Why so many Jews are campaigning for Zohran Mamdani in New York City

New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, with nearly a million calling the metropolis home.

No would-be political representative can overlook this ethnically, religiously, politically, and culturally diverse community.

In NYC's mayoral democratic primary, 67 percent of Jews under 44 voted for candidate Zohran Mamdani. According to the poll, he banked 43 percent of the Jewish vote overall.

Some of these Mamdani voters have formed a subgroup within his support base, calling themselves "Jews for Zohran" - made up of individuals and members of organisations like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and Jewish Voice for Peace, which have mobilised to engage their communities, as well as New Yorkers in general. 

As NYC’s mayoral elections draw to a close, Middle East Eye spoke to some Jewish voters who chose to support and canvas for the candidate, despite him being regularly smeared as an antisemite. 

Jacob Bloomfield has joined thousands of canvassers to get the word out about the campaign. He is supporting Mamdani because he believes that “everyone in our society should have access to a basic standard of living: housing, healthcare, education, transportation, nutritious food, and safety”. 

He is concerned that “those basic building blocks of a stable life are out of reach for many, with more struggling to hold onto them, including New Yorkers who have what would have been considered solid, middle-class jobs thirty years ago”. 

“That’s unacceptable, and Mamdani is the only candidate who is seriously reckoning with the tragedy and gravity of that situation.”

Bloomfield said he wanted to canvas because, “just talking to people about ideas, face to face, is the most fundamental and, arguably, important aspect of politics”. He believes that young Jews were out supporting Mamdani both because they do not believe Israel represents them, and because - like any other demographic - they have the same concerns about affordability. 

“Israel claims to represent Jews everywhere in order to cultivate consent for its heinous actions, even as Israeli officials take potshots at American Jews, and non-Orthodox Jews from abroad are not allowed to practice their religion freely in Israel,” he said. 

“Anti-Zionist Jews feel the need to speak out against murder, conquest, environmental destruction, starvation, displacement, and all manner of atrocities ostensibly being done in their names,” he added.

'I love his principles'

Actor and comedian Matt Ketai, 36, has also been out canvassing for Mamdani. He loves both the platform Mamdani was running on and his energy.

“I believe who Zohran is. I love his principles. I love his ideas. I love that he's energising. He really just wants to be mayor of New York City. It's so rare to have someone who just wants to make the city they love a better place. I don't see that in any other politician."

He expressed concern about Independent mayoral candidate and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and others pushing Islamophobic narratives about Zohran and calling him antisemitic.

“All the Islamophobia that I've seen and this talk of antisemitism actually makes me feel less safe as a Jew because they're pushing these concepts and ideas that aren't actually true," Ketai said.

'It's actually the rhetoric of Andrew Cuomo that is making people less safe'

- Matt Ketai, comedian 

“It's actually the rhetoric of Andrew Cuomo that is making people less safe,” he said.”It's emphasising the idea of antisemitism. It's making it more prominent. 

Ketai said that the safety of Muslims and Jews is intertwined.

"I feel that Zohran would do so much for both the Jewish community and for New York, that would make us feel safer."

He said he had noticed people using Islamophobic talking points to justify their fears of Mamdani being mayor.

“It's been really interesting to hear that because I’d feel more safe with Zohran than Cuomo, who is corrupt and weaponising Islamophobia to get himself elected."

NYC-based journalist Caleb Espiiritu-Bloomfield supports Mamdani, partly because of his dynamism. “I'm feeling strands of the same feelings that I was having when Obama was on the rise,” he said. 

He is excited that someone like Mamdani, who “the Democratic machine wouldn’t want representing them, beat the odds”.

While he does not believe that Mamdani would be able to accomplish his main goals, such as freezing the rent and running free buses, he believes he would make concerted efforts to do so. 

“I believe that he really understands what concerns all New Yorkers, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, and I do believe he's really going to try to get these things done.”

Generational divide

Espiiritu-Bloomfield says that a generational divide among the Jewish community over Israel was informing Jewish support for Mamdani.

”They (older people) have that old school view on Israel as a view, and it would be hard to shake that, or not see that as a threat to your own safety, no matter where you are in the world.”

Espiiritu-Bloomfield does not believe Mamdani is anti-Israel. 

“I don't think I would go as far as to say Mamdani is explicitly anti-Israel. I think what's funny is that statement alone would be to the chagrin of anti-Zionists and Zionists, because anti-Zionists see him as one of their own, and Zionists see him as an enemy," Bloomfield said.

“I think the idea that he's not anti-Israel, ironically, might be a comment that would unite both sides in that it would upset both of them, because anti-Zionists and Zionists are united in thinking he's anti-Israel."

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He said that Cuomo "acts like he is Jewish", although he is not. 

“When it comes to the Israel issue, I consider Cuomo to almost be like a faux Jew. He almost acts like he is Jewish, and the king of Jews. He uses random Yiddish words during a debate. I kept saying to the screen, ‘You are not Jewish'," Espiritu-Bloomfield said. 

Espiritu-Bloomfield said he “takes comfort” in the fact that Mamdani is Muslim because Judaism and Islam come from the same place. “They're both Semitic, so the language sounds similar, the food is similar, [and] many Jewish principles are very similar to the five pillars of Islam. At the end of the day, all I can say is I believe that all Jews, no matter what they identify as ideologically, are part of his vision for the future of New York.”

Minority solidarity

A 66-year-old Jewish man from Manhattan's Upper East Side, who did not want to be named, said there is an “awful divide" in the Jewish community. He says the first divide is over Israel, and the second over Mamdani, which he says may be a "proxy for Israel", in that it exposes where you stand on Israel.

While he had voted for Brad Lander in the primary, he was now supporting Mamdani in the upcoming mayoral election, something that had earned him pushback.

“I’ve got the most vile comments over my support for Mamdani from people. I go to a prosperous East Side synagogue. I’ve heard people say they don’t feel safe and they will have to move. These are people living in million-dollar houses who have second homes. I don’t know what they think will happen to them," he said.

“Many Jews are disgusted by the naked and vile Islamophobia in both the non-Jewish and even more surprisingly, in the Jewish community."

He said that Mamdani has shown a "concerted effort" to engage Jewish communities and that he understands what it's like for both Jews and Muslims to live as minorities in a Christian majority community.

“I think there are Jews voting for Mamdani who are keeping their mouth shut because you get a lot of shit.”

But he seems hopeful about how Mamdani will perform on 4 November among Jews in New York City.

“When the dust settles, I think thousands of Jews will have voted for Mamdani.”