New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the mayoral campaign distancing himself from the most radical anti-Israel elements of his leftist movement, but an examination of his wife’s social media activity reveals she liked multiple Instagram posts cheering on Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault.

The posts liked by Rama Duwaji, a Syrian-American artist, unambiguously celebrated the terrorist attack, which saw nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign workers killed, thousands wounded, 251 civilians and military personnel kidnapped and numerous episodes of sexual assault.

The first post, shared on the day of Hamas’ onslaught, came from The Slow Factory, which bills itself as “a school, knowledge partner and climate innovation organization” that “center[s] the voices and ideas of the Global Majority (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) to share their knowledge outside the boundaries of institutions & oppressive systems.”

The Instagram post shows stills from participants’ livestreamed footage of the attack: first of a bulldozer that terrorists used to breach the barrier separating Israel from Gaza, the second of attackers riding on a captured IDF vehicle. Printed on the former are the words “Breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation,” and on the latter “Resisting apartheid since 1948,” and on both the slogan “Systemic change for collective liberation.”

The extensive caption on the post laments that “if and when the occupation forces retaliate against this resistance” Gazans will be “punished for wanting freedom from apartheid.”

Duwaji, who met Mamdani on a dating app in 2021 and married him in early 2025, liked this post and others using a personal account in her own name, on which she has posted her often-political illustrations and with which the mayor has interacted in the past. She has used it also to directly criticize Israeli policy.

The unapologetic tone of the Slow Factory Post contrasts radically with the mayor’s debate-stage messaging on the attack, which characterized Hamas’ actions as “war crimes,” even as he continually lambasted the Israeli military response.

Duwaji did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and the mayor’s office would not answer questions regarding his feelings about her online activity, or whether they had discussed the Oct. 7 attacks at the time. Rather, his team repeated his standard line on the bloody terrorist rampage.

“Mayor Mamdani has been clear and consistent: Hamas is a terrorist organization, October 7th was a horrific war crime, and he has condemned that violence unequivocally,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement to Jewish Insider.

It is unclear when Duwaji liked the Slow Factory post, or the materials that the People’s Forum — part of Shanghai-based Maoist tech mogul Neville “Roy” Singham’s network of nonprofits promoting pro-China, pro-Russia and pro-Iran propaganda — posted to Instagram on Oct. 8, 2023. Duwaji, again using her personal account, liked two posts from protests the organization led alongside the Democratic Socialists of America and allied organizations in Times Square one day after the attack on Israel.

Mamdani, then a state assemblymember, publicly criticized the rally at the time for “making light” of Hamas’ massacre of civilians. 

But the posts his then-girlfriend approved of on Instagram enthusiastically justify both the rally and the terrorist actions. 

Both captions feature the slogan “from the river to the sea” — often understood as calling for the total elimination of Israel from the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — and one includes a clip of the crowd chanting, call-and-response style: “Every colonized people, every occupied people has the right to self-defense.”

The images in that post show signs and banners declaring “WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED, RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED” and “RESISTANCE AGAINST OCCUPATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT.”

“Thousands have taken to the streets in #NYC to stand with Palestinian resistance and call for an end to all U.S. aid to apartheid Israel,” the caption on the post reads.

JI’s findings come amid a growing focus on political spouses: earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the wife of Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) had liked or shared numerous controversial posts, including some attacking activists critical of Israel.

A forthcoming book offers insights into the spiritual advice Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger — who was killed in the Bondi Beach Hanukkah terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia in December — imparted to a secular Jewish woman during her own near-death experience. 

In September 2022, Nikki Goldstein lay comatose, fighting for her life in a Sydney hospital. Her daughter spotted Schlanger, the Chabad emissary to Bondi, in the ICU halls and Goldstein’s husband desperately requested he pray for her. Schlanger blew the shofar beside her hospital bed and prayed for her recovery. One day later, Goldstein began recuperating from a life-threatening infection.

As Goldstein, a best-selling author of more than a dozen books, regained her health, her bond with Schlanger grew and the duo decided to co-author a book. In January 2025, they began recording their conversations. 

Conversations With My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World will be published in May — allowing Schlanger’s legacy to live on after he and 14 others were killed in December in a targeted terror attack on Sydney’s Jewish community.

Goldstein said that as “devastated, shocked and grieving” as she was after Schlanger’s death, she knew he would want her to finish the book. “Eli saved my life those years ago, and it’s my honor and privilege to ensure that his voice, memory and mission are not silenced by terror and continue to work miracles,” she said in a statement. 

Conversations With My Rabbi, which includes an epilogue by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, founder of Chabad of Bondi and Schlanger’s father-in-law, will be published by HarperCollins in the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

In the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday in which 15 people were killed, Israel is imploring Western governments to heed its warnings about the potential for violent acts of antisemitism.

