For some Jewish New Yorkers, like Richard Siegel, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s victory is concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to make sense of it. It\u2019s a little alarming,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels alienating to know that the city has basically voted against me and what I perceive as my safety. Nonetheless, I\u2019m hopeful that moving forward, there can be some kind of common ground found.\u201d<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
For some Jewish New Yorkers, Mamdani’s win is “alarming”\u00a0
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Others say they are “thrilled” and feel “hopeful”\u00a0
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Many of the Jewish New Yorkers NY1 spoke to described themselves as progressives who are excited about some of Mamdani\u2019s cost-of-living policies, but are incredibly concerned about antisemitism due to his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state<\/p>\n
Advocates, like Jewish New Yorkers for Peace, say anti-Zionism and antisemitism should not be conflated<\/p>\n
Others, like Beth Miller, are thrilled.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I felt hopeful about what we could build for the first time in a very, very long time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Miller is the political director of Jewish Voices for Peace Action and says her organization endorsed Mamdani the day he announced his candidacy and canvassed for him, knocking on approximately 200,000 doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing that I would say, and have said, to Jewish New Yorkers who may feel differently about Zohran as an incoming mayor than I do, is that I hope that they will actually stop and listen to what he is saying about who he is and what he will build, rather than listen to what other people, specifically his opponents and Trump supporters, say about him,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s candidacy and his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state divided the Jewish electorate. Miller believes Jewish voters for Mamdani worry about the cost of living and Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Amanda Berman, founder and CEO of Zioness Movement, says Mamdani\u2019s stance on Israel is what scares a lot of people in her community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a gaslighting feeling. There\u2019s a feeling of someone saying, \u2018I care about you,\u2019 but actually not taking any steps to show us that that\u2019s true,\u201d Berman said.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, says it is nice to see New Yorkers excited about an agenda they believe will be helpful to them but worries about Mamdani\u2019s stance on Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAntisemitism isn\u2019t just about hate. If Mayor Mamdani says he doesn\u2019t hate Jews, I think we take him at his word. Antisemitism is also about double standards and discrimination,\u201d Rabbi Berman said. \u201cIf you discriminate against one population and say they don\u2019t have a right to their own state, but everybody else does, that\u2019s discrimination, that\u2019s a double standard, that\u2019s antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the Jewish New Yorkers NY1 spoke to, who said they were uncomfortable being on camera, described themselves as progressives who are excited about some of Mamdani\u2019s cost-of-living policies, but are incredibly concerned about antisemitism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For some Jewish New Yorkers, like Richard Siegel, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s victory is concerning. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,25,3691,9,24,11,10,12,110,87,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-30149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-emma-barnett","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nnt","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149","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=30149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}