An op-ed in the Jerusalem Post quoted B’nai B’rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin, who criticized NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state—a deeply troubling stance in a city with the largest Jewish population in the United States.
Read more in the Jerusalem Post.
When Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani surged past former governor Andrew Cuomo to win June’s Democratic primary, the general election for New York City mayor instantly became a referendum on Israel. Reporters now chase the 33-year-old Ugandan-Indian progressive with the same question he ducked in the first televised debate: Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state?
The candidate still will not say – even after B’nai B’rith’s Dan Mariaschin called the equivocation “deeply troubling in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population.”
For many American Jews, this feels unprecedented. It is not. In 2019, Britain’s far smaller community faced Jeremy Corbyn, then Labour leader and odds-on favourite to become prime minister. They beat him so convincingly that the party suffered its worst result since 1935. The British campaign offers six lessons New York’s Jewish leadership has – so far – only half-learned.
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