New Yorkers elected democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday as the next New York City mayor, ensuring the city will be headed in a leftward ideological direction for the next four years. Mamdani’s election has also sparked widespread concerns in the city’s Jewish community about how the incoming mayor, who refused to condemn “globalize the intifada” rhetoric or acknowledge the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland, would impact the day-to-day life of Jewish New Yorkers.

Jewish Insider asked senior New York Democratic officials and Jewish community leaders — granted anonymity to offer their candid thoughts — to discuss the top threats that a Mamdani administration could pose to Jewish life in the city.

Respondents expressed worry that Mamdani’s anti-Israel worldview could lead to heightened antisemitism, bring a vanguard of leftist operatives hostile to Jewish concerns into City Hall,  impact the effectiveness of the New York Police Department and fray ties between the city and Israeli institutions or businesses. He has even vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits, though experts have voiced doubt on the legality of the move.

These are five of the leading concerns from the Jewish communal leadership in New York City, home to the largest Jewish community in the country, about what Mamdani might do as mayor: 

1. Mamdani has expressed a desire to defund, or even disband, the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group — the unit that responds to major protests, such as the anti-Israel encampment on Columbia University’s campus last year:

“He’s been pushing for years to disband the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group,” a source with knowledge of city government told JI. In December 2024, Mamdani tweeted, “As mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements and brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights.” 

The SRG responds to hostage situations, riots and protests, including the deadly Park Avenue office building shooting that occurred in July. In April 2024, the Strategic Response Group was called in to assist with clearing the anti-Israel encampment that overtook Columbia University, which saw several incidents of physical assault against Jewish students.  

“One question is if he’s actually successful in disbanding them,” the source continued. “That will depend on his will and bureaucracy and whether he can put together an administration to accomplish his tasks. If he’s going to be an effective mayor, then yes he could do it. And if he is, then you’re going to see completely different responses in the city. 

“Something super important is whether a Mamdani administration would actually have a proactive approach to policing and using security in a way that will make sure Jewish New Yorkers are safe. If it’s not a priority for them, then I’m afraid to see what will happen.”

2. Mamdani could further politicize NYC Public Schools at a time when anti-Israel rhetoric and related antisemitic incidents have surged dramatically in K-12 schools:

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, New York City Public Schools launched new curriculum materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia in its schools. As mayor, Mamdani will have power to appoint a new chancellor of public schools, who could rewrite that curriculum. 

Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, previously a far-left congressman who lost reelection in part because of his radical views towards Israel, has been discussed as a potential candidate to lead the country’s largest public school system. Bowman embraced a number of hostile positions toward Israel in the aftermath of Oct. 7 and throughout his reelection campaign, including pledging to oppose funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and endorsing the BDS movement. 

The New York City Public School system has seen a surge of anti-Israel activity since Oct. 7. In November 2023, a Queens high school teacher said she was forced to hide in a locked office as a mob of students tried to push their way into her classroom, after learning she attended a pro-Israel rally. 

In May, a “Teacher Career Pathways” newsletter for educators in the city’s 1,800 schools called for students to be heard on the “genocide in Gaza.” NYC Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos apologized for the mass communication, stating that it should not have been released without consultation from the mayor’s office. 

A political insider told JI there is anxiety the new administration will fuel anti-Israel discourse in the classroom. “There’s concern about what curriculums will be used to teach about the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict,” he said. “What vendors will be used?”

The American Jewish Committee announced plans on Wednesday to “boost the ‘Hidden Voices’ curriculum in New York City public schools, which provides resources, lesson plans and workshops to highlight the histories and contributions of underrepresented groups in U.S. history.” 

3. Mamdani has expressed support for the BDS movement, which could have a wide-ranging impact on Israeli partnerships with New York City companies or institutions.

Mamdani said in June that he would attempt to divest from Israel if elected mayor — including discontinuing the NYC-Israel Economic Council, which Mayor Eric Adams recently launched.  

“His pursuit of discriminatory policies that boycott and divest from Israel, companies doing business in Israel, and U.S.-Israel tech partnerships could cost New York taxpayers billions over the next ten years,” said the head of a leading Jewish organization. “He knows [BDS] policy is discriminatory and antisemitic, yet he refuses to abandon it. Even worse, he continues to double down and has made it an important piece of his economic strategy.”   

Mamdani has also said he would “reassess” the partnership between Cornell University and Israel’s Technion, potentially displacing it from its campus on Roosevelt Island. “Ending [the Cornell-Technion] partnership would deal a blow to the city’s booming tech sector, chase away innovators, destroy vital educational opportunities, and damage New York’s reputation as a global business hub,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the AJC, said in a statement. 

A political insider and Jewish communal leader told JI those are policies Mamdani could enforce, but “he would have to go out of his way to.”

