By: Krug Stillo

A senior figure helping steer Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition is facing a firestorm after a trove of decade-old social media posts — first detailed by the New York Post — revealed vicious attacks on Jews, Israel, and even gay rights.

According to a report that appeared in the New York Post, Hassaan Chaudhary, who identifies on LinkedIn as the political director for Mamdani’s transition and inaugural committee, repeatedly used the word “Jew” as an insult and cheered on former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — the same despot who declared Israel “a cancer” doomed to be eradicated. Chaudhary, who served as the Mamdani campaign’s director of Muslim engagement, also branded Israel a “bloody” and “barbaric” country in posts written when he was roughly 18 years old.

The NY Post noted that Chaudhary resurfaced back into controversy more recently, sharing a 2024 post on X that attacked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — a Jewish Democrat — by amplifying a message accusing Shapiro of favoring violence against Palestinians. The resurfaced comment was only the beginning.

Digging through older posts, the NY Post found Chaudhary had responded to Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi in 2012 with a taunt invoking Hitler and a derogatory Urdu phrase implying “a Jew will be your father.” In another message, he hailed Ahmadinejad as “fearless” after the Iranian leader’s threats against Israel.

Other posts uncovered by the NY Post showed Chaudhary railing against Israel as a genocidal nation murdering Palestinians while blasting media outlets for not siding with his view. And in yet another post from November 2012, he dismissed gay rights as “claptrap” and claimed society needed to “draw a boundary line.”

After the NY Post confronted him, Chaudhary issued an apology, insisting the decade-old messages don’t reflect who he is today. “I apologize for my tweets, as they do not reflect my current views, or represent who I am today,” he told the paper. He expressed “deep regret” for the “rhetoric and mindset” of his teenage years.

Jewish leaders quoted by the NY Post were outraged. Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, blasted the comments as “Adolf Hitler language” and blamed Mamdani — a supporter of the BDS movement — for fostering a hostile environment. “The fish stinks from the head,” Hikind said, calling Mamdani’s orbit “a hate-filled administration.”

Political strategist and rabbi Hank Sheinkopf told the NY Post that “words matter,” warning that Chaudhary’s posts showed unmistakable hatred. “It always begins with the Jews but never ends with the Jews,” he said.

Mamdani’s transition team, speaking to the NY Post, condemned the remarks but insisted Chaudhary is not the transition’s political director, only its Muslim outreach aide. Transition spokesperson Dora Pekec called the decade-old comments “reprehensible” and stressed they “in no way reflect the views of the Mayor-elect or this transition.” She did not say whether Chaudhary would be removed from his role.

Chaudhary previously worked for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and as a digital organizer with the Working Families Party, according to the NY Post.

The controversy now threatens to overshadow the early days of Mamdani’s mayor-elect period, as critics question whether the incoming administration will discipline a staffer whose resurfaced words have sparked widespread alarm.