On November 4th, New Yorkers will be going to the ballot box, voting for their next mayor. As I’m sure you all know, this is not your regular election. A few days ago, a letter was circulated, it was signed by over 1000 rabbis from all over the country who strongly encouraged New Yorkers to not vote for the leading candidate, Zohran Mamdani. They stated that “safety and dignity of Jews in every city” were endangered by Mamdani’s rhetoric. They were referring to many comments that he has made, such as, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.” Or his refusal to condemn Hamas or even to acknowledge that Hamas should put down their arms.
As the New York Times reports, in response, “a coalition of left-wing American Jewish groups critical of Israel released its own letter rejecting the “attempts by some legacy Jewish institutions” to silence “progressive and anti-Zionist voices” within the Jewish community. Another set of rabbis signed a third letter noting that Islamophobia is also on the rise and “Jewish safety cannot be built on Muslim vulnerability.” A video recently went viral, consisting of four people wearing ‘Rabbis for Mamdani’ t-shirts.
I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this phenomenon. Without simply being dismissive of a good percentage of the Jewish population, can we convey our concerns about electing Mamdani with an attempt to understand and to persuade, and not just to dismiss and denigrate?
When we speak stridently, we strengthen our base, but we do not change anyone’s mind. The Maharal writes that early on in Avraham’s life, he would debate people over their belief in idolatry, he would, as the famous Medrash teaches us, break the idols of his neighbors. It didn’t get him anywhere; monotheism did not take off using that approach. It’s only when he opened his tent, it’s only when he engaged people in dialogue, it’s only when he cared for others, that Hashem’s Name became known to the world.
In that spirit, I’d like to share an open letter this morning to our brothers and sisters who plan on voting for Zohran Mamdani. While no one in this room is voting in the New York city elections, this message is not limited to New York. There is a growing rift in our community, growing wider every day. We need to figure out how to have a healthy dialogue, and this is my small attempt at doing so.
Dear Jewish Mamdani Supporters,
I write this letter to you clouded with emotions. It is impossible for me to talk about Israel and the safety of the Jewish people without emotion, especially as the dust from the October 7th attacks have not yet settled, especially as the bodies of some our family members are still in Gaza.
I know that you too cannot have this conversation without emotion. You have seen imagery of the devastation of many Gazans who were caught in the crossfire of a war they did not want. While we will argue about whose reports to believe and how may actually died, there is no doubt that innocents were killed, and that is tragic.
I commend your care and concern for people beyond your immediate circles. These values, such as every human life is precious, or that we should care about all of humankind – not just those in our immediate circles, are born out of our shared tradition. The notion of Tzelem Elokim and Tikkun Olam are values that we both inherited from our shared ancestors. Your universalism is something I admire. It’s an area that my community can learn from you and grow in.
However, that same shared value system, our Torah, also teaches us about priorities. If a person cares about their neighbor and not their own brother or sister, that is a moral failing. While all people are equal before G-d, we are responsible for our family before we are responsible for others. When Avram was informed that his nephew, Lot, was a captive of war, Avram did not first dispassionately analyze who started the war. He heard his nephew was in danger, he immediately armed himself and rescued him. Mind you, Avram and Lot did not get along, but Avram taught us and the Torah later codified, that family comes first. If you were being attacked, even though you and I likely do not agree about many things, I would drop everything and come to your defense, and I hope you would do the same for me. Because that’s what family does for one another; that is the value system of our heritage.
It would be nice if we could care about everyone equally, but in the real world, life gets messy, and we have to make morally complex decisions. Will innocent Gazans die when Israel defends itself against Hamas? Yes. But the alternative is Hamas remaining in power and, as they have publicly stated, endless October 7th attacks. Our tradition teaches us that we are first responsible to family.
Right now, our family, whether it is our Israeli cousins who are being ostracized by the international community just because they have an Israeli passport, the young Jew on campus who is afraid to acknowledge her faith publicly, or the Jew on the street who is forced to look at his surroundings before walking down the streets of New York – our family needs us right now, our family is in danger.
