{"id":274644,"date":"2026-06-23T00:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274644\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T00:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:06:22","slug":"some-jewish-allies-of-mamdani-denounce-his-use-of-monsters-to-describe-aipac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274644\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Jewish allies of Mamdani denounce his use of \u2018monsters\u2019 to describe AIPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Jewish Week via JTA \u2014 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended his use of the word \u201cmonsters\u201d<\/a> to describe AIPAC at a rally Friday for progressive candidates, as some of his Jewish supporters expressed concern that the term may connote an antisemitic trope.<\/p>\n

The war of words came as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is increasingly a target of the progressive movement \u2014 including in acts of attempted violence \u2014 and as progressive Jews have accused some Israeli right-wing figures of dehumanizing liberal pro-Israel lobbying groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling AIPAC and its backers \u2018monsters\u2019 casts them as less than human, rather than as human beings who are one\u2019s political opponents,\u201d Rabbi Jill Jacobs, head of the progressive rabbinic human rights group T\u2019ruah, wrote in a Substack post Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taken aback,\u201d Rabbi Misha Shulman, a Mamdani supporter who leads the progressive Brooklyn synagogue The New Shul, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the mayor\u2019s comments. \u201cI didn\u2019t like those remarks. It was a little bit of a flag for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a press conference, Mamdani said he had been quoting Italian anti-fascist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, whose quote ending \u201cNow is the time of monsters\u201d the mayor had cited at the top of his speech. The rally was intended to boost the mayor\u2019s preferred progressive candidates, including Jewish congressional candidate Brad Lander, ahead of New York\u2019s closely watched Tuesday primaries.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI used the term to describe all those who are preventing the birth of a new world,\u201d Mamdani told a reporter who asked about the word. He continued, \u201cMy use of the term is a broad use that speaks to the untenable nature of a status quo that is quite literally starving people in this city, all in the name of sustaining something that we simply cannot defend any longer.\u201d He did not explain how he saw AIPAC as connected to poverty in New York.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, right, gestures on stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders during a Get Out The Vote rally ahead of New York\u2019s primary election, June 18, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP\/Ryan Murphy)<\/p>\n

Mamdani insisted he was referring to \u201cnot solely AIPAC,\u201d but he singled out the organization again in his Monday remarks to reporters, saying the lobbying group was backing \u201ca status quo for immorality.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the rally last week, Mamdani had stated that Gramsci\u2019s \u201cmonsters take many forms today,\u201d including \u201cAIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu\u2019s wars.\u201d He added that AIPAC\u2019s \u201cgoal\u201d is \u201cto turn us against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some of the progressive Jews who have supported the mayor, his comments sounded alarms about the use of dehumanizing or sinister rhetoric to describe Jewish groups.<\/p>\n

But Shulman said it was actually Mamdani\u2019s remarks in the same speech painting AIPAC as a \u201cdark money\u201d group that was most alarming to him. AIPAC, a lobbying organization that also operates a political spending arm, does not conceal its donors, unlike the traditional profile of a so-called \u201cdark money\u201d campaign finance operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the question of dark money was the tougher knot,\u201d Shulman said, calling Mamdani\u2019s remarks a \u201ctactical mistake.\u201d In the context of rising antisemitism, he added, \u201cFor a left-wing leader to use that phrase, and invite traditional antisemitism into this conversation in that way, was not smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shulman is a member of Israelis For Peace, a New York-based ad-hoc group of progressive Israelis who broadly back Mamdani. While not speaking on behalf of the group, he told JTA their internal group chat lit up with debates over the appropriateness of Mamdani\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tRabbi Jill Jacobs at a protest against the Israeli government\u2019s proposed judicial reforms in New York City, February 21, 2023. (Luke Tress\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Jacobs of T\u2019ruah said Mamdani\u2019s remarks were part of what she described as a \u201cdisturbing trend\u201d of recent left-wing attacks on the lobbying group, including Maine Democratic US Senate nominee Graham Platner accusing his GOP opponent of being \u201cbought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu\u201d because of AIPAC\u2019s donations to her campaign.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has aspirations of higher office, also recently became the first sitting member of Congress to sign a pledge from Track AIPAC, a purported AIPAC watchdog that also targets donations from more liberal pro-Israel groups, including J Street.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, a cafe posted on Instagram<\/a> that it had rejected a payment from liberal Jewish New York Rep. Dan Goldman, whom Lander is challenging in the primary, because the money was \u201cprobably coming from AIPAC.\u201d (Goldman has been endorsed by both AIPAC and J Street.)<\/p>\n

While noting that AIPAC \u201cabsolutely deserves to be criticized, sidelined, and rejected for its decades of negative influence on American foreign policy,\u201d Jacobs wrote that such critiques should be done \u201cwithout dehumanizing language, and without hinting at a grand Jewish conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such pushback from Jews who have worked with Mamdani is rare. JTA reached out to representatives for several of the mayor\u2019s most visible Jewish allies on Monday, including Lander and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spoke at the same rally. Sanders also criticized AIPAC. Neither returned requests for comment by press time. On social media after the rally, Lander celebrated the event, calling it \u201ca tremendous honor\u201d to rally alongside Mamdani.<\/p>\n

IfNotNow and Jews For Racial and Economic Justice, two Jewish activist groups that endorsed Mamdani, similarly did not respond to requests for comment by press time. A spokesperson for Rep. Jerry Nadler, the retiring liberal Jewish Democrat who had endorsed Mamdani\u2019s mayoral bid, also did not respond by press time.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThen-US vice president Mike Pence speaks at the 2018 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference at Washington Convention Center, on March 5, 2018, in Washington, DC (AP\/Jose Luis Magana)<\/p>\n

J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby that positions itself as a foil to AIPAC, declined to comment on Mamdani\u2019s remarks. Last month, hundreds of Jewish leaders criticized Yehuda Leiter, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United States, after Leiter called J Street<\/a> a \u201ccancer within the Jewish community.\u201d Nadler was among the signatories of an open letter that said Leiter \u201cdehumanizes fellow Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Centrist Jewish groups and figures, already no fans of Mamdani, also bashed his AIPAC comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cReferring to fellow New Yorkers as \u2018monsters\u2019 is outrageous and dangerous, and the impact of your words extends far beyond politics,\u201d American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch wrote on X, addressing Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Jewish Democrat representing New Jersey, wrote, \u201cSwap \u2018AIPAC\u2019 for \u2018Jews\u2019 and it\u2019s the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both posts were reposted by AIPAC, which otherwise did not comment.<\/p>\n


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