With five minutes to spare in the two-hour New York City Democratic mayoral primary debate, which NBC carried on Wednesday night, the candidates were asked what their first foreign trip would be as mayor.
“Given the hostility and the antisemitism that has been shown in New York, I would go to Israel,” said Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who is trying to make a comeback and who recently scored the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance’s endorsement.
Zohran Mamdani, an anti-Israel New York state representative who just received the endorsement of far-left, progressive “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), said that he would stay in the city. “My plans are to address New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” he said.
“Can I just jump in?” a moderator said. “Would you visit Israel as mayor?”
“I’ll be standing up for Jewish New Yorkers, and I’ll be meeting them wherever they are across the five boroughs—whether that’s in their synagogues and temples or at their homes or at the subway platform, because ultimately we need to focus on delivering on their concerns,” he said.
“Yes or no?” the moderator asked. “Do you believe in a Jewish state of Israel?”
“I believe Israel has the right to exist,” Mamdani said.
Pressed if he believes it should exist “as a Jewish state,” Mamdani said it ought to “as a state with equal rights.”
“His answer was no, he won’t visit Israel,” Cuomo said. “That’s what he was trying to say.”
“I believe every state should be a state of equal rights,” Mamdani said.
Daniel S. Mariaschin, the CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that “there is something definitely wrong when a candidate for mayor of New York City, which has the largest Jewish population in the United States, equivocates on Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and refuses to say he will visit Israel.”
Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that Mamdani “is a frightening, ignorant, bigoted antisemite, who refuses to affirm the right to exist of the Jewish state of Israel, greatest and most reliable ally.”
“He would never oppose the right to exist of Muslim terrorist nations like Iran, Sudan or Syria or enemies of America like China or Russia,” Klein said. “Mamdani is an ugly, Jew hater, who has forfeited his right to public office or even being employed anywhere. He must be shunned and condemned. He has no place in polite company.”
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, told JNS that “the safety of all New Yorkers—including Jewish New Yorkers—is the solemn responsibility of the mayor of New York.”
“That safety has been deeply impacted by the rhetoric and calls to action of those who deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” he said. “We would expect anyone aspiring to serve as mayor of New York to prioritize his responsibility to lead the city to safety by clearly rejecting such rhetoric and the climate of fear and hostility that it has created in our city.”
Several others at the debate said they would plan to visit Israel on their first trip as mayor, including Adrienne Adams, the New York City Council speaker, who said, “I would visit the Holy Land.”
“I’d make my fourth trip to Israel followed by my fifth trip to Ukraine,” said Whitney Tilson, an investor. “Two of our greatest allies fighting on the front lines of the global war on terror.”
Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller who is Jewish, said that his goal “would be to take my first trip to Israel.”
“My wife’s life work in this area means a lot to our family, and it could coincide with my young son Miles’s bar mitzvah,” he said. (Tilson and Cuomo wore yellow ribbons in solidarity with the hostages in Gaza.)
“Boy, what Trump is doing to Canada; there’s a lot of opportunities for us to partner better with them,” said Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is Jewish, suggesting he would visit the Great White North.
‘Immoral, unlawful’
Some 100 minutes into the debate, the moderators turned to a then-breaking news story—that the Trump administration told the agency that accredits Columbia University that the school should lose its status.
A moderator quoted Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary, who stated that “after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, Columbia University’s leadership acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on its campus. This is not only immoral but also unlawful.”
“Thirty seconds,” he said. “What’s your reaction to this move?”
Cuomo said that there are two issues. “I do believe there’s been antisemitism in the city. I believe it’s a growing problem,” he said. “I believe the rhetoric about Israel has actually inflamed the antisemitism.”
“Put that aside. I think this is just another overreach of the Trump administration,” he added. “Now he’s going to take over the academic universities in this country. He is literally attacking the foundation of democracy, and he must be opposed at every turn.”
Mamdani said that the decision is “yet another example of a gross overreach of the Trump administration, one that they have shown they will continue to pursue with whichever university they decide to target.”
“It’s been Columbia. It’s been Harvard,” he said. “We need to have a mayor that will actually stand up to Donald Trump. Not one that we have right now that will collaborate with them, and that is who I will be.”
Tilson said that he is “totally appalled” that Columbia and other top schools didn’t do enough to curb the “mobs” that created dangerous environments for Jewish students, including his daughter.
“My wife and children are Jewish,” he said. “This is personal to me.”
Tilson is even more disgusted by the Trump administration “pretending to care about antisemitism and accreditation of universities,” he said.
Michael Blake, a former New York state representative, said that “as a reverend, let’s start from the core—that all hostages have to come back home on both sides. Let’s also be very clear that we have to reject antisemitism and also have humanity what’s happening for the Palestinian people at the same time.”
Although Blake paused briefly at the end of the sentence and began the next sentence with “let’s also be very clear,” he wrote on social media later in the night that “I didn’t say hostages on both sides.”
“I said that hostages need to come home,” he wrote. “Then, separately, we need to honor the pain on both sides. Definitely did not say that Israel has hostages.”
Stringer said that “there’s no question that on so many of these college campuses, the antisemitic anti-Jewish hate is very real, and we have to make sure that we hold universities accountable to make sure every student of all different backgrounds are safe.”
Trump’s move “goes against everything that’s American,” Stringer said, “and if he really wants to help Jewish students and all students, because everybody faces discrimination at some point in their lives, then maybe he would fully fund the civil rights divisions. He would not cut programs that could go a long way to fostering the ability for all different people to work together and come together.”
Adams said that “all New Yorkers deserve to feel safe, no matter who they are.”
Adams said that she allocated more than $18 million to combat Jew-hatred in the city. “As mayor, I will continue to combat antisemitism within the city of New York,” she said.
“This is a frightening time for Jews, and I feel it really personally after the flamethrowing in Boulder, Colo., and the two murders in Washington, D.C.,” Lander said. “I go to a lot of Jewish communal events and you can’t just be looking over your shoulder.”
He added that he has a “really detailed plan” for addressing “hate crimes and antisemitism” in the city.
Jessica Ramos, a New York state senator, said that as mayor, she would “make sure that we are keeping our Jewish students safe, our Muslim students safe and that we are fighting bigotry at every turn.”
“There is no room for the skyrocketing antisemitism that we are seeing in our community, and the xenophobia must end,” she said.
Zellnor Myrie, a New York state senator, said that “there has been a clear and unequivocal rise in antisemitism in this city and across this country.”
“We have to be just as clear and unequivocal in calling it out and rooting it out wherever it wears its ugly head,” he said. “That is what I’m going to do as mayor. But come on, this is New York City. Our Jewish friends and our neighbors, they make our city what it is.”
‘An abomination’
The next question related to Mahmoud Khalil, the Syrian born Columbia alumnus and Algerian national, who was admitted to the country on a student visa. The Trump administration is trying to deport the green card holder, who is married to a U.S. citizen, for his actions as a leader of anti-Israel protests on the Columbia campus.
“He should be set free. He should be at home with his wife Noor and their young child, and the fact that he is still in Louisiana is an abomination,” Mamdani said.
“It’s an attack on our First Amendment, and it is clear another example of Donald Trump weaponizing the very real issue of antisemitism to then throw Palestinian New Yorkers into detention facilities and not even tell us what the crime is that they’re charged with,” Mamdani added.
Cuomo said that “this is a continuation of Trump eroding democracy, chipping away at due process.”
“He should be released. He should be released immediately,” he said. “He shouldn’t have been detained in the first place.”
JNS
