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| New York Jewish groups boycott Mamdani’s Jewish Heritage Month event |
| 2026-05-20 |
| [IsraelTimes] Jewish leaders in New York City say they are not attending Mayor Mamdani’s event marking Jewish American Heritage Month tonight. Mamdani’s office describes the event as a “Pre-Shavuot Celebration in Honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.” The UJA-Federation of New York and the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York — the two leading Jewish groups in the city — say they are not attending the event. “We will not be attending the Jewish American Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage — the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” the federation tells The New York Post. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis, a prominent Jewish leader in the city, also says he’s not going. Rabbi David Niederman, a prominent figure in the Satmar Hasidic community, tells The Post he will attend. The Satmars are theologically non-Zionist, but are not aligned with Mamdani’s political anti-Zionism, and have a warmer relationship to Mamdani’s City Hall than mainstream Jewish groups in the city. Mamdani’s event comes after his office released a Nakba Day video on Friday that stoked outrage among mainstream Jewish groups due to its one-sided narrative about Israel’s War of Independence and its implication that Israel’s existence is an ongoing “catastrophe.” Mamdani, who has refused to recognize Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, did not recognize Israel’s Independence Day last month and will not be marching in the Jewish community’s annual pro-Israel parade, called Israel Day on Fifth, later this month. Mamdani has consistently said he seeks to protect and “cherish” Jewish New Yorkers.
Mamdani doubles down on Nakba Day video as criticism mounts [IsraelTimes] New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubles down on a video he posted for Nakba Day as national Jewish organizations joined a chorus of condemnation. On Friday, Mamdani posted a video, produced by City Hall, with a “Nakba survivor” who said the “catastrophe” associated with Israel’s founding “continues to this day.” Nakba is Arabic for “catastrophe,” and refers to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The Nakba narrative and the associated “right of return” for the refugees’ millions of descendants are seen by many as demands for Israel’s demise as a majority Jewish state. New York Jewish leaders have condemned the video for presenting a one-sided view of Israel’s War of Independence, saying the narrative contributes to discrimination and threats against Jews, and national Jewish groups now join the outrage. “In his post sharing a one-sided video about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the mayor of New York City fueled real world harm,” the American Jewish Committee says. “At a time when Jews are being attacked in the streets of New York and worldwide because of antizionist narratives, amplifying misleading content doesn’t just distort public understanding, it puts the Jewish community at further risk.” The statement reflects the pro-Israel US Jewish community increasingly viewing anti-Zionism as discrimination and a threat in itself, and not as legitimate political discourse. The Anti-Defamation League says the “one-sided video” is “propaganda.” “Releasing it right before Shabbat isn’t leadership. It’s provocation. Especially when Nakba Day ‘commemorations’ in this city featured open support for US-designated terror organizations, veneration of their leaders, and calls for Israel’s destruction. New Yorkers deserve a mayor with the moral clarity to call that out,” the ADL says. Nakba Day marches in the city on Friday and Saturday saw protesters waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags, including on a truck carrying children. There was a lot of chaos at today’s Pal-Awda Bay Ridge Nakba Day 78 protest, but this moment deserves special attention. Children are being led in a chant while, directly behind them, you can clearly see a flag with the emblem of Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. pic.twitter.com/Epme3IZSPk — Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) May 17, 2026 Mamdani doubles down on the video at a press conference. “I was proud to commemorate Nakba Day, which is an annual day on May 15th that commemorates the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from 1947 to 1945 during the creation of the State of Israel and for the year that followed,” Mamdani says, misstating the year of Israel’s founding. “We wanted to ensure that the focus of this is just to hear from a New Yorker herself, on her own memories, of what it means to be expelled, what her life has been like, and she has found home in New York City,” Mamdani says. He adds that he had planned to appear in the video himself, but he “did fall sick” and did not want to “create any kind of complications” for the subject of the video. Mamdani is also asked about leading Jewish organizations boycotting an event he is hosting tonight for American Jewish Heritage Month and Shavuot. “My message to Jewish leaders across this city is that my door is always open,” he says. |
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