By Howard Teich, JNS
These may not be the easiest four years ahead, yet we have faced challenges before. We must find strength in our Maccabean tradition.
Moments arise when you need to make the hard choices of who you are, what difference you can make and what risk you are willing to take to be a force for the benefit of American society and the Jewish community. This is one of those moments.
New York City faces the reality that our next mayor is an admitted socialist with deep-seated enmity to Israel and questionable relations with the Jewish people.
As a Jewish leader, I must be forceful in my commentary on the right decision for our Jewish community. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ran an exceptional campaign and having met him twice briefly, I can say he has a charismatic personality, he won, and I want him to have a successful four years in office for the betterment of New York City. He and I said that to create future understanding, we should agree where we can agree and agree to disagree where we disagree. So, on that basis let’s now look at the issues that are important to us as a Jewish community.
The first is our humanity, our treatment of each other and our concern for those in need in our community. We are followers of Hillel, and his established principle of “Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you,” and to many of us, tikkun olam, “creating a better society” is a most important calling card. So, a case can be made here for working together with Mamdani to create better lives for all New Yorkers where poverty, unaffordability and low educational levels must not be accepted, and so true human justice and happiness prevail.
The second clearly is the treatment of our own Jewish community in relation to Israel, as it says: “If not for myself, then who shall I be for?” Mamdani has taken a position in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel. He has protested and been arrested for his activism against Israel in the war against the terrorist organization Hamas. He has spoken out against the future potential of Israel, even saying that he would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s democratically elected leader, if he were to visit New York City. This is unacceptable.
Previous mayors have been supportive of Israel and the Jewish community over the years, and they clearly have been advocates for the general well-being of Jews in New York City. This year, we celebrated 371 years since the first Jews arrived on the shores of New York City and America. It has been an extraordinary journey from those days and not always been an even path, with times when we needed to fight for our rights. We did, and worked shoulder to shoulder with other New Yorkers of all backgrounds to build it into a leading city in the world.
We have every reason to be concerned that there could well be an outmigration of Jews, as the community is beginning to be looked upon negatively by those in power. And that takes us to a third point—and that is the Democratic Socialist of America, of which Mamdani proudly holds and waves their banner and flag.
One could say that’s who he is—though that’s not fair to him since he has stature and intellectual capacity. A New York state assemblyman, he graduated from an elite college in the United States with an upbringing that apparently gave him a real leg up in terms of achieving success. One could well expect that he would transfer these opportunities and that attitude to those he would be governing.
He has spoken of excellence in his goals and what he hopes to achieve. That is a refreshing change from the dumbing-down philosophy of too many in American society.
I have long talked of the need for warriorship in our people. Leaving the city is not the way, so let me be clear: This is a time to be outspoken and strategic. This is a time to showcase who we are and increase the Jewish population, presence and power in New York City. Yes, international disruptors are trying to show their strength in America and worldwide, and a message of hatred towards the Jewish community is being used to spread their message to a younger generation. Our movement of 5,000 years has the power and authority to counter their message.
We must put in place a new reality for our future, including a major reorganization of our leadership and organizational infrastructure that has served us well for many years and has failed us recently. We do have new enemies right here in our country, and this is a time to re-establish alliances with those who are our natural friends. We must have confidence in our new generations.
The future needs to be based on Jewish values that have served us so well over these many years, and we must be bold about future narratives for our people and our city. Each time that we are confronted with antagonisms and threats to our people, we must stand our ground and respond with a strong, positive message of who we are and shrug them off, move past them.
Our future is now, and we must draw that proverbial line in the sand. These may not be the easiest four years ahead, yet we have faced challenges before. We must find strength in our Maccabean tradition.
As a Jewish people, we must use these Mamdani years as a time optimistically to reunify our community, proudly stand up for Israel and renew who we are as a Jewish people in Diaspora, determined to uplift everyone and bring light to the world.
