The New York Times Tries to Manufacture Tension Between Mamdani and Jewish Voters That Simply Isn’t There
In the race for mayor, Zohran Mamdani is polling second with Jewish New Yorkers—but one would hardly know it reading the paper of record.
Adam Johnson
The New York Times’ Nicholas Fandos broke the news Thursday morning that New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani received a blockbuster endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) in a major boost to his insurgent campaign for mayor. This scoop made headlines and energized the Mamdani campaign as well as his array of devoted followers. But the article included a typical grimy New York Times pot shot that’s worth further analysis, namely because it’s not the first — and likely won’t be the last — time the New York Times tries to sneak in this particular falsehood. It reads:
“Mr. Mamdani, for example, has alienated parts of the city’s large Jewish community with his outspoken support for the Palestinian cause and accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
The reader would likely come away from reading this section with the distinct impression Mamdani is uniquely struggling with Jewish New York voters. “Parts” could mean anything, but clearly his support among Jewish New Yorkers must be a major barrier or else the publication wouldn’t have gone out of their way to note this, right? But there’s only one problem: It’s entirely false.
According to the latest poll of Jewish New Yorkers by Honan Strategy Group survey, and featured in Jewish magazine The Forward, Mamdani is in a strong second position in the race and is polling with Jewish New Yorkers roughly the same as his overall support. Indeed, relative to his overall numbers, among Jewish voters Mamdani is outperforming former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who the Times never says has “alienated” any part of the Jewish community.
By way of comparison, the latest Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll found that 35.1 percent of all voters support Cuomo on the first round of the ballot and 22.7 percent support Mamdani.
Cuomo, despite polling at 35.1 percent overall, only has 31 percent of Jewish support (a gap of 4.1 percentage points), while Mamdani’s numbers are 22.7 percent overall versus 20 percent among Jewish voters, or a gap of 2.7 percentage point. This is all well within the margin of error, but Mamdani’s support among Jewish voters appears to be, at worst, roughly equal to that of his support over all.
So why the random potshot implying Mamdani is struggling to win over Jewish New Yorkers? On what basis does the Times make this claim? The reality is that Mamdani has alienated pro-Israel adovacy groups and pro-Israel donors, but this sounds too ideologically motivated, so instead the Times conflates the “Jewish community” with support for the Israeli government and its myriad war crimes in Gaza over the past 20 months.
A similar drive-by swipe at Mamdani’s alleged struggles with “Jewish voters” was inserted into a March New York Times profile of Mamdani, “Can Zohran Mamdani, a Socialist and TikTok Savant, Become N.Y.C. Mayor?”.
“New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel,” Jeffery C. Mays and Maya King write, “and Mr. Mamdani has been criticized for accusing Israel of committing genocide in the war in Gaza.”
“Criticized” by whom, exactly? The Times doesn’t say, but this claim is immediately followed up by quoting “hedge fund manager and mayoral candidate” Whitney Tilson, who lambasts Mamdani’s “far-left platform,” and “fiery rhetoric against N.Y.P.D. and Israel.” Tilson, the reader is led to believe, speaks for said “Jewish population”.
The actual state of affairs is that Mamdani has been criticized by pro-Israel advocacy groups, and their position in no way reflects a consensus among Jewish New Yorkers who are widely ideologically varied.
Mamdani’s relationship with the Jewish community apparently can’t be commented on in the Times without mentioning that Mamdani believes Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza — which we are lead to believe Jewish voters would find, per se, an anathama. Setting aside the fact that, according to a poll from the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, about one third of Jewish Americans believe Israel is committing a genocide , the New York Times never mentions that this is a very mainstream position among human rights and humanitarian groups. It’s a position formally held by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and an increasing number of genocide scholars. The Times derisively drops the mention of genocide in like it’s a wacky conspiracy theory without context, heavily implies Jewish people uniformly disagree, and never mentions — not even in passing — that Mamdani’s stance is well within the mainstream of those tasked with studying and preventing genocide.
Also on Thursday, Politico tried to gin up an “antisemitism” scandal with their story, “Anti-Israel attacks keep antisemitism a top issue in the NYC mayoral race”. But who is making the anti-Israel attacks (in completely different cities) a “top issue” in the New York mayoral race? Mamdani’s opponent, Cuomo, who keeps posting and issuing press releases demagauging around the issue and even implying Mamdani is partly responsible for the attacks because he’s used the term “genocide.” Politico asserts it’s suddenly a “top” issue because the publication is trying to make it one. There is no other organic input mentioned, only Cuomo.
Another New York Times article from last month, “Israel and Antisemitism Loom Large as Issues in the N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race,” throws in an added innuendo that Mamdani’s acknowledgement of the genocide in Gaza is motivated by sectarian bias. “Mr. Mamdani, who is Muslim, defends his use of the term ‘genocide’ to describe Israel’s actions against Gaza.” writes Jeffrey Mays.
“Mr. Mamdani, who is Muslim”—ah well, then just ignore whatever comes next. Also don’t mention it’s a position held by groups ranging from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to Doctors Without Borders.
These pot shots are consistent with the overall sectarian and mopey tone the Times employs when covering leftwing and human-rights criticism of Israel. The publication routinely conflates Zionist ideology with Jewish identity — rarely acknowledging that these are not, of course, the same thing. Israel is a nuclear power, backed by the United States, which has the most heavily-funded military humanity has ever seen. If speaking out against these governments when they carry out a genocide is out of bounds, then it’s not clear what, exactly, is a legitimate target of criticism, or even inquiry.
Jewish Americans across the country have spoken out against attempts to conflate Judaism and support for Israel’s military operations, for justifying atrocities committed against Palestinians, and for undermining real efforts to identify and address actual antisemitism. Anyone who has spent any time within the broader Palestine-solidarity ecosystem knows that Jews have been disproportionately represented at sit-ins, marches, and civil disobediences since October 7, 2023, mobilizing with groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.
But the Times makes this all very confusing for the casual reader. Is Mamdani getting a cold reception from Jewish voters or pro-Isreal advocacy organizations and their donors? To the New York Times, this apparently isn’t a distinction worth making. Consistent with the conflation regime perfected by Zionist advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League, the Times presents Jewish identity and Zionism as interchangeable and any attempt to bifurcate these two completely different dynamics — one an ethno-religious group, the other an ideological choice — is lost on the average reader.
We know Mamdani is doing just as well as any other mayoral candidate with Jewish New Yorkers because, well, this is what the polls tell us. Any claim to the contrary is just baseless, racist vibes.
Adam H. Johnson is a media analyst and co-host of the Citations Needed podcast.
