New York mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani’s new campaign ad features four women rabbis — including one who is transgender — singing his praises in a final bid to shore up support for the socialist Muslim candidate who’s been accused of antisemitism.
The ad, cosponsored by the group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, featured three biological women and a transgender woman, all of whom introduced themselves as rabbis.
“We know Zohran will fight to make our city affordable and safe for families,” said the transgender rabbi, identified as Abby Stein.
Ms. Stein, an Israeli native, was aligned with New York’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community before coming out as transgender in 2015.
Mr. Mamdani has been accused of a pattern of antisemitism, including past support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to isolate Israel and his refusal to condemn violent anti-Jewish slogans and denials of Israel’s legitimacy.
In July, a video surfaced of Mr. Mamdani dressed as an Orthodox Jew while mocking Hanukkah in a parody rap song.
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Mr. Mamdani vehemently rejects the antisemite label, insisting that his views on Israel are strictly political and not rooted in racism.
More than 1,000 rabbis signed onto an open letter last week raising concerns about Mr. Mamdani’s alleged antisemitism.
Still, polls show roughly 40% of New York Jews planned to support Mr. Mamdani, who handily won the Democratic Primary and is on a glidepath to win the Nov. 4 general election.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, raised concerns about the efforts to confer legitimacy on Mr. Mamdani by using Judaism as “false cover from accurate condemnation of his bigotry.”
He said there was a long record of antisemitic comments from Mr. Mamdani.
“Jews steeped in our scholarly tradition see Mamdani as a dangerous antisemite,” he told The Washington Times. “There are far too many parallels between his statements and positions and those of classical antisemitism, including what was heard in Germany in the 1930s.”
Mr. Menken warned that the ad might provide those outside the Jewish community a free pass to support Mr. Mamdani.
Many non-Jews “are unaware that not everyone claiming to be a rabbi is the genuine article,” Mr. Menken said. “They might be misled to believe that Mamdani is not dangerous, since, after all, ’rabbis’ are promoting him. These women — and transgender man — certainly, and sadly, give Mamdani false cover from accurate condemnation of his bigotry.”
He also said Judaism does not recognize transgenderism and that it violates numerous Torah prohibitions.
“It also violates the very nature of the creation of human beings as two distinct genders, imprinted upon the very chromosomes of our bodies,” he said.
Mr. Menken questioned the legitimacy of the ad’s claim that the women were Jewish spiritual leaders.
“The beliefs and priorities of the ’rabbis’ in this particular ad are those of the ’Jews for Racial and Economic Justice,’ not Judaism,” he said. “And it is difficult to imagine who would be swayed by this ad in the Jewish community.”
