An Open Letter to Jewish Voters in New York

We have seen where all this leads. We still have to do it again?

Some polls say that a majority of New York Jews intend to vote for Zohran Mamdani—and those polls may be accurate. After all, the polls give him a commanding lead virtually across the board. If you are one of the Jewish voters in New York City who is about to vote for Mamdani, you may admire his progressive values and be willing to overlook his inveterate opposition to Israel because, after all, you don’t want to be a single-issue voter. You understand that politicians employ a great deal of rhetoric but generally don’t implement the more radical elements of their programs.

Yet there are good reasons to hesitate. Lots of them. I set them out in my new book, Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani.

You may not be inclined to credit what I have to say here about Zohran Mamdani. After all, I am not Jewish, so you might find it presumptuous of me to address you in the aggregate in the first place. And not only that: you may doubt what I have to tell you about Mamdani and the machine from which he emerges because I also have a reputation as a “right-wing Islamophobe.”

While I personally think such labels are at best misleading and at worst actively defamatory, I understand your hesitation.

Yet I’ve also written a book about the contemporary resurgence of antisemitism, Antisemitism: History and Myth, about which Dennis Prager said: “I do not believe a more important book on antisemitism has ever been written.” Another book I’ve written, The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, has won wide acclaim as a valuable guide for the defense of Israel.

I am, in other words, someone who is deeply concerned about the Jews because I am deeply concerned about the human rights of all people, and I cannot stand by idly as an entire people is demonized.

That’s why I am asking you most urgently to think very carefully about Zohran Mamdani. Just as we have seen where socialism leads, so also we have seen where the large-scale demonization of the Jews leads. Zohran Mamdani and both of his famous and fabulously wealthy parents have been consistent throughout their public careers in their inveterate opposition to Israel and their willingness to believe the most lurid and lightly sourced charges against the Jewish state. Zohran Mamdani even says that support for the Palestinian jihad against Israel is what initially made him a socialist and galvanized him to become an activist.

You can also look at London, which elected a socialist Muslim mayor in 2016. Sadiq Khan’s London is a reliable guide to what New York under Zohran Mamdani will look like.

During his tenure, crime has skyrocketed, the native population has fled the city, and the situation of Jews there has become increasingly precarious. Many Jews simply don’t feel safe in the city anymore and cannot even be sure that the police will protect them.

This election in New York is not simply a matter of another leftist mayor following in the string of leftist mayors ever since Rudolph Giuliani moved out of Gracie Mansion. Zohran Mamdani as mayor could have a catastrophic effect upon the Jewish population of New York City, leading to a mass exodus with results that would reverberate worldwide.

Zohran Mamdani is young, bright, articulate, and passionate. He likely has a long political career ahead of him even if he loses this race. Nevertheless, those who stand to lose the most from his victory should think twice before abetting that victory. There will not be a second chance that will allow for the erasure of the damaging effects of his tenure as mayor.

The city can rebuke and reject Zohran Mamdani now, knowing what his victory would mean, or it can bring trouble upon itself to a degree that is unprecedented in our nation’s history, sinking into an illness from which it may never recover. The choice is yours. Many other cities and countries have faced this choice before, and the cautionary tales aren’t hard to find. Must New York City now give us yet another one?