“He said he’ll divest from Israel but it would be unprecedented for him to start organizing the pension boards under the comptroller,” the source said. “It doesn’t mean he won’t do it, but it’s more complicated than the stroke of a pen. No one knows if he will be passive, aggressive or proactive; there are many options of what we could do.” 

4. Mamdani’s inability to condemn antisemitism from his public perch, while associating himself with extremist individuals could lead to a rise in antisemitism:

During the campaign, Mamdani affiliated with anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, considered to be one of the mayor-elect’s mentors and Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who Mamdani called one of the “foremost Muslim leaders” in the U.S. Wahhaj has a history of supporting controversial figures involved in terrorism, including testifying as a character witness at the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman who was found guilty of seditious conspiracy for his role in plotting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Jeremy Corbyn, who led Britain’s Labour Party and was suspended over antisemitic comments, also phone-banked for Mamdani in the closing days of the campaign.

Mamdani has said he would oppose using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which would dismantle an executive order signed by Adams in June as part of a push against rising antisemitism. 

“Even if Mamdani doesn’t do anything to actually impact the day-to-day of the Jewish community, the symbolic impact of Mamdani’s victory [is] devastating,” another veteran Jewish communal leader said. “It shows that a person espousing views that most of us consider dangerous and antisemitic can get elected. It’s the breaking of a taboo.”

5. Mamdani’s failure to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism could weaken enforcement of laws protecting Jewish institutions: 

Throughout his campaign, Mamdani repeatedly said he does not support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and that his criticism of Israel does not amount to antisemitism. But the majority of Jewish Americans report that Israel is a large part of their Jewish identity. 

Antisemitism watchers have noted that anti-Israel demonstrations — especially those on college campuses — have increasingly turned blatantly antisemitic by targeting Jewish, not Israeli, institutions such as Hillels and Chabad houses. 

The communal leader and political insider added that it’s uncertain where Mamdani draws a line at anti-Israel activity crossing into antisemitism, and therefore whether he would protect Jewish institutions. For example, they said, “it’s unclear if he would use protesting a university Hillel with ‘Free Palestine’ as antisemitic or anti-Zionist.” 

In the aftermath of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks two years ago, American Jews were pulled off the sidelines and got much more involved in Jewish life — a trend, dubbed “the surge,” that has continued into a second year, according to a survey released this spring. 

But a further breakdown of that survey data, shared this week by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), shows that the impact of “the surge” is waning more quickly among Jews from minority populations, including LGBTQ Jews, Jews of color, Jews with disabilities and financially vulnerable Jews, than it is among the broader Jewish community. 

The survey found that 31% of Jewish respondents said this year that they are engaging more with the Jewish community now than before Oct. 7, down from 43% last year — still significant post-Oct. 7 growth, but slightly down from the immediate aftermath. But among historically marginalized populations, that decrease was even more pronounced. 

“We’re sad and disheartened to see that these marginalized groups are engaging so much less than they were at this time last year,” JFNA’s chief impact and growth officer, Mimi Kravetz, told Jewish Insider on Wednesday. “It’s still higher than baseline. There’s still people showing up more. But there has been a more significant drop among these most marginalized groups.” 

Roughly one-fifth of people with an LGBTQ+ member of their household say they are now engaging more with the Jewish community in 2025, down from 49% from the year before. Among Jews who are not white and Ashkenazi, 30% of people are “surging” this year, a decrease from 57% the year before. Thirty-two percent of financially vulnerable Jews are “surging” now, compared to 49% a year earlier. 

Across these different populations, there is no single answer as to why there was a sharper decline in engagement than among the broader Jewish community. The Jewish leaders analyzing this data have not yet identified what they think accounts for the disparity, but they have some ideas — and suspect that some of the differential can be explained by simmering tensions over Israel.

Overall, the JFNA survey found that roughly one-third of American Jews believe conversations about the war in Gaza are “negatively impacting community engagement and belonging,” according to a presentation for Jewish community stakeholders hosted by JFNA on Tuesday. Thirty-five percent feel that if they shared their views on Israel, they wouldn’t be welcome in the Jewish community. 

But just because people are sometimes afraid to voice their opinion, that doesn’t mean they are all in alignment. Similar percentages of American Jews feel the community is too hard-line in its support for Israel (39%) and feel that it is not outspoken enough in its support for Israel (34%). 

Among LGBTQ Jews, or those who live with someone LGBTQ, “we do see a slightly lower sense of pride and emotional attachment to Israel, and we do see that they are more likely to believe that the community is too hard-line in its support of Israel,” Kravetz offered as one possible explanation for why the community is now “surging” less. 

That’s different from financially vulnerable Jews, who are “more likely to feel pride in an emotional attachment to Israel than the general Jewish public,” Kravetz said on the webinar. One challenge for them may be a sense of feeling uninformed compared to others in the community. 

“They’re actually far less likely to say that this issue of the community and Israel is affecting their sense of engagement and belonging,” she added. “They are much more likely, though, to say that they don’t know enough to participate in the conversation.” 

