statement<\/a> issued on July 24, CAIR and its New York chapter \u201cexpressed solidarity with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and condemned Israel advocacy groups for their \u2018dishonest and dangerous\u2019 conflation of Benjamin Netanyahu and his genocidal government with the American Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIsrael advocacy groups have spent the past week falsely claiming that criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu is somehow the same thing as criticizing the Jewish community,\u201d CAIR stated.<\/p>\n
The statement did not reference Thursday\u2019s stabbing or the recent spike in antisemitic violence in New York.<\/p>\n
Jewish leaders criticized both CAIR\u2019s defense of Mamdani and its silence on the attack.<\/p>\n
Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that CAIR\u2019s statement is an example of why the group is \u201con the terrorist list\u201d in states like Texas and Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cCAIR\u2019s latest defense of terrorist-enabler Mamdani, one day after Mamdani\u2019s reckless Jew-hating lying screed inspired two \u2018Allahu Akbar\u2019 terrorist attacks, is despicable and grotesque and dangerous,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo wonder CAIR was formally labeled an unindicted co-conspirator of the murderous group Hamas,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case, a designation the organization has long disputed and which later became the subject of due-process litigation.<\/p>\n
Daniel S. Mariaschin, B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International honorary CEO and senior advisor, told JNS that \u201cCAIR\u2019s reckless and irresponsible parroting of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, built on bogus charges, is simply a cover for Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s deeply held hatred and obsession with the state of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMamdani\u2019s rhetoric has helped create an environment of hatred that is endangering the Jews of New York City\u2014the largest Jewish population outside of Israel\u2014yet he has shown no interest in quelling this outbreak of hatred directed at the city\u2019s Jewish residents,\u201d Mariaschin told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cShame on Mamdani and those who continue to parade this dangerous rhetoric,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hostile rhetoric\u2019<\/p>\n
Alyza Lewin, president of U.S. affairs at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said CAIR\u2019s statement is \u201cnot surprising given its history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disturbing to see a self-proclaimed \u2018civil rights\u2019 group like CAIR issue a press statement today about New York that first, ignores an act of antisemitic violence that took place only yesterday on the streets of America\u2019s largest city and second, legitimizes the rhetoric that fuels the hatred and targeting of Jews,\u201d Lewin told JNS.<\/p>\n
She said antisemitism historically follows a familiar pattern.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, Jews\u2014or Israel treated as a \u2018Jewish collectivity’\u2014are falsely scapegoated and libeled,\u201d Lewin said. \u201cThen, once antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories take root in society, people act against Jews, like we saw yesterday in Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHostile rhetoric, including some of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s recent statements, fosters an environment where the targeting of Jews is not only permissible but encouraged,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cWith \u2018civil rights\u2019 groups like CAIR legitimizing the rhetoric that normalizes hate against Jews, it is no wonder antisemitism is exploding across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, said that \u201cwhile it is true that criticizing the Israeli government is not the same thing as attacking Jews, that is not the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is that CAIR and Mayor Mamdani relentlessly spread lies, invert reality by falsely accusing Israel of atrocities that have actually been committed by Hamas, fan the flames of antisemitism with their hateful rhetoric and seek to eliminate the world\u2019s only Jewish state,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cMost American Jews see Israel as an important part of Jewish identity, and many have friends and loved ones who live there. Demonizing and spreading blood libels about Israelis harms all of us, as we see all too clearly in the many violent attacks targeting Jews in New York and across the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewish advocacy group EndJewHatred is organizing a rally titled \u201cBlood is on Mamdani\u2019s Hands,\u201d scheduled for Sunday on the Upper West Side, near the site of the stabbing attack. Promotional material for the event features the mayor with blood dripping from one hand as he swears the oath of office with the other.<\/p>\n
Jayne Zirkle, communications director for EndJewHatred, told JNS that CAIR\u2019s statement is \u201cgaslighting in its most blatant form.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMamdani urged New Yorkers to use \u2018every tool they have\u2019 to oppose Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cYesterday, a man used a screwdriver to stab a visibly Jewish man while yelling \u2018Allahu Akbar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaders have a responsibility to reject rhetoric that fuels hatred rather than inflames it,\u201d Zirkle said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(July 24, 2026 \/ JNS) As Jewish organizations linked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s rhetoric about Israel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-305283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305283","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=305283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}