In a video statement on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide. They would be well-advised to heed our warnings. I demand action from them now.”

One of the recurring themes in Israeli officials’ statements after the attack on Bondi Beach, following condolences to the community, was “we told you so.” While Israel did not have intelligence pointing specifically to Sunday’s attack, it had provided information to Canberra about threats to the Australian Jewish community.

In his initial public statement following the attack, Netanyahu said, “Four months ago, I wrote a letter to the prime minister of Australia. I told him: ‘Your policy encourages terrorism. It encourages antisemitism. You call for a Palestinian state, and you are essentially giving a prize to Hamas for the terrible massacre they carried out on Oct. 7. You are legitimizing all these rioters and you are not lifting a finger to eliminate these terror hotspots. This will lead to more murders.’ [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] did nothing.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that “the Australian government, which received countless warning signs, must come to its senses.” President Isaac Herzog recalled that Israel “repeat[ed] our alerts time and again to the Australian government to seek action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.” 

American lawmakers and Jewish leaders also emphasized that Canberra had been repeatedly warned about a rise in violent threats to the local Jewish community. 

In August, Netanyahu said that “history will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.” 

At the time, the post seemed to be a response to Australia’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state. However, it was harsher and more personal than Netanyahu’s statements about the 10 other countries that did the same.

Days later, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador, saying that intelligence services found Tehran was linked to arson attacks on a kosher cafe in Sydney and a synagogue in Melbourne in 2024. That intelligence reportedly came from Israel and included warnings that Iran was plotting more attacks. 

Mark Regev, chair of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University and former diplomatic advisor to Netanyahu, who was born and grew up in Australia, told Jewish Insider that “it’s clear that despite the bad political working relationship between the two governments, at least the channel between security services was working well. As a result of the information received in Australia, that they verified themselves, they took a stand against the Iranians.”

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, CEO of the International Legal Forum and Israel’s former special envoy for combating antisemitism, told JI that she has met with former and current chiefs of police in Canberra, and found them to be “well aware” that, quoting former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “antisemitism is the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity and the dignity of difference.”

Regev said that usually, when Israel has reason to believe a Jewish community is in danger, it “expresses concern and talks to the relevant government.”

“Israel sees itself as the homeland of all Jewish people, so when Jews are under threat, it raises its voice,” he said.

Generally, “it is accepted that Israel has a say. Everyone understands it,” Regev said. “It’s not an accident that [Australian Foreign Minister] Penny Wong so quickly [after the attack] had a phone call with Sa’ar. That Israel has standing with Jews who are not Israeli citizens is commonly accepted in many parts of the world.”

There is little Israel can do beyond relaying warnings and intelligence, Regev said: “The Mossad can talk to local intelligence and give them information, and we can informally advise the Jewish community on how to protect synagogues, Jewish day schools and public events.”

“Ultimately, the job of protecting the Jewish community is the government” of the country in which the community lives, he added. “Israel is not in charge of law and order in Australia; that’s the Australian government.”  

“Aside from saying ‘you have to do a better job,’ I’m not sure what else we can do,” Regev said.

Cotler-Wunsh argued on this week’s episode of the Misgav Mideast Horizons Podcast that Israel can be doing much more to combat antisemitism around the world. She resigned from her position as special envoy earlier this year in part because it remained voluntary and with little to no funding or ability to set policy. (JI’s Lahav Harkov cohosts the Misgav Mideast Horizons Podcast.)

“There needs to be some sort of authority, because it seems that there is no collaboration. … As Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism, different from many of my counterparts in the rest of the world, in the U.S., in Canada … I was not privy to the conversations that the security [establishment] was having, and I would say that is another testament to the lack of understanding of how severe an existential threat antisemitism is as both a symptom and a weapon in this eighth front of a raging war,” Cotler-Wunsh said. 

“In no other war front would we say we have no strategy. We are just reacting,” Cotler-Wunsh lamented.

Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, told JI that the way Israeli leadership responded to the deadly terrorist attack did not take into consideration the particular concerns of Diaspora Jewry, and that their statements “go to the heart of Diaspora Jewry’s relationship with Israel and historic allegations of loyalties.”

Netanyahu and Sa’ar’s “immediate reaction is to attack the Australian government after this horrific terrorist attack for failing the Jewish community in relation to antisemitism … and I don’t disagree, but their first reaction should have been to convey condolences to the Australian government and the people of Australia,” he said.

“This is the greatest mass-casualty event [in Australia] since [1996] … This is an attack on Australia,” Leibler said. “It’s important to keep in mind, because the message you send otherwise is that the Jewish community is a fifth column. We’re not. We are passionately Zionist and that is completely consistent with being passionate Australians.”

“I don’t think people thought deeply about that, and it’s an important point,” Leibler added, saying that it may be a result of “politics in Israel [being] globally tough” and lacking “the same level of decency in the way people interact that perhaps there once was, and that does come out in the way some of the reactions were communicated.”

