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The controversy over Zohran Mamdani’s criticism of Israel has moved well beyond New York City, where he is the front-runner in the race for mayor, and is roiling American Jews across the nation.
While tensions have been simmering in New York for months, the debate over what Mr. Mamdani’s ascent means for the future of Jews in American politics is now playing out in community centers, homes and congregations from Atlanta to Albuquerque, Houston to Highland Park, Ill. and beyond.
A recent letter signed by more than 1,100 rabbis across the country decrying the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism has pushed the debate into the synagogue pulpit, as American Jews all over searched the list of signatories to see if their rabbis did — or did not — sign.
The letter cited Mr. Mamdani by name and warned that the “safety and dignity of Jews in every city” depends on electing candidates who accept Israel as a cornerstone of Jewish identity.
In response, a coalition of left-wing American Jewish groups critical of Israel released its own letter rejecting the “attempts by some legacy Jewish institutions” to silence “progressive and anti-Zionist voices” within the Jewish community. Another set of rabbis signed a third letter noting that Islamophobia is also on the rise and “Jewish safety cannot be built on Muslim vulnerability.”
The competing voices show how the New York City mayor’s race has become a proxy for a broader debate about antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the power of Jews in American politics that has intensified since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
The depth of the rift suggests that politics could become something of a litmus test within the country’s largest and most established synagogues. And it raises questions about whether Jews who are critical of the Israeli government or support politicians who question U.S. support for Israel could be further alienated from traditional Jewish institutions.
On Saturday, several days after he signed the letter warning about Mr. Mamdani, Rabbi Felipe Goodman, rose to the pulpit in his Las Vegas synagogue and spoke about Jews who aligned themselves with Hitler before World War II in an attempt at self-preservation, arguing that he had to voice his views when he saw Jewish security under such grave threat.
“We have been very intimidated over speaking about politics for the longest time,” Rabbi Goodman said. “The gloves have to come off now.”
He added: “If people have a problem with me saying that, they do not belong in the same space as me.”
The intense focus on support for Israel and rising antisemitism marks a dramatic shift in the diagnosis of the central problem facing American Jews. For decades, Jewish institutions worried about the growing trend of intermarriage and were relentlessly focused on drawing in young people who were not already tied to synagogue life.
The development worries leaders like Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum, of the Kavana Cooperative, an independent Jewish congregation in Seattle.
“After decades of fixation over Jewish continuity and fear that the next generation isn’t going to be Jewish, now the Jewish community is cannibalizing itself.”
She isn’t alone in her concern: Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, the executive director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation, which works with clergy from all denominations, has heard from hundreds of rabbis in the past week concerned about creating more fractures in an already divided Jewish community.
Rabbi Josh Feigelson, the president and chief executive of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality in New York, said the friction has provoked enormous anxiety. “We have felt so at home in this country for most of our lifetimes, and it has been such a profound shock to so many of us to realize that we can’t necessarily take that feeling for granted,” he said
Mr. Mamdani, who would be New York’s first Muslim mayor, has accused Israel of committing genocide in its war with Hamas and has said he cannot support the country as long as it is an official Jewish state that gives Jews more rights than Palestinians.
In public and private meetings with rabbis, he has promised protect Jewish institutions amid rising antisemitic attacks in the city and has distanced himself from the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been seen as a call to violence against Jews.
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His leading opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Mr. Cuomo’s allies have accused Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, of stoking “the flames of hatred against Jewish people.”
Mr. Mamdani’s campaign declined to comment.
The rabbis’ letter warning about Mr. Mamdani did not explicitly support his opponents, but it has sparked an outpouring of public statements, scrutiny and condemnation.
Jewish social media influencers are mounting campaigns shaming rabbis who declined to join the letter, which was organized by an group calling itself the “Jewish Majority.” Others are applauding their leaders for resisting the pressure to sign.
“There has been a real intra-Judaism tribalism, and that seems to be only accelerating,” said Rabbi Daniel Bogard, who leads the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis and signed the third letter urging Jews to “work across differences.”
In the past two years, he said, his synagogue has lost a handful of congregants who did not think he was sufficiently supportive of Israel. But, he added, “We’re gaining many more congregants who were morally disturbed by what they heard in other parts of the Jewish community.”
Rabbi Michael Siegel of Anshe Emet in Chicago signed the letter but decried the “purity tests” happening around the statement.
“These are very hard decisions to make and rabbis are in the position of trying to manage congregations that have all kinds of views,” he said.
Prominent Jewish politicians, rabbis and community leaders openly worry that the country is approaching levels of antisemitism reminiscent of 1930s Germany, in the years before the Holocaust. They point to the rise in antisemitic attacks, anti-Israel protests on college campuses and boycotts of Israeli academic and cultural institutions.
Others say such concerns are overwrought and that their anxiety is misplaced, or worse, exacerbating the problem. They worry about a conflation of what they see as legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Zionism and antisemitism. While they do not downplay the deadly attacks against Jews in Boulder, Colo., Washington, D.C., and the firebombing of the Pennsylvania governor’s home, such critics also warn against using antisemitism as a political cudgel.
No branch of institutional American Judaism has escaped the debate.
Rabbi Neil Blumofe, the rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin, said he rarely signs public letters and does not speak about politics from his pulpit. Still, he added his name to the one criticizing Mr. Mamdani because of what he sees as an alarming “zero sum game” sentiment across the political spectrum and a sense that only Jews who identify as anti-Zionists are welcome in some liberal circles.
“There is an inability or unwillingness to recognize that this is a very complicated issue and there are many sides to it,” he said. “This is this is a very important moment. If this becomes what’s normalized, then I think it will be easier for others to make anti-Zionism their calling card.”
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Rabbis are also grappling with whether to formally endorse a candidate, something they have not done for decades. In Manhattan, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the head of Central Synagogue, a prominent reform congregation, told her congregants in an email that she would not publicly endorse or oppose political candidates or sign collective letters, honoring the political “pluralism” of their congregation.
A series of polls have found that while a majority of Jewish voters in New York oppose Mr. Mamdani’s bid, a notable minority of about one-in-three support him.
Central Synagogue, she wrote, is a “spiritual home and we want to keep it that way.”
She has faced vocal criticism for that choice, led by some high-profile figures, including Daniel S. Loeb, the billionaire hedge fund manager, who accused her of “hiding behind policy in order to not have to take a stand” in the race.
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Several rabbis have taken the step of endorsing Mr. Cuomo, who is running as an independent. Such support is now permitted for the first time in decades: The I.R.S. recently reversed rules to allow religious leaders to make political endorsements without risking their tax-exempt status.
To Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congregation Ansche Chesed, a conservative synagogue in Manhattan, that is a right he is uncomfortable with. He declined to sign the collective letter and instead wrote to his congregation explaining that he did not plan to back Mr. Mamdani but believed it was a “misuse” of his role to tell people how to vote.
”Some of you will disagree with me about Mamdani. You might think I am mistaken, and I might think you are,” he wrote. “That does not make either of us bad Jews.”
Mr. Kalmanofsky wrote that his deeper concern was about the growing rift within his community.
“I hope we Jews do not divide ourselves into ideological monocultures where heterodoxy and dissent are unwelcome,” he wrote. “I fear this happening to Jews. Frankly, I fear it more than I fear an anti-Zionist mayor.”
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Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
Jennifer Medina is a Los Angeles-based political reporter for The Times, focused on political attitudes and demographic change.
