{"id":338621,"date":"2026-09-05T04:57:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338621\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T04:57:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:57:05","slug":"mamdanis-visit-to-brooklyn-judaica-store-sets-wrong-example-ahead-of-high-holidays-jewish-nyc-councilwoman-says-israel-jewish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338621\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani\u2019s visit to Brooklyn Judaica store sets \u2018wrong example\u2019 ahead of High Holidays, Jewish NYC councilwoman says – Israel & Jewish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Sept. 4, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s visit to Eichler\u2019s Judaica store in Borough Park on Wednesday was an \u201cembarrassment\u201d that allowed him to portray himself as an ally of Jews while continuing to promote anti-Israel views, Inna Vernikov, a Jewish member of the New York City Council, told JNS.<\/p>\n

The mayor, whose visit to Borough Park was disrupted by an irate apparent customer at the store, wrote on social media on Thursday night that \u201cthe month of Elul,\u201d the introspective Jewish month leading up to the High Holidays, \u201cinvites us to pause, look inward and set our intentions for the year ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he \u201cwas grateful to spend time with residents preparing to carry forward traditions passed down through generations and to listen to their hopes, concerns and priorities for their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery New Yorker deserves a government that listens, shows up and delivers public excellence,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

At the store, Mamdani met with Avi Greenstein, CEO of the Borough Park Jewish Community Council, Rabbi Yaakov Landau and Hirsch Meir Traube, who owns the Borough Park Eichler\u2019s store. The store is separately owned from the Eichler\u2019s store in Brooklyn\u2019s Midwood neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The mayor was shown Rosh Hashanah traditions, including the sounding of the shofar.<\/p>\n

Every Jew who helped \u201cstage\u201d the mayor\u2019s \u201cphoto op allowed the mayor to keep selling a lie that one can be an ally of the Jewish people while denying the basic reality of Judaism,\u201d according to Vernikov, a Ukrainian-born Republican who represents Brooklyn\u2019s 48th District.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is not whether the mayor of New York is allowed to walk into a shop,\u201d she said. \u201cThe question is who invited him into the heart of our community and why anyone thought that was an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCourtesy to the office of the mayor is one thing,\u201d Vernikov told JNS. \u201cDrawing a crowd, though very modest for a community that usually flocks to comparable events, presenting gifts, using religious objects and treating him like an honored guest is another.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visits Eichler\u2019s Judiaca store in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Sept. 2, 2026. Credit: Ed Reed\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an embarrassment and disservice to the majority of Jewish New Yorkers who did not vote for him, including roughly 85% of Borough Park,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s post was accompanied by pictures of his visit, which came amid elevated levels of antisemitism in the city.<\/p>\n

New York City Police Department data released<\/a> on Thursday showed that Jews were targeted in 19, or 42%, of the city\u2019s 45 confirmed hate crimes in August. The number was down from 22 anti-Jewish hate crimes in August 2025, although such crimes were up 8% year to date compared with the same period last year.<\/p>\n

\u2018Poor judgment\u2019<\/p>\n

Vernikov, who has been a fierce critic of the mayor, told JNS that \u201cby welcoming Mamdani into a Jewish space as if he were safe, we tell Jews to lower their guard and tell everyone else that our concerns are overblown. They are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Mamdani\u2019s first month in office, \u201cantisemitic incidents spiked far more sharply still,\u201d 182%<\/a> in fact, she said. \u201cOur people are assaulted, our streets desecrated with vile graffiti and our shuls protested.\u202f\u201d<\/p>\n

Traub, of Eichler\u2019s, displayed \u201cpoor judgment\u201d in welcoming the mayor to his store, Vernikov said. She noted that he also owns Menucha Publishers and Targum Press, two \u201cmajor\u201d publishers of \u201cTorah literature that goes into our homes, yeshivas and shuls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traub posted a video on Thursday night in which he fervently denied inviting the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of the videos you\u2019ve seen going around have anything to do with any of the Eichler\u2019s staff,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have not participated in any of the gifting, welcoming and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eichler\u2019s has welcomed elected officials and political candidates from across the spectrum for decades and does not \u201ctake any political sides\u201d as a business, Traub said.<\/p>\n