Regev recalled that when he was Israeli ambassador to the U.K. from 2016 to 2020, “the British Jewish community had nothing but praise for the seriousness with which [the government] took the safety of the Jewish community, and there were serious threats.” 

This week, the police forces of London and Manchester said they would arrest people who chanted “globalize the intifada” in light of the Sydney attack. 

“The Australian Jewish community is not in the same place in the way they look at the Australian government. … Jews were seen as whingers, overstating the threat, but obviously they weren’t,” he said.

“The general message [from Israel] is that Australia is not taking these things seriously enough,” Regev added. “What will [Canberra] do following this event? They say all of the right things, but are they taking steps?” 

Leibler said that Albanese’s government has “absolutely, there is no doubt, failed since Oct. 7 to thwart the antisemitism that has exploded. They bear responsibility for an environment that has allowed antisemitism to thrive.”

He emphasized that “from a basic moral perspective, it is important to acknowledge the people responsible are the perpetrators and those who inspired, educated and financed them.”

“Had this government known about this attack, they would have tried to prevent it, but they are clearly not equipped to deal with it, and the response so far has been inadequate,” he said.

Leibler called on Australia to adopt its antisemitism envoy’s recommendations, made in July, and to acknowledge that the weekly anti-Israel protests on the streets have “crossed the line from criticism of Israel to full-blown antisemitism. … Ninety percent of the Jewish community has been demonized.” At the same time, he acknowledged that the government has increased funding for security Jewish sites and introduced hate speech laws. 

“What they have not done is come to the defense of Israel’s legitimacy and model how one can criticize Israel’s policies of the day but vehemently come to its defense,” he said. “The Jewish community maybe would have disagreed with policy shifts, like recognition [of a Palestinian state] and changing [U.N.] voting patterns, but it wouldn’t have resulted in the same sense of isolation and demonization.” 

The deadly terrorist attack during a Hanukkah celebration in Australia on Sunday is sparking a renewed debate within the Democratic Party over anti-Israel slogans including “globalize the intifada,” and whether such extreme rhetoric fuels antisemitic prejudice that can lead to violence against Jews.

Some candidates and elected officials in New York City, where recent anti-Israel demonstrations have raised alarms within the largest Jewish community in the world, are tying such rhetoric directly to the carnage at Bondi Beach in Sydney — after two gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded more than three dozen in the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in Australian history.

Eric Adams, the outgoing mayor, said on Sunday that “the attack in Sydney is exactly what it means to ‘globalize the intifada,’” and cast the shooting as “the real-world application of that call to violence.”

Erik Bottcher, a city councilman who is among several Democrats now competing to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in a heavily Jewish district in Manhattan, said that, in the wake of “an attack like Bondi Beach, we should be unequivocal: antisemitic violence is unacceptable, full stop.”

“And we should also be honest that slogans like ‘globalize the intifada’ don’t advance justice, they escalate hostility and make Jewish communities feel targeted,” Bottcher continued in a statement shared with Jewish Insider on Monday. “Leaders should be lowering the temperature.”

Alex Bores, a state assemblyman also seeking to replace Nadler, called the attack “horrifying and despicable” and said “antisemitism is a growing threat around the world,” while noting that “New York City has a special responsibility to confront it head‑on.”

“Any rhetoric or actions that dehumanize Jews, incite violence or put Jewish communities at risk must be called out and stopped, without exceptions. I have repeatedly condemned the use of the slogan ‘globalize the intifada,’” Bores told JI. “I believe that phrase, regardless of a specific speaker’s intent, has been tied inextricably to violent attacks, strikes fear in many New Yorkers and has no place in our city.”

Micah Lasher, a Jewish state assemblyman and another Democrat in the race, asked rhetorically in a social media post Sunday whether there was “any question” that “the spread of violence against Jews is intertwined with the social acceptability of violent rhetoric directed at Jews.”

“People of good will must confront this reality,” he concluded.

Such discourse is likely to intensify in next year’s primaries, where several anti-Israel candidates in New York City are seeking to challenge incumbent Democrats over their positions on Gaza and ties to AIPAC, the pro-Israel advocacy group increasingly demonized by the far left.

For now, however, those challengers were largely reluctant to weigh in on the heated rhetoric used by anti-Israel protesters — including just last month at at a synagogue in Manhattan where demonstrators chanted such phrases as “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF” — and if such language deserves further scrutiny amid heightened security concerns in the Jewish community following the Bondi Beach attack.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, an organizer in Harlem who helped to lead anti-Israel protests at Columbia University and recently launched a bid to challenge Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), did not respond to a request for comment.

