Mamdani Backed Primary Winners Deepen Jewish Anxiety in New York

Zohran Mamdani's political momentum in New York is reverberating well beyond the city after three congressional candidates he backed, all identified with sharply anti-Israel views and opposition to the Gaza war, won their Democratic primaries. They are now expected to enter Congress in November, a result that could mark one of the most significant shifts in the Democratic Party's relationship with Israel in years.

For many in New York's Jewish community, the largest Jewish community outside Israel, the results were deeply unsettling. Rabbis and Jewish leaders supportive of Israel said the vote reflected an unprecedented move away from positions that had long been close to consensus in the city and in the Democratic mainstream. Amiel Hirsch, chief rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, told The New York Times that many Jews woke up to a day of "sadness" and the sense that "something in America that we believed in so much is slipping through our fingers." He said many feel traditional support for Israel in New York politics is eroding.

Among the winners was Brad Lander, who is Jewish. During his campaign he said the political landscape had "dramatically" moved away from sympathy for Israel and accused the Biden administration of making the United States a "partner to genocide." The other victorious candidates pledged to keep advancing the "liberation of Palestine," and at one winner's victory event the crowd chanted "Free Palestine."

Not all Jewish voices saw the primaries as an anti-Israel wave. Progressive rabbis argued the results should not be read only as a backlash against Israel, saying one can support Israel's right to exist while strongly criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Progressive Jewish groups celebrated the outcomes as a win for the "Jewish left" and for a human-rights-based worldview.

The results may point to a broader realignment, in which Israel is no longer a marginal foreign-policy issue in American politics but a central fault line inside the Democratic Party. They could shape not only New York's congressional delegation, but also how Washington approaches Israel in the future.