If community rabbis or Agudath Israel of America were to \u201ctell us otherwise not to welcome, not accept anyone, we will for sure do that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as a business owner, I do not have the capacity or the shoulders to take any political sides or to turn the business into a political field.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the visit, a customer identified as Stephanie Benshimol hollered at Mamdani to \u201cStop the antisemitism! You have all the power to stop the antisemitism. I\u2019m begging you to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unidentified people tried to nudge her away from Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you\u2019re doing is focusing on Israel and bringing more hate to the Jewish people,\u201d Benshimol said.<\/p>\n

Traub denied that his people had anything to do with removing Benshimol from the shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t involved in kicking anyone out of the store,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do support Israel. Am Yisrael Chai.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018He plays the ally\u2019<\/p>\n

Mamdani has been harshly critical of Israel and has taken steps to distance the city government from some Israel-related partnerships.<\/p>\n

On his first day in office, Mamdani revoked an order by former Mayor Eric Adams adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s working definition of antisemitism. In May, he also boycotted the annual Israel Day parade.<\/p>\n

His contact with the Jewish community has largely come from progressive and anti-Zionist factions and organizations, and he has dismissed calls to tone down his rhetoric by those who claim it is leading to more attacks on, and threats against, Jews in the city.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has \u201cbuilt a political career on attacking the Jewish state,\u201d Vernikov told JNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he is not libeling Israel, threatening to jail its prime minister or denying the Jewish people\u2019s historical connection to our homeland, including Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, he plays the ally by surrounding himself with carefully curated Jewish symbols that omit Israel,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways with that wide Cheshire cat smile that says \u2018look how warm I am, while I spend the rest of the year mainstreaming hatred of your people,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAll in the name of \u2018progressive values,\u2019 of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visits Eichler\u2019s Judiaca store in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Sept. 2, 2026. Credit: Ed Reed\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n

Vernikov told JNS that she sees parallels between Mamdani\u2019s approach to antisemitism and the practices of the Soviet Union, where she was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not an accident that Mamdani loudly condemns old-fashioned antisemitism while permitting, and often promoting, the left-wing anti-Zionism version that has driven violence against Jews across this city and this country,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Soviet Union did the same thing. The Communists even made \u2018antisemitism\u2019 a crime on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid anyone believe the USSR was a safe haven for Jews and Judaism?\u201d she said. \u201cI grew up there. I know the difference between a slogan and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vernikov acknowledged that many Jews in Borough Park do not identify as Zionists but said that opposition to Zionism within parts of the Orthodox community should not be equated with anti-Zionism from outside the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no festival on our calendar that is not bound to our ancestral homeland,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are called the People of Yisrael. Many of the Torah\u2019s mitzvot can only be in the Land of Israel. The very way we daven,\u201d or pray, \u201ctoday was set in Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vernikov cited the late Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, a fierce opponent of political Zionism, who she said taught that fervent anti-Zionist non-Jews \u201chate the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani fits the Rebbe\u2019s description of this type of non-Jew to a T,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the company he keeps,\u201d she said. \u201cThe \u2018love of his life\u2019 liked posts celebrating Oct. 7, the day it happened, which would have included slaughtering the Jews at the Kotel had Hamas gotten as far as they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing such an individual into our community so close to the yahrtzeit of those murdered Jews is a mockery of their memory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The visit sets \u201cthe wrong example\u201d for the Jewish community,\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not accept the mayor\u2019s paper-thin, conditional solidarity,\u201d she said. \u201cWe should not settle for a mayor who will pose with a Jewish religious item so long as no one makes him say the word Jerusalem without adding \u2018capital of Palestine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani treats \u201ccultural appropriation as a cardinal sin, then does it to the Jews on an industrial scale,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe treats our holiest days like interchangeable cultural d\u00e9cor, draining them of all historic meaning until nothing is left but an empty smile and a generic word about \u2018resilience,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The blowing of the shofar, \u201ca custom interlaced with our historical connection to the land of Israel,\u201d is one example, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlowing the shofar has another meaning I think is relevant\u2014to \u2018awaken slumbering souls that have grown complacent,\u2019\u201d she told JNS. \u201cTo Jews who have still not been paying attention, now might be a good time to start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Sept. 4, 2026 \/ JNS) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s visit to Eichler\u2019s Judaica store in Borough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-338621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338621","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=338621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}