Michael Blake, a former state assemblyman who is now challenging Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) in the Bronx and who has drawn charges of hypocrisy for pivoting from his past outspoken support for Israel and close relations with AIPAC, also did not return a request for comment — even as he condemned the shooting in Australia.

For his part, Torres, a pro-Israel stalwart and top ally of the Jewish community, described the attack as “part of a global surge in antisemitism fueled by an ever-escalating campaign of demonization and dehumanization.”

A spokesperson for Brad Lander, the outgoing city comptroller mounting a newly launched bid to unseat Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in a left-leaning district covering Lower Manhattan as well as parts of Brooklyn, likewise declined to comment, instead referring to his “several public comments about the Sydney shooting.”

The spokesperson also cited previous remarks in which Lander voiced reservations about calls to “globalize the intifada,” shortly after Zohran Mamdani, who is now the mayor-elect of New York City, had faced widespread backlash for refusing to denounce the slogan. 

“Maybe you don’t mean to be saying it’s open season on Jews everywhere in the world, but that’s what I hear,” Lander, a top Jewish ally of Mamdani, said in comments in June. “And I’d like to hear that from other people.”

A spokesperson for Goldman, a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat, also declined to weigh in on the matter.

Mamdani, who condemned the Bondi Beach attack as a “vile act of antisemitic terror” in a social media post on Sunday, has refused to denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada,” but has vowed to discourage its usage.

In a Friday interview with WCBS in New York, Mamdani responded to feedback from a prominent local rabbi, Ammiel Hirsch, who expressed concern about the mayor-elect’s “ideological hostility to the very existence of Israel” and said that “anti-Zionist rhetoric and anti-Israel policies will threaten Jewish safety” in the city.

“Rabbi Hirsch is entitled to his opinions,” Mamdani stated. “The positions that I’ve made clear on Israel and on Palestine, these are part of universal beliefs of equal rights and the necessity of it for all people everywhere.”

A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite reluctance among Mamdani and some of his allies to now more openly grapple with rhetoric many Jews have found threatening, one progressive challenger to Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), a pro-Israel incumbent in Queens endorsed by AIPAC, said that he has come to view phrases such as “globalize the intifada” as harmful, thanks to conversations with his Jewish friends.

Chuck Park, a former City Council aide and foreign service officer who has criticized Meng’s donations from AIPAC, said “Jewish people around the world — from Bondi Beach to Bushwick — are very scared right now,” while adding “it is the job of non-Jewish leaders like myself to listen to them.”

“When I listen to my Jewish friends,” he said in an interview with JI on Monday, “they tell me that they hear” the phrase particularly “as a call to violence against them.”

“The swastika is no longer a Buddhist symbol of good fortune, right?” Park added. “The pointed white hood is no longer a Catholic symbol of penance. And in a very similar way, that phrase is not a call for the liberation of an oppressed people, and I think it has instilled and maybe even inspired dangerous attacks on Jewish people around the world.”

President Donald Trump and senior U.S. officials took a moment during the start of Hanukkah to reflect on the deadly antisemitic terrorist attack over the weekend at a holiday celebration in Sydney, Australia. 

The attack, which occurred Sunday when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killed at least 15 people, including a Holocaust survivor. Over 40 others were injured.

Speaking at the White House Sunday night, Trump called the shooting a “purely antisemitic attack,” and praised Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim man and bystander who stepped in to disarm the gunman at Bondi Beach. Ahmed is undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds. 

“It’s a very brave person actually who went and attacked one of the shooters, and saved a lot of lives,” said Trump. “Great respect to that man that did that.”

Trump added that in the wake of the attack, Jews should celebrate Hanukkah “proudly.” The president has largely dismissed safety concerns in the U.S. and told reporters on Fox News on Sunday that Jewish Americans should “be proud of who you are.” 

Antisemitic incidents have been on the rise around the world, particularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel. On Friday night, a California home decorated for Hanukkah was the target of a drive-by shooting. In Amsterdam on Sunday, anti-Israel protesters gathered and set off smoke bombs near a venue that was scheduled to hold a Hanukkah concert performed by Israeli cantor Shai Abramson.  

During the National Hanukkah Menorah lighting ceremony in Washington on Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick echoed Trump’s message about the attack and insisted that Jewish Americans “celebrate proudly.”

“Today we light the light of Hanukkah to bring light to much of this darkness,” said Lutnick. “It is a difficult and tough day for what we’ve lost, but we must always celebrate being Jews.”

On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong to discuss the attack in Sydney. 

“The United States strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Hanukkah celebration hosted by Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi,” said State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott. “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and with the Australian people as we pray for the victims and their families. We are grateful to Australian first responders and bystanders for their heroic response.”

In his statement, Pigott called rising antisemitism a “scourge that must be confronted and defeated.”

“No community should have to fear publicly celebrating their faith and traditions due to the threat of extremist violence and terror,” said Pigott. “There can be no compromise with antisemitism.”