My dear brothers and sisters, I understand that you may be bothered, maybe even embarrassed by Zionism, the notion of self-determination that is expressed in a Jewish state. Mamdani does not believe such a state should exist; it’s undemocratic. And while Israel is one of the safest places for Muslims to live freely in the Middle East, it is true, that by ensuring that there remain a Jewish majority, there is something undemocratic about the State of Israel.
But let’s make a few things clear – if the solution to the conflict in Israel is a one-state solution, there is no doubt that it will not remain a democracy of any form. Look at Gaza, look at the West Bank. Does it make sense to be antizionist and bring Israel down for the sake of an Islamic state?
But more importantly, and more close to home, what is the alternative? I know that Mamdani may not get this, but you and I who share a history know how precarious it is to be a Jew. Where do we go when the next country turns its back on us? A pure democracy is great, but as a Jew with a rudimentary knowledge of Jewish history, my survival is far more important. Zionism is not an ideology; it’s a matter of survival.
My brothers and sisters, I imagine you are wondering to yourself, what’s the big deal that Mamdani is an anti-Zionist? He has made many statements committing to the safety of Jewish New Yorkers and has spoken out strongly against antisemitism.
I agree with you – criticizing Israel and Israeli policies is not antisemitic. If it were, half of Israel would be considered antisemites. We too fight tooth and nail over what the State of Israel should and should not do. I too struggle to define what is and what is not an antisemitic remark.
What troubles me about Mamdani’s remarks, and frankly, what scares me, is the absurd double-standards that he and so many others have when it comes to Israel, what troubles and scares me is the myopic view of the conflict that ignores so much history.
Why not the Uyghurs? Why not the Sudanese? Why not anyone else?
And why are we only focusing on what happened on October 8th and forgetting what precipitated the response? Why are we ignoring the Israeli governments who offered to help establish Palestinian states twice in the past twenty years and both times were rejected by Palestinian leaders? And yes, why are we ignoring our connection to the land that goes all the way back to the year 1949 BCE when Avraham started living in the land of Israel?
The Soviets, who came up with this antizionist antisemitism split, claimed that they were not one and the same. We hate Zionists they told us, not the Jews. I don’t think there is anyone who still believes that the Soviets were not rabid antisemites. How do we keep falling for the same trick?
You know who does not fall for this trick? The thug on the street does not stop the Jew he is about to beat and ask him his views on Zionism. They understand very clearly that when people paint Zionists as evil it simply means Jews.
And it’s not just words. Again, I don’t expect others to understand this, but I hope you, my brothers and sisters, do. Our great-grandparents, after being exiled from our homeland, Israel, two thousand years ago, traveled the world. Sometimes the countries that hosted us treated us pretty well. Some of our greatest collective memories took place under Islamic rule. But for much of those two thousand years, we were persecuted, exiled, executed, and massacred. And one lesson we learned is that violent acts do not happen in a vacuum. There is a process. It may start as something benign, but it evolves into something that is deathly. As Heinrich Heine ominously wrote, “In a place they burn books, they will also burn people.” When one group of people is singled-out time and time again, when they are continuously vilified, the leap to violence is a small one. We are seeing this, day in and day out, on the streets of New York.
And so my brothers and sisters, this is not about politics. I don’t care if you vote Democrat, Republican, progressive, liberal, independent, or conservative. This is not about Islamophobia; I share with you a dream of world peace, especially with our Arab neighbors, our cousins. But I also share with you a history that can and must inform us. I also share a destiny that will forever bind us. I am concerned about you, I am concerned about us, about the short and long-term implications that your vote will have on New York Jews and Jews across the country. Though I have absolute faith in G-d’s promise of the eternal existence of our people, we have a responsibility to look at for our family, in Israel, and here in the United States. The stakes are far greater than housing and affordability. Your vote will directly impact the Jewish People’s future, your future, our future.
Regardless of what happens this week, I look forward to continuing our conversation.
With a broken and hopeful heart,
Yisrael Motzen