Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the recent election was a debacle for the Jewish community that was years in the making. We need to look beyond the obvious reasons in order to understand what we are up against.
The Jewish community organized for this election as never before. I have organized many successful political campaigns in the Jewish community. The way that our community organized for this election was way beyond anything I ever did. Yet we were totally outgunned by Mamdani and his progressive supporters. For the members of the Democratic Socialists of America and likeminded groups, politics is their religion. Their social lives revolve around their political involvement. They will spend their time knocking on doors, working phone banks, and attending political fundraisers. We have better things to do with our time and money. We are going to minyan, attending shiurim, and engaging in acts of chesed, while working full-time and raising our families. We are spending our money on yeshiva tuition and shul membership. If we have something extra, we would rather give it to tzedakah than a political campaign. For us politics is a means to an end. We will never match the messianic fervor that the progressives bring to their political campaigns.
Andrew Cuomo was the ideal opponent for Mamdani. A former governor who was loathed by most of the public, including many of his own supporters. He was the symbol of the political status quo at a time when most New Yorkers were hungering for change. Mamdani’s victory was possible because mainstream politicians failed to address the needs of the public. Moderate Democrats have failed to produce young, dynamic, marketable politicians who can stand for real change while taking on the Mamdanis and AOCs.
Demographics in New York City have changed. Jews once accounted for 20%–30% of the vote in New York City elections. Now we are down to 10%. But the problem goes beyond that. There are many neighborhoods throughout New York City that were never predominantly Jewish but had substantial Jewish populations. If you were a non-Jew in those neighborhoods, there was a good chance that the mother who sometimes drove your kids to school in the carpool, the grocery store owner who sold to you on credit, the parents who hired you to babysit, or the next-door neighbor who lent you his lawn mower was Jewish. I grew up in one of those mixed neighborhoods. We interacted with our non-Jewish neighbors on a day-to-day basis. Our neighbors did not follow the news from Israel closely, but they felt that the Israelis were people like the Behars and the other Jewish families on the block. They understood that Israel was important to us and they were sympathetic. We have retreated to our Jewish bubbles with shuls, yeshivos, and kosher stores that feel like Jerusalem. The people in the neighborhoods we left behind are more likely to interact on a day-to-day basis with Muslims worried about their relatives in Gaza, and their neighbors are sympathetic. We are not going to go back to those neighborhoods.
Thirty percent of the Jewish vote went to Mamdani. This reflects a generational divide in the Jewish community, with older Jews voting overwhelmingly for Cuomo and younger Jews voting for Mamdani. This generational split has actually existed for a long time. The generation that lived through the Holocaust may not have been religiously observant, but they were committed to the survival of the Jewish people. They understood the importance of Israel as a refuge for Jews around the world and saw Israel as a small, embattled country struggling to survive. Remembering how the appeasement of Hitler led to World War II, they understood the importance of a strong American military. While they supported the civil rights movement and other liberal causes, support for Israel and Soviet Jewry was at the core of their political views. As memory of the Holocaust faded and it became clear that Israel was around to stay, the younger generation became less committed. While still supporting Israel, they were committed to liberal causes. Having been involved in the peace movement during the Vietnam War, they favored cutbacks in the American military and called for Israeli concessions in order to achieve peace.
This divide became noticeable during the Democratic primaries of 1976. Older, more religious Jews, who were chiefly concerned about Israel, supported Henry Jackson for President and Daniel Patrick Moynihan for the U.S. Senate. Younger, less religious, more progressive Jews supported Mo Udall for President and Bella Abzug for the U.S. Senate.
We essentially see the same divide today. But as memory of the Holocaust faded and Israel became increasingly seen as a militaristic powerhouse, the younger generation became less supportive. Some younger Jews voted for Mamdani as a way of showing their opposition to the Netanyahu government and Israel’s conduct of the war. Others actually share Mamdani’s outright hostility toward Israel. As the old generation leaves the scene, the percentage of Jews who are products of the leftist indoctrination camps masquerading as elite colleges will increase, making Jewish support for Israel even more tenuous.
We know that woke ideology is making its way from colleges to high schools and even elementary schools. In 1976 the United Federation of Teachers supported Jackson for President and Moynihan for Senator. In 2025 the United Federation of Teachers supported Mamdani for Mayor. That is an indication of who was teaching in our public schools then and now.
The labor union movement was once a bastion of support for Israel. There was a strong Jewish presence in many labor unions. Those unions supported and provided the foot soldiers for the campaigns of pro-Israel candidates like Jackson and Moynihan. Working-class voters, taking their cue from their unions, supported these pro-Israel candidates. The children of the Jewish immigrant working class became professionals and entrepreneurs. As their parents retired, they were replaced by immigrants with very different opinions of Israel. The unions that were once bastions of support for Israel now support Mamdani, who is seen as a champion of the working class.
What I have written so far is very depressing. I spent most of my career in politics and Jewish organizations working to build a strong Jewish community in Queens and throughout New York. Even watching from thousands of miles away, seeing Mamdani’s victory was heartbreaking. I felt like my life’s work was going up in flames.
But as I walked through the streets and saw old people walking and children playing, I was reminded of the Gemara at the end of Makkot. When Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, and Rabbi Yehoshua saw a fox emerging from the Kodesh HaKodashim on Har HaBayit, they cried. Rabbi Akiva laughed and comforted them with the words of Zechariah (8:4): “There shall yet be elderly men and women in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in their hand because of their great age. And the streets of the city shall be crowded with boys and girls playing in her streets.”
Rabbi Akiva did not live to see the prophecy of Zechariah fulfilled. We see it being fulfilled every day before our very eyes.
It is no coincidence that Zohran Mamdani’s victory took place during the week we read Lech Lecha. For Jews in New York, it’s been a great run. The time has come to move on to the one place G-d has chosen as our eternal homeland.
By Manny Behar