<\/p>\n And his wife, Rama Duwaji, has come under fire for recently resurfaced social media posts she liked, praising Palestinian militants\u2019 attacks against Israel and claiming Hamas\u2019 rapes of Israelis during the Oct. 7, 2003 terror attack<\/a> were a \u201cmass hoax.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n But Najmi \u2013 who was Mamdani\u2019s top election lawyer during his mayoral campaign and transition to city government and now chairs the Mayor\u2019s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary \u2013 insisted that the more Mamdani is bashed, the more he was embraced by young Gotham Jews.<\/p>\n Carmen Twillie Ambar, President of Oberlin College, told Najmi on her podcast that he made a \u201cbold statement\u201d claiming that Mamdani is \u201cthe real political leader of NYC Jews.\u201d AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we wound up learning after this election is that most people agreed with what he was saying in support of Palestinian human rights,\u201d claimed Najmi during the Feb. 28 \u201cRunning With The Noise\u201d podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, the more they called him an anti-Semite, the more young Jewish people showed up to the campaign. Perhaps the biggest bloc of support that Mandani has that people don\u2019t realize is young Jewish people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at the donor list; you look at the names, the last names; you look at who\u2019s knocking on the doors, \u2019cause I know who our fellow campaign people are. And so it had this, like, inverse reaction response.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tKeep up with today\u2019s most important news\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStay up on the very latest with Evening Update.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Critics were galled by Najmi\u2019s doublespeak.<\/p>\n \u201cHilariously ridiculous,\u201d said state Assemblyman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn). <\/p>\n \u201cIf anything, his campaign has shown a real attempt to erase Jews from civic life. The notion that Mr. Mamdani and his friends get to decide the makeup of the Jewish community is laughable. <\/p>\n \u201cIn Jewish neighborhoods throughout New York City, he got trounced. Youth, seniors and everyone in between, including an overwhelming majority of Democrats in my neighborhood, resoundingly rejected his hate message.\u201d<\/p>\n Moshe Davis, who headed the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat\u00a0Antisemitism<\/a> under ex-Mayor Eric Adams, said \u201cMamdani isn\u2019t leading these young Jewish people. He\u2019s exploiting their disconnection with their Jewish identity and their heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe more they called him an anti-Semite, the more young Jewish people showed up to the campaign. Perhaps the biggest block of support that Mandani has that people don\u2019t realize is young Jewish people,: said Namji. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n \u201cThese young people will grow up; they will seek belonging, meaning, and roots,\u201d said Davis, who Mamdani fired in February <\/a>before tapping Phylisa Wisdom his new antisemitism czar \u2014 despite her long history of spewing anti-Israel venom. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd when they do, they will ask why the mayor of New York City spent his tenure attacking everything their community stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n