PROMINENT MANHATTAN RABBI CHALLENGES MAMDANI'S ANTISEMITISM IN HISTORIC VIDEO MESSAGE

The People's Campaign To Save New York City

October 20, 2025

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Steven Wise Synagogue in Manhattan issued a stark condemation to mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for the Socialist's refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist and for his repeated blood libels agaist the Israel which are fueling hstred and violence toward Jews.

He said.....

"Assemblyman Mamdani ....

I don't speak for all Jews, nobody does, or ever did.

But I do represent the views of the large majority of the New York Jewish community, which is increasingly concerned with your statements about Israel and the Jewish people.

It is, of course, entirely legitimate to criticize any government. The Jewish community is famously diverse, and we ourselves vigorously debate American and Israeli policies.

But your opposition to Israel is not centered around policies.

You reject the very existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

You have called Zionism a liberation movement of the Jewish people, a racist project, and a colonial enterprise.

You support students for justice in Palestine and co-founded its Bowdoin College chapter, a group that rejects coexistence and seeks the dismantling of Israel altogether.

You have never disavowed these views.

 The opposite.

You've doubled down on them.

We were so severely disappointed that even this week, after the ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States came into effect, a week that represented at least a small modicum of hope for the future of both Israeli and Palestinian societies, that you chose to oppose the agreement and attack Israel again with unfounded and odious accusations.

These are not political disagreements.

 They are rigid ideological commitments that delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility towards Judaism and Jews.

 Overwhelmingly, New York Jews support Israel and consider the Jewish state to be an important component of their own Jewish identity.

Most Jews are deeply offended by your ongoing accusations of Israeli genocide.

The suffering of Gazans caused by Hamas's unprovoked savage attack on innocent Israelis is profoundly sad as it is.

It is a libelous moral inversion to accuse Israel of genocide, while defending itself from Hamas' genocidal assault on Israeli men, women, children, and babies sleeping in their beds.

Hamas has made no secret of its commitment to destroy Israel, as have supporters of Hamas abroad, including your own Students For Justice in Palestine.

Attempts to explain your support for Hamas-promoted slogans, such as "globalize the intifada" and "from the river to the sea," are not only un-persuasive to us. They're not even the main issue.

The heart of the matter is your implacable opposition to the very existence of Israel.

Anti-Jewish incidents are at an all-time high.

Jewish students are harassed in New York City schools and college campuses, Jewish institutions are threatened daily.

These are the result, in part, of an atmosphere of hate fomented by those who hate Israel.

Rather than bringing New Yorkers together, you are fanning the flames of intolerance. "

These views are profoundly immoral and have distanced the dawn of a new day of coexistence and peace."