The majority Satmar faction in Brooklyn, which represents the largest Hasidic voting bloc in New York City, is backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor, lending what is likely to be a major boost to his campaign in the final days of the increasingly competitive Democratic primary.

The Zaloynim Satmar faction based in Williamsburg, led by Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, announced on Tuesday that it is ranking Cuomo as its top pick in the June 24 primary, as recent polls have shown a tightening race between the former governor and Zohran Mamdani, a far-left state assemblyman from Queens.

The endorsement is slated to run on Wednesday in Der Yid, a Yiddish paper aligned with the faction — which ranked Adrienne Adams, the speaker of the City Council, as its second pick for mayor, followed by Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn.

Cuomo also notched a key endorsement on Monday from the rival Aroynim Satmar faction led by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, which is a smaller but politically influential community. The group likewise ranked Adrienne Adams as its second pick in the primary to replace embattled Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent.

Because Hasidic communities typically vote in blocs based on rabbinic support, the endorsements could collectively turn out more than 6,000 votes, experts estimate, which could make the difference in a close race.

The dual Satmar backing, highly coveted in New York City races, caps off a string of endorsements Cuomo has accumulated from Orthodox leaders in recent days. Last Friday, he claimed a major endorsement from the Bobov sect, the largest Hasidic bloc in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn that could deliver more than 4,000 votes, according to experts.

The former governor has also recently won support from the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance; the Crown Jewish United and the Crown Heights PAC; and the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition.

Still, there have been a few holdouts who remain bitter over Cuomo’s COVID-era restrictions, which many voters recall as discriminatory, according to one Jewish activist familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive subject.

On Monday, a large coalition of Hasidic sects and institutions in Borough Park broke from the Bobov leadership and announced it was ranking Adrienne Adams as its first choice, followed by Myrie, whose district includes the Hasidic enclave of Crown Heights.

The coalition did not publicly provide a reason for its decision to exclude Cuomo from its ranking. But the Jewish activist, who was privately briefed on its thinking, said that some Hasidic leaders continue to harbor lingering resentment toward Cuomo over his COVID policies, which the former governor has sought to address in a recent series of meetings to mend relationships with a community his campaign regards as crucial to securing the nomination.

“People didn’t find his apology sincere,” the Jewish activist said of Cuomo’s outreach.

The group was also organized by allies of Eric Adams, whose team has privately urged Orthodox leaders not to rank Cuomo first or to exclude him entirely from their endorsement slates, believing that Adams will be best poised to win the general election with Mamdani as the nominee, according to multiple people familiar with the behind-the-scenes push to influence the primary.

One source familiar with the effort said Adams has personally intervened, asking Moishe Indig, a leader of the Aroynim Satmar faction, to include Mamdani in an endorsement slate.

Indig did not respond to a request for comment on the effort, which was reported earlier by The New York Times. 

Most Orthodox leaders have chosen to ignore the lobbying effort led by Adams’ deputy chief of staff, Menashe Shapiro, according to sources, even as the mayor has built close ties to the Jewish community and has recently been highlighting his new efforts to oppose antisemitism, which Cuomo has called “the most important issue” in the race.

A spokesperson for Adams, Kayla Mamelek, said in a statement on Tuesday that the mayor “has always stood with New York City’s Jewish communities — not only working to uplift and empower them, but confronting the disturbing rise in antisemitism in recent years.”

Even as Cuomo has rolled out a range of Orthodox endorsements, Adams’ team is hopeful that Jewish leaders will ultimately reverse course and back the mayor in the general election, according to sources. 

But Cuomo’s advisors as well as Jewish leaders have dismissed that expectation as wishful thinking given the mayor’s precarious standing with voters after he convinced the Trump administration to dismiss his federal corruption charges as part of an alleged quid pro quo.

A recent poll showed that Adams would lose the general election by double digits in hypothetical matchups against both Mamdani and Cuomo, whose comfortable lead in the primary has been dwindling in recent weeks.

Mamdani’s insurgent bid has raised alarms among Jewish leaders who have been troubled by his fierce opposition to Israel amid rising antisemitism fueled by the ongoing war in Gaza.

