New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited a Judaica store in the haredi neighborhood of Borough Park, Brooklyn, on Wednesday ahead of Rosh Hashanah, meeting with local community leaders and residents.
Video footage shared by local media showed Mamdani touring the store and speaking with community members. One man presented him with honey, traditionally eaten during the Jewish New Year, while another demonstrated the blowing of a shofar, according to The Boro Park Scoop.
Mamdani wished those gathered “Shana Tova," the traditional greeting for Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on September 11.
“It is so lovely to be here, especially before the High Holidays, and to wish everyone a Shana Tova, and I really just appreciate the welcome and the conversations," Mamdani told BoroPark24.
The visit also prompted a confrontation. One woman, visibly upset, approached the mayor and blamed him for what she described as rising antisemitism.
"It's all because of you we have so much antisemitism...You have such chutzpah for coming here."
Mamdani has been the subject of sustained criticism from Jewish and pro-Israel groups over his positions on Israel. During his mayoral campaign, he declined to reject the slogan “globalize the intifada" and faced criticism for remarks concerning Israel made on October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas massacre in southern Israel.
He has also repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes during its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. On his first day in office, Mamdani drew further criticism by rescinding executive orders concerning Israel that had been issued by his predecessor, Eric Adams.
His stance has continued to generate controversy since he became mayor. Among his decisions was to boycott New York City's annual Israel Day Parade, making him the first mayor of the city to do so.
Mamdani's positions have fueled concerns among Jewish New Yorkers, particularly as the community has faced an increase in antisemitic incidents.
Those concerns were also raised during a closed-door meeting at the mayor's office last month. Ten rabbis representing different streams of American Judaism met with Mamdani for approximately an hour and directly challenged him over his statements on Israel.
The rabbis warned that Mamdani's public opposition to Israel, his pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his calls for protests during Netanyahu's visits to New York were contributing to a growing sense of insecurity among Jewish residents.
The religious leaders also said his positions were making it more difficult for Jewish organizations to work with his administration. Representatives of Reform and Conservative Judaism, which have frequently expressed criticism of Israeli policies, reportedly told Mamdani that his rhetoric was contributing to antisemitism and could encourage additional hostility toward Jews.
Several of those present said they believed Mamdani had not sufficiently recognized a possible connection between his rhetoric and the rise in antisemitism, leading the rabbis to raise the issue with him directly.