By: TJVNews.com

The 2025 New York City mayoral election will be remembered not merely as a political upset but as a moral reckoning — one that exposed a troubling fracture within segments of New York’s Jewish community. On November 4th, a city long shaped by Jewish values, philanthropy, and public service elevated Zohran Mamdani, a self-declared democratic socialist with a record of hostility toward Israel and open sympathy for its enemies. His victory — aided in part by prominent Jewish figures who should have known better — represents a moment of profound dissonance between Jewish history and modern progressive politics.

For generations, New York’s Jewish electorate was guided by a moral compass shaped by memory — of exile, of antisemitism, of the existential necessity of a Jewish homeland. Yet this year, a subset of the city’s Jewish elite, intoxicated by radical ideology, turned their backs on Israel and lent legitimacy to a candidate whose positions align more closely with Israel’s fiercest adversaries than with its allies.

Bernie Sanders: The Godfather of the Jewish Left’s Moral Confusion

No one symbolizes this ideological decline more than Bernie Sanders, the Brooklyn-born senator whose name once conjured images of Jewish idealism and working-class struggle. Sanders’ embrace of Mamdani, though not formalized through campaign appearances, signaled an endorsement in spirit. Sanders’ long-standing indifference to Israel’s security — coupled with his tendency to equate Israeli self-defense with “disproportionate force” — made his alignment with Mamdani unsurprising but no less disheartening.

As The New York Post noted in its election coverage, Sanders’ influence among progressive Jewish voters remains unmatched. His imprimatur effectively normalized support for a candidate who rejects Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. For Sanders, the cause of social justice apparently extends everywhere — except Jerusalem.

Brad Lander: From Comptroller to Collaborator

Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and one of the Democratic Party’s most visible Jewish progressives, followed Sanders’ path with unflinching loyalty. Once regarded as a pragmatic advocate for housing and fiscal reform, Lander has since tethered his political identity to the city’s far-left flank. His endorsement of Mamdani, a man who supported “globalizing the intifada” — a phrase that evokes violence against Jews worldwide — demonstrated a stunning disregard for Jewish safety and solidarity.

The Post reported that Lander’s alliance with Mamdani reflects a convergence of ideology: opposition to capitalism, law enforcement, and, above all, Israel. It is difficult to overstate the irony — that a Jewish father, himself the descendant of immigrants who fled persecution, would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a mayoral candidate who publicly questions Israel’s very existence.

Alicia Singham Goodwin: The Organizer of the Anti-Israel Vanguard

Among Mamdani’s Jewish allies, none embodies the radical edge of this new movement more than Alicia Singham Goodwin, political director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) — a group whose anti-Israel agenda is barely disguised behind a veil of “human rights” rhetoric. Since assuming her role in 2023, Goodwin has used her platform to demonize the Jewish state, advocate for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and echo the talking points of Israel’s fiercest critics.

As The New York Post reported earlier this year, Goodwin’s decade-long involvement with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — an organization notorious for justifying Hamas terrorism and romanticizing America’s enemies — places her firmly within the ideological orbit that helped propel Mamdani to power. Goodwin’s activism blurs the line between dissent and betrayal, as she uses Jewish identity to lend moral cover to a campaign rooted in hostility toward the world’s only Jewish state.

Jerrold Nadler: The Fall of a Liberal Zionist

For decades, Rep. Jerrold Nadler stood as a stalwart defender of Israel within the Democratic Party — a legal mind who married progressive ideals with an unshakeable commitment to Jewish survival. His vote for Mamdani represents not merely a political choice but a capitulation to the loudest and most radical voices in his party.

Nadler justified his support by citing domestic issues — housing, transit, and policing — as if municipal concerns could excuse lending moral legitimacy to a candidate who refuses to condemn anti-Jewish violence or reject Hamas’s ideology. The congressman’s decision to side with Mamdani over principle betrays a troubling moral fatigue — the willingness of even seasoned Jewish leaders to overlook open antisemitism when it emanates from their own political tribe.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum: Religion in Service of Radicalism

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, longtime spiritual leader of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and a fixture of progressive religious activism, brought clerical gravitas to Mamdani’s campaign. Married to Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, Kleinbaum’s brand of “progressive Judaism” has often blurred the boundary between faith and far-left ideology.

By endorsing Mamdani, Kleinbaum lent moral cover to a man whose rhetoric undermines Jewish self-determination. Her decision, praised by leftist commentators, was viewed by many in the Jewish community as the ultimate betrayal: a rabbi defending someone who echoes the very movements that have historically sought to delegitimize Jewish sovereignty. Kleinbaum’s support was emblematic of how identity politics has supplanted moral clarity among segments of New York’s progressive clergy.

Peter Beinert: The Intellectual Enabler

Few figures have done more to intellectualize anti-Zionism than Peter Beinert, the self-styled conscience of the Jewish left. Once a centrist commentator, Beinert has evolved into a full-throated apologist for the BDS movement. His endorsement of Mamdani came as no surprise — the logical conclusion of years spent reframing Jewish identity through the prism of anti-nationalism.

Beinert’s support helped confer legitimacy on Mamdani’s campaign within academic and media circles. His brand of “moral opposition” to Israel provided the intellectual scaffolding for Mamdani’s rhetoric — allowing hostility to the Jewish state to masquerade as progressive virtue.

Rabbi Rachel Timoner: Trading Zion for Zeal

At Congregation Emanu-El, one of New York’s oldest and most prestigious Reform congregations, Rabbi Rachel Timoner once stood as a voice for liberal Zionism. Yet her reported vote for Mamdani marked a dramatic shift. By prioritizing domestic social justice concerns over Israel’s survival, Timoner joined a growing cadre of religious leaders willing to subordinate Jewish continuity to political expedience.

Her endorsement symbolized a troubling development: the moral inversion that allows anti-Zionism to pose as compassion. As The Post noted, her support was especially shocking to congregants who had long viewed Emanu-El as a bastion of mainstream Jewish life.

JFREJ: A Movement Against Its Own People

The organizational engine behind Mamdani’s Jewish support was Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), which mobilized volunteers and launched its “Jews for Zohran” initiative across Brooklyn and Manhattan. Founded in 1990, JFREJ presents itself as “the home of the Jewish Left,” but in practice, it has become a platform for ideological extremism — one that frequently aligns with movements hostile to Jewish survival, from BDS to anti-policing campaigns that endanger urban Jewish neighborhoods.

JFREJ’s involvement was pivotal in framing Mamdani’s candidacy as acceptable within progressive Jewish circles. Yet their campaign also exposed a dangerous fissure: a minority of Jews willing to rationalize antisemitism so long as it advances a socialist agenda.