We continue to lose the battle over words -Yes, Mamdani is a Radical Socialist but he is also an antisemitic Islamist.
We Jews must insist that discussions of Mamdani should recognize the danger of Islamism.
Socialism is an ideology that I don't support but I can live with as long as it is a part of a liberal democracy. Israeli history is much about the socialist Labor Party. However too many politicians who embrace socialism also accept or tolerate anti-Israelism and even antisemitism. We see this in Europe.
We continue to lose the battle over words. My fear is that calling Mamdani and his supporters "radical socialists" makes them less scary than calling them Islamists or such terms as the “red-green” alliance (see below) between leftists and Islamists. Many will see Mamdani’s socialism as a way to extend more fairness and our politico-economic benefits to more people.
Those who promote economic socialism and accept as allies those who really promote antisemitic socialism may think they are just "virtue-signaling" for a fairer division of income and more help to the poor or even the working class. In addition, socialists who otherwise are looking mainly at economic socialism don't see that their policies are likely to breed resentment among those who channel their resentments into blaming their lot in life on the Jews.
Phillip Cart Salzman has explained that “the Red-Green coalition is an alliance of convenience between leftists, including progressives, socialists, and communists, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Islamists, Muslims who actively pursue the political goals of Islam, such as Islamic supremacism and the punishment of those non-compliant with Islam.
A world that fails to understand the danger of many of the tenets of Islam will also fail to understand the meaning of the term "Islamism" and the various ways that ideology underlies contemporary antisemitism and anti-Israelism.
Ugandan-born Mamdani, 34, said during his campaign that he plans to enact sweeping changes in line with his socialist ideology, including raising taxes on businesses, limiting the power of police and prosecutors, and instituting rent freezes.
Such policies seem to have drawn more attention than his anti-Israel policies. Remember the Nazis chief preoccupation was with the “fairness” that “National Socialism” could bring, much before the obsession with killing all of the world’s Jews became the most immoral of all policies and ideologies.
Mamdani has a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric and policies. He has said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he visited New York, has repeatedly refused to condemn the Hamas terror group, and has promoted claims that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
Mamdani’s history of pro-Palestinian Arab and anti-Israel activism, goes back to his college days when he started a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, to his support for the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement against Israel,
His victory comes during a spike in antisemitic violence throughout the city. World Israel News notes that Jewish residents and national advocacy organizations have expressed fear that Mamdani’s win will embolden antisemites.
Zohran Mamdani's policies focus on “progressive” issues such as affordable housing, increased tenant protections, and raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour by 2030. He also advocates for free public transportation, expanded childcare, and a comprehensive approach to community safety that includes social solutions alongside traditional policing.
The idea that leftists are progressives is another trick in the use of words. And, of course, the world’s oldest hatred (of Jews) is in no way progressive.
Again, we must call out the use of such misleading terms.
Socialism as social welfare programs is attractive to many Jews and that part of Mamdani’s platform causes many Jews to vote for him. But this support of “liberal” or Democratic Party supporters must be criticized. The failure of organized American Jewry to prioritize the saving of Jewish lives during the Shoah should make it all the more important not to put economic policy, even social welfare policy at the forefront of our concerns.
I suggest that American Jews should feel a duty to understand what is happening to Jews in Europe to make certain that Jewish lives are the priority.
We are starting to see the collateral damage done to the Jewish community which has always prioritized higher education. When that education is given by anti-Israel academic institutions, we now understand that sending children to mainstream universities is a primary step in the destruction of Jewish continuity.
Mamdani’s rise reflects a growing split in the American Jewish electorate, particularly along age lines, about Israel in the wake of the war in Gaza the last two years.
While 56% of Jewish Americans say they are emotionally attached to Israel, that number falls to 36% among those aged 18 to 34, according to polling from The Washington Post.
Mamdani has declined to say he believes Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, saying the country should provide equal rights to all residents.
A day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, which resulted in the war in Gaza, Mamdani issued a statement that did not condemn Hamas or the attacks. He has repeatedly criticized Israel’s actions as a “genocide”
To most Orthodox Jews, Mamdani is seen as a clear danger, and many will suggest that Mamdani and his supporters constitute an “existential” threat. I am the son of a survivor of Auschwitz and my father lost his parents and then eight year old sister there. So there are reasons why I look at things differently than many people I know. I am writing this during Holocaust Education Week, and I certainly think that if my father was still alive he would note the irony of so many New Yorkers voting for Mamdani during this week.
I have addressed my thoughts about we in the Second Generation, in my recent book, Second Generation Radical: The World Through One Man’s Second Generation Lens.
Does Mamdani constitute an existential threat to the Jewish people?
In my opinion when the Radical Socialists take their policies from the Islamists, there is an existential threat. Forewarned is forearmed - perhaps.
Howard Rotberg is the author of five books including Tolerism: The Ideology Revealed, The Ideological Path to Submission, and The Second Catastrophe