“Mr. Cuomo’s leading opponent is a self-identified socialist who has expressed views and taken actions deeply offensive and worrisome to our community,” the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition said in its endorsement on Monday, citing Mamdani’s support for anti-Israel boycott campaigns and his refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. “These positions are not only controversial, they are outright dangerous.”

Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and said he strives to show his disagreements on Israel are “still based on a shared sense of humanity,” as he put it at a recent town hall hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York.

The democratic socialist has engaged in some direct outreach to the Orthodox community, meeting for an interview with Satmar leaders that was recently published in a popular Yiddish women’s magazine, among other efforts.

Indig, the Aroynim Satmar leader, has met with Mamdani and told the Times he was still weighing if he would add the assemblyman to his endorsement slate, suggesting that Adams’ recent outreach could pay off in the primary.

Indig, who backed Adams last cycle and is a part of his Jewish advisory council, prefers the mayor over Cuomo, said a person familiar with his thinking. He has indicated he will support Adams in the general election.

Unlike other Hasidic sects, the Satmar community is theologically anti-Zionist, opposing Israel on the grounds that the messiah has yet to arrive to usher in the creation of a Jewish state, and does not view Israel as a top issue.

Polling has found that Mamdani holds virtually no support in the Orthodox community, while Cuomo is favored by a sizable number of voters whom he is counting on to propel him to victory in the primary. 

With just under three weeks until New York City’s mayoral primary on June 24, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is slowly but surely securing commitments from a range of key leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community, a large and politically influential voting base whose widespread support is seen as crucial to his pathway to the Democratic nomination.

In the coming days, Cuomo is expected to garner endorsements from several prominent Orthodox leaders in Brooklyn and Queens, including major Hasidic sects in Borough Park and Williamsburg that can traditionally turn out thousands of votes, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to address private plans.

But as most top Orthodox leaders have not historically taken sides until relatively late in the primary season, some Jewish community activists are voicing anxiety about their continued delay in publicly backing Cuomo — as he increasingly faces competition to his far left from Zohran Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman whose fierce opposition to Israel has drawn mounting accusations of fueling antisemitism.

“Now that the race has been essentially a two-man race for the past few months, what are they waiting for?” one Jewish leader, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Jewish Insider. “Are they considering Mamdani?”

Mamdani, a longtime supporter of boycott and divestment campaigns against Israel, has stirred growing controversy over his extreme positions in recent months. Perhaps most notably, he has refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, an issue he skirted again during the first mayoral debate last night. “I believe Israel has the right to exist,” he said carefully, “as a state with equal rights.”

Though he has otherwise denounced antisemitism and made some overtures to the Jewish community, mainstream Jewish leaders remain alarmed by Mamdani’s rhetoric and concerned by a poll that showed him uncomfortably close to Cuomo in the final round of ranked-choice voting. 

Some Jewish leaders believe that the Orthodox community, whose support could help tip the scales in a close election, is not recognizing the urgency of the moment as Mamdani continues to surge.

“The Orthodox Jewish community is not afraid enough,” Sam Berger, an Orthodox Queens state assemblyman who endorsed Cuomo in March, said in a statement to JI. “While the public generally takes its time to pay attention, we do not have that luxury this year. After two antisemitic attacks in under two weeks echoing the same rhetoric we have persistently warned against from the No. 2 mayoral candidate, we need to vote like our lives depend on it.”

Last week, Leon Goldenberg, an Orthodox leader in Brooklyn who serves as an executive board member of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, announced his support for Cuomo, preempting an endorsement from his own group that is likely to come in the next week or so. His personal endorsement, he told JI in an interview, was intended to raise awareness about the stakes of the primary.

Cuomo, who has frequently touted his support for Israel and called antisemitism “the most important issue” in the race, has activity courted the Orthodox community, in an effort to repair relationships that had deteriorated over policies he implemented amid the COVID pandemic, which many voters still recall as discriminatory.

“The meetings all went well, and I do believe that before this race is over that most of the Orthodox Jewish groups will support the former governor for his mayoral bid because we’re very concerned about the prospect of Zohran Mamdani becoming the next mayor,” said one Orthodox rabbi in Far Rockaway, Queens, who is part of a group of Jewish leaders endorsing Cuomo, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address the race. “I don’t remember a more important election for the Orthodox community in my lifetime.”

“If it hasn’t woken people up, hopefully it will in the next few weeks,” he told JI.