By DAVID CRARY and PETER SMITH<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York City\u2019s Jewish community \u2014 the largest in the United States \u2014 abounds with anxiety and friction a day ahead of\u00a0an election<\/a>\u00a0that could give the city its first Muslim mayor.<\/p>\n That candidate, Zohran Mamdani, has won over many progressive Jewish voters with vows to make the city more affordable and equitable. Yet he has alarmed many other Jews \u2014 in New York and across the U.S. \u2014 with harsh criticism of Israel, including saying its military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.<\/p>\n The tensions within the politically diverse community were illustrated Friday in a sermon by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, who leads Central Synagogue in Manhattan, one of the country\u2019s most prominent Reform synagogues.<\/p>\n She pointedly criticized Mamdani\u2019s words about Israel, yet declined to endorse either of his opponents, Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, and pleaded for New York\u2019s Jews to minimize virulent political infighting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt endangers all of us: It\u2019s the way we are trying to impose a litmus test on other Jews, essentially saying you\u2019re either with us or you\u2019re against us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A local election in the national spotlight<\/p>\n Buchdahl has faced some criticism for not signing a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0endorsed by more than 1,000 Jewish clergy members nationwide denouncing Mamdani. She said that on principle, she doesn\u2019t endorse candidates or sign joint statements, but she interrupted her sabbatical schedule to return to her pulpit the weekend before the election.<\/p>\n In the sermon, Buchdahl said Mamdani has \u201ccontributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism\u201d with words that she said were not only \u201cdemonizing Israelis, but echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews across the world are the root cause of our problem here.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani has made overtures to Jewish voters throughout the campaign, promising to increase funding to investigate antisemitic incidents in New York and repeatedly condemning violence in the Middle East. He has also denounced \u201catrocities\u201d\u00a0committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023<\/a>, describing the attacks as a \u201chorrific war crime.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mamdani has not retreated from his long-standing support for Palestinian rights. He also has said he would direct the city\u2019s police department to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York on charges brought by the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n In response to allegations that his views amount to antisemitism, Mamdani has often quoted an Israeli man whose brother was killed on Oct. 7, saying that \u201cwe must never give up on the conviction that all life, Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Arab, is equally precious.\u201d<\/p>\n Buchdahl, in her sermon, said she recognizes the voices of younger Jews who say they shouldn\u2019t fearfully vote based on a \u201csingle issue when other issues are just as urgent.\u201d They cite Mamdani\u2019s outreach to Jewish leaders and his moderated rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cI would not quickly trust a campaigning politician changing his lifelong positions, but I hear those who believe that we must engage even with those we deeply disagree with or risk isolating ourselves,\u201d Buchdahl said.<\/p>\n Leading rabbi: It\u2019s not a simple choice<\/p>\n Like Buchdahl, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, New York-based Rabbi Rick Jacobs, said he was sticking by his long-held decision to avoid making political endorsements.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think the choice for mayor is simple, I respectfully suggest that you are not paying attention,\u201d Jacobs wrote in an open letter last week. \u201cI implore our Jewish community and all New Yorkers to carefully consider the many urgent issues our city faces before casting your vote.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can attest that Zohran Mamdani is not lacking in empathy for the Jewish community\u2019s anxiety over regular threats to our safety. In public interviews and in a personal meeting, I\u2019ve heard him pledge to protect the Jewish community,\u201d wrote Jacobs, before raising doubts about the Democratic candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cMamdani has been consistent in saying that he believes Israel has a right to exist as a state of all its citizens, but not as a Jewish state,\u201d Jacobs wrote. \u201cHis argument might sound tidy in a seminar; in the real world it is cause for grave concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the signatories of the anti-Mamdani statement was a prominent Conservative rabbi from New York, Elliot Cosgrove.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear, unequivocal and on the record, I believe Zohran Mamdani poses a danger to the security of the New York Jewish community,\u201d Cosgrove declared at the start of a recent sermon at Park Avenue Synagogue.<\/p>\n \u201cZionism, Israel, Jewish self-determination \u2014 these are not political preferences or partisan talking points,\u201d Cosgrove added. \u201cThey are constituent building blocks and inseparable strands of my Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n Even Hasidic leaders are divided<\/p>\n As evidence of the divisions within Jewish ranks, there have been competing endorsements of Mamdani and Cuomo by leaders of different factions within the Satmar Hasidic community.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Rabbi Moshe Indig, a leader of the community\u2019s Ahronim branch, declared his\u00a0support<\/a>\u00a0for Mamdani, posing in a handshake with the candidate at a meeting in Brooklyn. Within hours, three other leaders of the branch repudiated Indig\u2019s action and endorsed Cuomo.<\/p>\n \u201cAcross the board, the progressive movement\u2019s crusading agenda is a threat to our ability to live as Torah Jews and educate our children with the same values,\u201d the pro-Cuomo leaders said.<\/p>\n To the left of the political center, New York-based author and commentator Peter Beinhart spoke in a recent video of his dismay at the\u00a0vitriol being directed at Mamdani<\/a>\u00a0by many Jewish leaders.<\/p>\n Beinhart said he worries \u201cthat the organized American Jewish community was willing to sacrifice almost anything to preserve unconditional support for the state of Israel, that every other value, every other principle was subordinated to that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you willing to sacrifice in order to prevent a New York mayor who says that Israeli Jews and Palestinians should live equally under the same law? What are you willing to try to do to destroy such a candidate? The answer is: lie with almost anyone, do almost anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith reported from Pittsburgh. AP journalist Jake Offenhartz contributed from New York.<\/p>\n