Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim mayor of New York City
Zohran Mamdani wins, will become first Muslim mayor of New York City
Associated Press • November 8, 2025 ~ TheTimesofIsrael
JERUSALEM (AP) — The election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s next mayor has sent a chill across Israel as people come to terms with the victory of a politician propelled by an outspoken pro-Palestinian message that is rare in US politics.
Israelis across the political spectrum fear that Mamdani’s election — in the city with the world’s second-largest Jewish population — could foreshadow icier relations with the US, Israel’s most important ally. Support for Mamdani from almost one-third of Jewish voters only added to the pain.
“Very bad,” said Hana Jaeger, a Jerusalem resident, assessing the news the day after the election. “For the Jews, for Israel, for everyone, it’s very bad. What else can you say?”
Zohran Mamdani, the Ugandan-born politician of Indian heritage, who came to the United States as a child, promised to be “a mayor for all New Yorkers.” While he embraced and centered America’s progressive political tradition in his campaign, he also was proudly Muslim, refusing to hide or downplay his faith, culture or beliefs.
Across Europe, North America, Australia and beyond, antisemitism is surging once again. The same ancient hatred that drove Jews from England, Spain, Portugal and Ukraine, now reemerges — this time dressed in the language of politics, activism, and anti-Israel violence.
Israelis react to the news
Israel has traditionally had a special connection with New York City. It is a popular destination for Israeli tourists and politicians, filled with kosher restaurants and home to an Israeli consulate that focuses heavily on relations with the Jewish community. Hebrew can often be heard on the streets and subways.
Mamdani has called the war in Gaza a genocide, a charge Israel’s government denies. He’s vowed to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the premier steps foot in the city and signaled he may cut ties with Israeli industry and academia over the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, Amichai Chikli, a member of Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud party, posted a stream of anti-Mamdani graphics on social media, including a retweeted photo of the Twin Towers being engulfed in flames after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with the caption “New York already forgot.”
Chikli also encouraged Jews in New York to relocate to Israel. “The city that was once a symbol of global freedom has handed over its keys to a Hamas supporter,” he said in a social media post.
The extreme rhetoric reflected a deep-seated fear in Israel that American politics are headed in a new direction.
“For a long, long time, American domestic politics were dominated by pro-Israel politicians, pro-Israel views. In large part, they still are,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. “Mamdani’s win represents that American Jews, specifically the younger generation, are changing and there’s no longer this monopoly of pro-Israel politics in domestic US politics.”
Palestinians celebrate Mamdani’s win
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the sentiment among Palestinians was far from gloomy.
“The election of Mr Mamdani is truly inspiring,” said Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti. “It reflects a great uprising among the younger generation of the United States, including the Jewish young generation, against political and social injustice.”
“It also shows that the Palestinian issue has become an internal election issue all over the world, including in the United States of America.”
In the United States, antisemitic incidents have spiked on college campuses and murders have occurred in major cities. The old assumption — that America would remain immune to the hatred —is wrong.
With the mayor-elect of New York allowing the globalization of the intifada onto the streets of New York, it is time for Jews in America to do what my aunts and European Jewry failed to do in 1930s.
Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s next mayor exposed a deepening rift between traditional Democratic Jewish voters and younger progressives — one that could reshape politics for years in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population.
Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s next mayor exposed a deepening rift between traditional Democratic Jewish voters and younger progressives — one that could reshape politics for years in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population.
‘Globalize the intifada’
Jewish opponents of Mamdani expressed concern about his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan of support for Palestinians that many Jews interpret as a call to violence against Jewish people and Israel. After his nomination, Mamdani privately told a group of business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would discourage others from using it, according to a July New York Times report.
He has said he supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement, which calls for the economic and cultural boycott of Israel.
The Diaspora was never the destination — only the journey. Living in America is and always was “Exile”-galut, as a divine intermission, not a permanent home.
In Great Britain and France, thousands have already packed their bags and left — weary of armed guards at synagogues and Jewish schools.
The words of the Prophet Isaiah are unfolding before us in real time:
“And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people . . . And He shall set up an ensign for the nations [H1471 goyim], and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” Isaiah 11:11-12
And the following from the Prophet Jeremiah:
14 “Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
15 but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Jeremiah 16:14-15
And more from Prophet Ezekiel:
CSB says: therefore, you will no longer devour people and deprive your nation of children. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 15 I will no longer allow the insults of the nations to be heard against you, and you will not have to endure the reproach of the peoples anymore; you will no longer cause your nation to stumble. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’” Ezekiel 36:14-15
This is not a punishment. It is a fulfilment of Jewish destiny as God promised through Moses in Deuteronomy:
5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:5.
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 