Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York Democratic Primary was not about anti-Semitism but about generational change. That should give us even more cause for concern.
Mamdani campaigned on a platform of making New York more affordable. His ideas – such as rent freezes, free public transportation, government-run grocery stores, and confiscatory taxes on the wealthy – may be totally unrealistic, but they sounded good to young people struggling to make ends meet. His supporters may have known about his position on Israel but were not bothered by it. After all, it is fairly consistent with what they have been watching on CNN, reading in The New York Times, learning in school, and following on social media. Anti-Semitism has gone mainstream and is no longer a disqualifier for candidates seeking public office.
Young people under the age of 45 voted for Mamdani by landslide proportions. They were the most likely to be struggling financially and to be receptive to Mamdani’s message. They are also the products of a higher education system that taught them that Jews are beneficiaries of white privilege, colonialist settlers, and practitioners of apartheid, genocide, and war crimes. The teachers coming into elementary and high schools are products of that same education system – and they’re bringing that poisonous ideology with them. Leftist progressives have made a special effort to win local school board elections in order to impose their agenda on our schools. Products of this educational system will be a growing part of the electorate for the foreseeable future.
There is a strong demand from the base of the Democratic Party for new leadership. This has been fueled by former President Joe Biden’s stubborn insistence on running for re-election long after it was clear that he was no longer up to the job – and by the failure of Democratic leadership to provide a coherent alternative to President Trump. Mamdani successfully portrayed himself as a latter-day John F. Kennedy or Barack Obama taking on the Democratic establishment. In 1965, a Republican, John V. Lindsay, was elected mayor with the slogan, “He is fresh and everyone else is tired.” While Mamdani did not use those words, he did run on that theme.
In an election centered on generational change, it is hard to imagine a worse candidate than Andrew Cuomo. Politicians seeking redemption – with the notable exception of Donald Trump – make poor candidates. They enter the race encouraged by polls that show them well ahead and with support for their opponents in the single digits. What those polls really show is name recognition. During the course of the campaign, people become impressed by the other candidates and remember the reasons they didn’t like the front-runner in the past. As a political consultant, I have advised candidates seeking redemption who were way ahead in the polls that if they ran, they would lose. I have encouraged others who trailed badly in polls against well-known candidates seeking redemption to persevere – and they would win. I was right every single time.
Cuomo had the baggage of COVID, the allegations of sexual harassment, and a reputation as a vindictive bully. He was reviled by most of the electorate. Even many of his supporters considered him the lesser of two evils.
Campaigns can be successful by appealing to frustration and anger at the powers that be. But they also need a positive, inspirational message – like “Change We Can Believe In” or “Make America Great Again.”
There was a marked enthusiasm gap between the two campaigns. Mamdani’s supporters, motivated by both anger at the establishment and excitement over Mamdani’s charisma, ran an impressive get-out-the-vote drive. Cuomo’s supporters – overconfident because of polls showing him well ahead and often ambivalent about their candidate – did not.
The enthusiasm gap was reflected in the turnout. The number of early voters almost doubled. It consisted largely of younger voters in the progressive strongholds of western Queens and Brooklyn. Turnout on Primary Day was about the same as in 2021. Turnout in Jewish neighborhoods was disappointing. Mamdani’s effective grassroots campaign – and the enthusiasm of his supporters – got his voters out. Cuomo’s campaign did not.
Cuomo’s opponents successfully teamed up to defeat him. The DREAM (“Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor”) campaign urged voters to rank five candidates in any order – while not ranking Cuomo. It is understandable that many found Cuomo unacceptable. But they could have used DREAM to spell out “Don’t Rank Evil Andrew or Mamdani.” While Cuomo’s sexual harassment was considered disqualifying, Mamdani’s anti-Semitism was not.
