An open letter from rabbis across the country recently called State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani a threat to the “safety and dignity of Jews in every city.” But rabbis––and New York City-based rabbis in particular––are not a monolith, and many openly support Mamdani and his campaign for mayor.
RABBI ABBY STEIN; [email protected]
Stein is a Brooklyn-based award-winning author, rabbi, speaker, educator, and activist. She was raised and ordained in the Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Hasidic Jewish community.
In the final New York City mayoral debate last Wednesday, former Governor Andrew Cuomo cited the letter, falsely claiming that over “600 New York rabbis” had denounced Mamdani. But Stein counters that the vast majority of the rabbis listed in the open letter are not even from New York.
Stein told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “I cannot say that I am shocked by the open attacks and fearmongering [about Mamdani] coming from a loud, ‘mainstream,’ institutionalized minority in the Jewish world. But these claims are dangerous.” Stein unequivocally states that “Zohran Mamdani is a friend and ally of the Jewish Community.”
Stein emphasized the way that Mamdani addressed the city’s Orthodox community in a personal open letter during the Jewish High Holidays. The letter was written in Yiddish, the native language of most Hasidic Jews. Stein says this is a first in New York politics: “a mayoral candidate directly addressing the issues that most impact the Yiddish speaking community, in their [and my] first language: public safety, combating antisemitism, housing affordability, and universal child care.”