Mamdani and the rabbis

Mamdani has the rabbis right where he wants them.”

As you may have read last week, a group of rabbis recently met with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

While City Hall did not release an official list, JNS reported that there were nine rabbis and one lay leader present (she represents herself as a rabbi nevertheless) with an over-representation of the liberal-oriented synagogues. The New York Times noted 10 rabbis.

The New York Board of Rabbis and the Rabbinical Council of America, representing many hundreds of more Orthodox rabbis, were not invited. According to Jewish Insider, the previous week, the mayor had met with leaders of the anti-Zionist Satmar community based in Williamsburg.

A JTA report quoted Rabbi Jonathan Leener of the Modern Orthodox Prospect Heights Shul as saying, “There were certainly moments of tension and passion, particularly as people tried to convey how isolated and vulnerable many Jewish New Yorkers feel right now.”

The Times decided to characterize the meeting with a headline that the rabbis had been “pleading” with Mamdani to gather and talk. (If there is a way by which that newspaper can twist and turn a story upside-down if it relates to Israel, it will do so.) I have a concern that what they were doing was bleating, instead of speaking truth to power and making demands. Mamdani has succeeded, in a fairly short time, in instilling a sense of fear into the Jews of New York.

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For his part, Mamdani expressed the feeling that the conversation was “candid and productive” and that he “appreciated hearing from them.”

In the words of Satmar Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum of Williamsburg (his brother, Aaron Teitelbaum, lords over the Chassidic haven of Kiryas Joel upstate) very much revolves around the element of fear.

According to a quoted Yiddish recording, he condemned attacks by Orthodox Jews against Mamdani.

“We must remember that we are in exile,” he said during his annual address at the yahrzeit of his uncle, Yoel Teitelbaum. “To denounce the mayor and brand him an antisemite constitutes a true provocation against the nations.”

Interestingly, one of the main Haredi news websites in Israel, Kikar Shabbat, headlined its story on the speech on Aug. 10 in a very in-your-face fashion as “The Satmar rebbe is for the antisemitic mayor of New York.” The summary reads:

“Recently, we have seen a terrible ‘provocation of nations’ [a reference to Rav’s dictum to his son, Hiyya at Tractate Pesachim 113A] by ultra-Orthodox Jews — the provocation against the mayor of New York. We know that we are in exile. … Fearful and peaceful Jews should behave according to the ways of the Torah and accept the decrees of exile. By shouting against it and labeling it with antisemitism, we are only expressing true provocation. It is not enough that there is provocation of nations in the Land of Israel, but they are bringing the provocation of nations here to America as well.”

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What is obvious is that Mamdani has the rabbis right where he wants them. Both supporters and semi-opponents are coming to him, trying to soothe and placate his rough approach.

They aren’t demonstrating. They didn’t issue an agreed-upon summation for the media. Their political maneuverings, including the buffer-zone legislation to protect schools and synagogues, have been low-key.

Were they pleading, as the Times published, or were they bleating in a cowering fashion? And how did the general public, especially those unfavorably inclined towards the Jews and Israel, perceive this development?

The real question, albeit one that lies under the surface, is: Who were the rabbis talking to? Mamdani? His Jewish aides? The Jewish community? (We’ll wait for those sermons.) They definitely weren’t talking to the press in any unified fashion.

Instead, they slunk away and allowed themselves to be selectively quoted from phone conversations or email. Have they convened a joint press conference, even at this late date?

Indeed, with many equally represented rabbis and synagogues that could have been included in that meeting, who speaks for the city’s Jewish community? Has Mamdani successfully divided, split up and disunited the Jews on one of the most crucial matters of attention: their political, social and economic future?

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One participant in that “private” discussion, Rabbi Ellen Lippmann of the progressive Kolot Chayeinu house of worship, rejected the idea of groupthink. As noted, she “challenged the idea of a consensus on the impact of Mamdani’s Israel messaging.” No surprise there, as Lippman is a Mamdani supporter involved in his transition team, and her synagogue has hosted the mayor.

Mamdani is dividing and conquering.

Rabbi Jonathan Leener, also at the roundtable and who leads an “open” Modern Orthodox synagogue, commented afterwards that the mayor “needs to be aware of how [his language] … creates an environment that I think a lot of Jews feel vulnerable in.”

The new school year will start soon, as will the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to attend the annual General Assembly in September.

The pro-Palestine camp will not be patient. The radical left will increase its pressure. Mamdani can lean on the Satmars and on radical anti-Zionist Jews rallying at Gracie Mansion just before the Shavuot holiday this spring, including Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, New York Jewish Agenda, Bend the Arc and Jewish Voice for Peace.

As I have previously written, Mamdani and his Jewish allies are pushing anti-Zionism as a replacement theory in America. We are witnessing, in New York City, a realignment of political forces — a new Jewish establishment.

What will the rabbis say to their flocks then?

Yisrael Medad is an American-born Israeli journalist, a member of Israel’s Media Watch executive board, and former director of educational programming at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. He and his wife, who have five children, live in Shilo.

Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com