But the Israel hypothesis falls short when looking at why Jews of color are “surging” less than a year ago. “Their views actually mirror the general population,” said Kravetz. But part of that may account for diversity within the broad “Jews of color” umbrella — which encompasses Mizrahi Jews, Black Jews, Latinos and more. 

The data is particularly concerning for Jewish leaders who had invested in understanding diverse segments of the community and helping them feel more included. But the same barriers that existed before Oct. 7 are still present.

“What’s really affecting their sense of surge and engagement and belonging are the same things that affected them prior to Oct. 7, and those are that they need to see a reflection of themselves in leaders and other participants,” said Kravetz. “They need space to show up as their whole self, whatever that looks like for them. They need to see visible evidence of diversity and inclusion policies and practice, and that those policies will be followed, and they need to know before they enter.” 

Former British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was a towering figure in Jewish life whose unique blend of Torah and Western wisdom attracted adherents around the world for many years before his death in 2020.

Now, with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, approaching later this month, and the restarting of the cycle of reading the weekly Torah portion a few weeks later, Rabbi Sacks’ longtime Jerusalem-based publisher, Koren, is releasing a posthumously completed Koren Shalem Humash, with a new translation and insights to encourage deeper understanding of the Five Books of Moses.

Each spread features the words of the Humash in Hebrew — written in the clear Koren font, recognizable to users of the publisher’s popular prayer books — on one side. On the other side there is a new, modern English translation that Sacks completed in 2018. Below there are two of the standard commentaries: from the 11th-century French rabbi Rashi and second-century sage Onkelos, who translated the Torah into Aramaic. 

On the bottom half of the pages is Sacks’ own commentary, which he began writing before his death, after which The Rabbi Sacks Legacy continued his work based on his writings and speeches.

The story of the Koren Shalem Humash begins in 2006, Joanna Benarroch, president of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy, told Jewish Insider last week. At that time, Sacks began working on his popular series of books about the weekly Torah portion, Covenant and Conversation.

“He started writing it online every week,” Benarroch recalled. “He was the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, based in London, but he started to build a global audience.” 

Sacks’ goals for Covenant and Conversation were “to make Torah relevant to us today, so it’s not just wisdom from 2,000-3,000 years ago today, but wisdom we can also take with us. It was very important to him for us to be proud, knowledgeable Jews and to share that with the next generation … to create new leaders who were proud, knowledgeable Jews. These were the things permeating his mind when he was writing,” Benarroch said.

After Rabbi Sacks’ death, Koren brought scholars, including the rabbi’s niece, Jessica Sacks, to compile elements of Covenant and Conversation, his many other books, his BBC Radio “Thought for the Day” segments and other essays and speeches to complete Sacks’ commentary on the Humash.

“The scholars beautifully weaved his ideas from each parasha [Torah portion] into detailed commentary,” Benarroch said. “It’s his words, very carefully crafted to give a whole picture of each parasha. The ideas are woven together in a way they had never before been [presented]. You have 15 years of writing and speaking on Bereishit [Genesis] crafted in this way.”

In his Passover Haggadah, quoted in the editor’s note of the Humash, Sacks wrote that “traditional commentaries are usually close readings of individual words and phrases rather than reflections on the meaning of the whole. That is a classic Jewish response and I have not hesitated to do likewise … But it is the great themes, the overarching principles, that are often neglected or taken for granted.” 

Sacks’ commentary combines both, in some places referring to specific words and phrases, and in others sharing insights on broader stories and ideas, which gives, Benarroch said, “an overview of what you can learn from the parasha. You’re coming out with a clear understanding of what it is about, with relevant ideas for today.”

Benarroch recounted recently being in synagogue and sitting near a non-Jewish visitor who was reading along to the Torah portion in English.

“I was mortified, because it was a parasha that was quite difficult, with a lot of blood and gore,” Benarroch said. “I wished at that point that the Rabbi Sacks Humash was available, because he would have given her a sense of what is going on and an understanding of the battles in the time of the Humash … He wanted people to understand the whole picture, to read it as a narrative.” 

She paid tribute to Sacks’ ability to “make very complicated things accessible.” 

In addition, the Humash features detailed references, such that if there is an idea a reader seeks to explore further, he or she can find the full essay, book or radio program it came from.

Benarroch worked for Sacks for 24 years, as executive director of the Office of the Chief Rabbi and then of his private office, and was key to establishing The Rabbi Sacks Legacy after his death. She said that the greatest lesson she’s taken from him is the importance of listening to and learning from one another. 

“He felt active listening was absolutely imperative for all of us. We talk a lot, but we don’t listen enough,” she said. “When he was writing his Humash, he felt he was connecting to God through it, and that for us to listen to the words and the messages, we must also listen closely to one another. Judaism is a religion of listening … in terms of unity, community, being part of the Jewish people.”