NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani faces fierce backlash from 650 rabbis and rivals Cuomo and Sliwa over his anti-Israel rhetoric and silence on rising antisemitism.
The final New York City mayoral debate erupted into a fiery clash Wednesday night as Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani came under blistering attack from former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa over his anti-Israel positions and refusal to condemn antisemitic slogans.
Just hours before the debate, over 650 rabbis nationwide — including 121 from New York State and more than 60 from New York City — released a joint letter warning that Mamdani’s election “would endanger the Jewish community.” The extraordinary intervention by the rabbinical community electrified the race and drew sharp media attention.
Cuomo led the charge on stage, slamming Mamdani for his silence over the extremist slogan “Globalize the Intifada” — widely interpreted as a call for violence against Jews.
“You won’t denounce ‘globalizing the intifada,’ which means kill Jews,” Cuomo said. “This wasn’t a handful of rabbis — it was 650. Not everything is a TikTok video. You’re no savior of the Jewish people,” he added mockingly.
Sliwa was even more direct, accusing Mamdani of fueling the flames of antisemitism rather than fighting them.
“They’re scared,” Sliwa said. “They view you as the arsonist — the one who fanned the flames of antisemitism — not the firefighter you now claim to be.”
Mamdani, a Muslim Assemblyman from Queens, defended himself by denying any support for jihad or violence, insisting the backlash stemmed from his faith and his policy positions on Israel.
“I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad,” he said. “Much of this criticism has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate on the verge of winning this election.”
But Mamdani’s record paints a complicated picture. He refused to condemn the “globalize the intifada” slogan after the October 7 Hamas massacre, criticized Israel the very next day (October 8, 2023), and vowed to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City — citing a non-binding ICC arrest warrant, even though the U.S. is not a member of the court.
He has also distanced himself from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a move Jewish groups have blasted as dangerously minimizing anti-Jewish hate.
Despite mounting outrage, Mamdani tried to pivot during the debate, vowing to “be a mayor for every single person that calls the city home,” including Jewish New Yorkers, and promising to bolster synagogue security and expand anti-hate initiatives in schools.
Hours before the showdown, Mamdani made a rare outreach effort to Brooklyn’s Hasidic community, releasing a Yiddish-language letter published by The Forward. “Some of what you’ve heard about me may be distorted,” he wrote. “It would be the honor of a lifetime to serve as your next mayor.”
But with a record of anti-Israel statements, alignment with radical activist circles, and now a nationwide rabbinical warning, Mamdani’s path to City Hall looks increasingly fraught. His campaign has become a litmus test for whether New York’s Jewish community — one of the largest outside Israel — can trust a candidate who has repeatedly refused to stand unequivocally with them in the fight against antisemitism.
