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NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday stood by a social media post about the 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel that enraged segments of the Jewish community and unnerved some Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
Mamdani, a high-profile democratic socialist leader, touched off the uproar on Wednesday when he commemorated the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks with written remarks that devoted more space to Israel's response against Palestinians than it did to acknowledge the losses suffered by the Jewish people on that day. The post on X accused Israel of committing "ongoing genocide" and "war crimes" and highlighted the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing," Mamdani wrote. "Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment."
Mamdani's statement was met with strong criticism from a cross-section of Jewish leaders, who accused him of downplaying the pain felt within their community over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, the deadliest day for Jews since World War II. They accused Mamdani of inflaming divisions that have led to a surge in antisemitic hate crimes in New York and nationally.
"The Mayor's role is to bring people together for the good of all New Yorkers, and he continues to fall short of that goal," said Mark Treyger, the chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. "None of this is normal and we refuse to accept it."
The unease comes as some Democrats nationally are worried that the rise of candidates opposed to Israel is alienating some Jewish voters from the party.
Since Mamdani was elected in November, democratic socialists have unseated several incumbents in Democratic primaries for congressional and state legislative seats. Many of the winning candidates campaigned on messages that included rebukes of Israeli policy or questioned the legitimacy of the Jewish state.
Several Republican leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana), lambasted Mamdani for his social media post on Wednesday.
Most high-profile Democratic leaders in New York steered clear of the controversy, but Democratic members of Congress from other parts of the country spoke up to say they were offended by the mayor's statements.
"He basically said 'The Jews that died, sad, but it's their fault,'" Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida) wrote on X. "Just an atrocious statement."
At a news conference Thursday, Mamdani said he believes his comments a day earlier appropriately balanced the more than 1,100 lives lost in Israel during the Hamas attacks with the more than 74,000 Palestinians who have died in the subsequent Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip.
Mamdani, New York's first Muslim mayor, said he is trying to balance the agony that both Jews and Arabs feel about the conflict.
"I believe there must be room to mourn every single life," said Mamdani, who later added, "We know that [Oct. 7] brings back the most horrific memories for so many people in this city, and also for others it's a day continuing in the Israeli government's use and it's justification for a genocide."
Mamdani has repeatedly taken actions that anger segments of the Jewish community.
He signed two executive orders that were viewed as weakening ties between his city and Israel. He also vetoed a bill that would have allowed police to create buffer zones to keep protesters away from schools - a policy Jewish organizations lobbied for in response to recent campus protests.
In May, Mamdani posted a social media video marking Nakba Day, a commemoration of the mass displacement and expulsion of Palestinians that accompanied the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. The word nakba is Arabic for catastrophe.
The same month, Mamdani, a self-described "anti-Zionist," skipped the annual Israel Day Parade. Jewish leaders said they could not recall another mayor who declined to attend the event.
Underscoring the challenges he faces in unifying the city, Mamdani was heckled at the event by supporters of the Israeli government and pro-Palestinian protesters who feel he has not followed up on some of his campaign promises, including a more recent previous pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York.
Mamdani ended Wednesday by meeting with Palestinian activists, and he dined at a Palestinian restaurant in Manhattan's Upper Westside.
"I think the statement, the attendance [at the vigil], the meeting, it all speaks to a reckoning with horror," Mamdani said Thursday.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, who has worked with the Mamdani administration, said his policies in her view have "done really important things." She praised the coexistence event he attended Wednesday but said his initial social media statement that day "seemed to ignore the deep trauma and pain many in the Jewish community and beyond feel related to October 7."
In recent weeks, Mamdani has attempted to soothe relations between his administration and his critics in the Jewish community. He announced in September a citywide initiative to combat antisemitism, which includes about $7.5 million to counter hate crimes and enhance security at Jewish institutions.
But Jewish leaders in New York and elsewhere said Mamdani's social media post this week has renewed tensions.
"To be honest, I think yesterday was the worst day of his tenure as mayor," said Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant of state and former Jewish campaign adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). "He completely exacerbated tensions."
In his campaign for mayor last year, Mamdani won about a third of the Jewish vote, according to exit polls. He also maintains close ties with liberal and secular Jewish institutions.
Yet some Democratic leaders worry that the rise of Mamdani and other democratic-socialist-aligned candidates could hinder the party's ability to retain Jewish voters.
In Michigan, the Democratic candidate for Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, is locked in a close race with Republican Mike Rogers that could decide control of the chamber.
El-Sayed does not identify as a democratic socialist, but he has received strong support from its members, and he recently held a fundraiser in New York that was attended by several close Mamdani allies. He would be the first Muslim U.S. senator and, like Mamdani, is an outspoken critic of Israel.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a moderate Democratic who lost his primary contest for a U.S. Senate seat in Florida this past summer, said Wednesday that Mamdani's social media post hurt the party.
"He ignited controversy in the exact moment Dems are making their appeals to moderates and independents," Vindman said on X.
Megan Romer, national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, cast aside the idea that Mamdani's comments might hurt Democrats in competitive midterm races, saying he was entitled to approach the Israeli-Palestinian issue as he sees fit.
"He's extraordinarily popular. He can say whatever he wants," she said. "That's part of the deal - he's not going to please everybody."
Scott Stringer, a former New York City comptroller who unsuccessfully ran in last year's Democratic mayoral primary, said voters are smart enough to distinguish between Mamdani and more moderate candidates.
"I do not for the most part believe that anyone gives a s--- about Mamdani's anti-Jewish rants," he said.
Yet he warned that Mamdani needed to focus on trying to bring disparate groups of voters together.
"Going forward, we're going to have to deliberate and figure this out as a party or we will end up electing a Republican," said Stringer, who is Jewish. "It's not working for us nationally and it's not going to work for us in 2028."
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