Thousands of Jews did not vote in the primary. Many more were not eligible to vote because they are not enrolled Democrats. In New York City, the winner of the Democratic Primary will almost certainly win the General Election. If we want to have a real voice in who will govern the city, we need to participate in the Democratic Primary. Being an enrolled Democrat does not mean you have to vote for the Democratic candidate in the General Election. It was by enrolling more voters in the Democratic Primary that we were able to defeat Jamal Bowman – a member of the Squad – in a primary last year.
It is not helpful to make Israel a partisan issue. Donald Trump will not be President forever. There will be future Democratic Presidents and Congresses. It is in our interest to support pro-Israel Democrats like Ritchie Torres – and to oppose anti-Israel Democrats like Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The low Jewish turnout represents a significant failure by the Jewish establishment. In Great Britain, Jeremy Corbyn – who, like Mamdani, claimed to oppose anti-Semitism but was anti-Zionist – was the Labour Party candidate for Prime Minister. The resources of the Jewish community were mobilized to defeat him. The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council sent an open letter to the Labour Party spelling out specific examples of Corbyn’s anti-Semitism. Britain’s three leading Jewish newspapers – in an unprecedented move – published the same front-page editorial calling Corbyn an “existential threat” to the Jewish community. Corbyn was decisively defeated and expelled from the Labour Party.
Jewish religious institutions and nonprofits, which are barred from supporting political candidates, did not need to make an endorsement. Simply explaining the stakes of the primary and conducting a massive get-out-the-vote drive would have been sufficient. Groups that do make political endorsements should have mobilized for Cuomo from the start – rather than waiting until three weeks before the primary. Some of the blame for this lies with Cuomo himself, for failing to be out in the community.
One in five Jews voted for Mamdani. In 19th- and early 20th-century Europe, many Jews – in their eagerness to be accepted by the countries they were in – were vociferous in their opposition to Zionism. Today, progressivism has become a religion. In order to win acceptance as progressives, some young Jews have betrayed the Jewish people and parroted the anti-Semitic canards of the woke left.
For years we have sent our children to elite universities – bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and Qatar – where anti-Semitism pervades the campus culture. We have supported those institutions with our charitable contributions. Years of promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” have produced the most anti-Semitic generation in American history. That poisonous education is now finding its way into elementary and high schools, where textbooks describe the intifada as involving “frequent clashes between fully armed Israeli soldiers and rock-throwing Palestinian young men. The intifada, more than anything, is a reaction against 35 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian homeland and increasing Israeli settlement, particularly in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
For years, there have been those who warned about the dangers of DEI, intersectionality, and critical race theory. Establishment organizations told them to keep quiet – while they empowered some of our most dangerous enemies in the name of “coalition building” or fawned over anti-Israel politicians in an effort to find “common ground.”
We can and should make every effort to defeat Mamdani in the General Election. At the moment there are three candidates opposing Mamdani in the General Election: Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams, and Curtis Sliwa. If all three remain in the race, it will increase Mamdani’s chances by dividing the votes of the opposition. We need to unite around a single candidate. In the next few days, we will need to figure out who that candidate should be. My inclination is that it would be Mayor Adams – but I am prepared to change my mind to help create a consensus around one of the other candidates.
No matter what the result of the General Election will be, we need to understand that Mamdani’s victory in the Primary is a dangerous sign of things to come. But our problems go well beyond that. It is a symptom of anti-Semitism being mainstreamed by the media and the education system. We should seek to work with other communities to improve New York City and foster mutual understanding – but not at the expense of turning a blind eye or seeking accommodation with a dangerous ideology that seeks to do us harm.
New York, New York (revised lyrics)
Start spreading the news, we’re leaving today
We’re no longer part of it – New York, New York
These wandering Jews are ready to stray
Anti-Semitism has reached the heart of it – New York, New York
While the Jewish establishment fell asleep
The anti-Semite rose to the top of the heap
Our days in this town are melting away
We’ll make a brand-new start of it where we’re meant to stay
They hate us everywhere
We fight back over there
It’s up to us in Israel
