By: Ariella Haviv

Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist assemblyman and now the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has positioned himself as a political insurgent with a radical platform that challenges both the city’s Democratic establishment and the Jewish community that has historically been integral to the city’s civic fabric. According to a recently published report in The New York Times, Mamdani’s closest advisers and political allies are strikingly young, deeply ideological, and profoundly shaped by the Democratic Socialists of America. Yet the most perplexing—and, for many Jewish New Yorkers, deeply troubling—aspect of Mamdani’s campaign is that several of his most loyal staff members and political allies are themselves Jewish, effectively laboring to advance the candidacy of a politician whose record and rhetoric have been explicitly anti-Israel and, in many cases, laced with antisemitic undertones.

Mamdani’s political identity, as The New York Times has repeatedly emphasized, is defined by his radical platform: free buses, drastic cuts to policing, and a foreign policy orientation that elevates the Palestinian cause while disparaging Israel in language that Jewish leaders have condemned as antisemitic. His approach has been forged in the crucible of the Democratic Socialists of America, where pro-BDS sentiment is a core plank and where anti-Zionism is routinely packaged as progressive virtue.

In this context, the presence of Jewish advisers in his inner circle is particularly jarring. They are not incidental figures; rather, they are at the very center of his campaign machinery, drafting his speeches, shaping his media presence, and defending him against the charge that he represents an existential threat to Jewish life in the city.

According to The New York Times, Mamdani’s closest Jewish aides include:

Morris Katz (Senior Adviser, 26): A political strategist who initially doubted Mamdani’s viability, Katz has since become indispensable. He has been tasked, paradoxically, with serving as Mamdani’s emissary to Jewish leaders, attempting to soothe concerns about the candidate’s anti-Israel platform. In doing so, he effectively works to normalize hostility toward Israel within Jewish spaces.

Andrew Epstein (Creative Director, 38): Formerly Mamdani’s spokesman, Epstein now oversees the campaign’s creative output, including viral videos that spread Mamdani’s policy vision to millions. His work has given Mamdani a national platform, amplifying positions that many Jewish organizations view as overtly antagonistic toward their community.

Julian Gerson (Speechwriter, 28): Once the campaign’s political director, Gerson now serves as its chief speechwriter, responsible for crafting the very words through which Mamdani articulates his worldview. A former aide to Representative Jerrold Nadler and Governor Kathy Hochul, Gerson lends establishment credentials to a campaign that otherwise thrives on its rejection of establishment norms.

Jeffrey Lerner (Communications Director): A seasoned operative who took over communications after the primary, Lerner has become the public face of Mamdani’s media strategy, insulating the candidate from charges of extremism.

Each of these figures plays a direct role in advancing Mamdani’s political rise, even as his ideology marginalizes and vilifies their own community.

The paradox deepens when one considers Mamdani’s Jewish allies in elected office. The New York Times reports that Brad Lander, the city comptroller and the most senior Jewish elected official in New York, has become one of Mamdani’s staunchest defenders. Lander not only cross-endorsed him in the primary, providing critical credibility, but has also acted as a shield against charges of antisemitism, dismissing concerns that Mamdani’s rhetoric is dangerous. There is open speculation that Lander could hold a senior post in a Mamdani administration—a troubling prospect for many Jewish leaders who see his defense of Mamdani as an act of self-sabotage.

Similarly, Micah Lasher, a Jewish state assemblyman from Manhattan and former policy adviser to Governor Kathy Hochul, has lent Mamdani establishment legitimacy. Serving as a liaison to mainstream Democrats, Lasher helps bridge the gap between Mamdani’s radicalism and the institutional power structures that he seeks to overthrow.

In its coverage, The New York Times has portrayed Mamdani’s campaign as a generational and ideological shift, emphasizing the youth, energy, and diversity of his team. Yet for Jewish New Yorkers, that framing obscures the stark reality: Mamdani’s rise has been facilitated not only by young progressives and immigrant advocates but also by Jewish staffers and allies who are actively promoting the ascent of a man who has made Israel a target of his political agenda.

The paradox is particularly galling to Jewish community leaders, who see Mamdani’s success as an existential threat to their institutions, schools, and security. That Jewish aides are central to his campaign is perceived as a tragic irony—working for their own defeat, bolstering a candidate who delegitimizes Jewish sovereignty and, by extension, Jewish safety.

The contradiction at the heart of Mamdani’s campaign reveals the deep fractures within New York’s Jewish political landscape. On one side stand the rabbis, educators, and communal leaders who have urged Jews to mobilize against socialist and anti-Israel candidates. On the other side are progressive Jewish staffers and officials, who, whether out of ideological conviction or political ambition, are enabling Mamdani’s rise.

As The New York Times report noted, Mamdani has already begun reaching beyond his radical base to recruit more seasoned advisers to prepare for the responsibilities of governing a city of eight million. Yet the core of his campaign remains firmly aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, where denunciations of Israel are routine and where Jewish identity, when it appears, is often weaponized to shield the movement from charges of antisemitism.

If Mamdani is elected, the consequences for New York’s Jewish community could be profound. His platform threatens to erode traditional partnerships with Jewish institutions, weaken public safety at a time of rising antisemitic violence, and normalize the equation of anti-Zionism with social justice. His Jewish staffers and allies, far from tempering his agenda, are helping to advance it, offering him credibility and cover precisely when Jewish voices should be sounding the alarm.

According to the report in The New York Times, Mamdani’s candidacy represents not just a new chapter in New York politics but a broader realignment of the city’s ideological compass. For Jewish leaders, that realignment looks perilously like abandonment, with Jewish staffers paradoxically at the forefront of dismantling their own community’s security.

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for mayor is built on the promise of radical transformation, but for New York’s Jewish community, it is a transformation that portends marginalization and danger. As The New York Times has highlighted, his inner circle is composed of young, fiercely ideological aides—some of whom are Jewish. Their loyalty to a candidate who has vilified Israel and trafficked in anti-Jewish rhetoric represents a striking contradiction: they are, in effect, working toward their own defeat.

The publication of Nobody’s Girl, the posthumous memoir of Virginia Giuffre, will reignite public scrutiny of Prince Andrew and of the enduring consequences of Epstein’s crimes. In a similar way, Mamdani’s ascent will force a reckoning within New York’s Jewish community: how can Jewish staffers and allies rationalize their service to a man whose politics threaten the institutions that have sustained their people for generations?

As Election Day approaches, the question is not only whether Mamdani can win but whether New York’s Jewish voters will heed the warnings of their leaders—or whether Jewish advisers in his orbit will continue, knowingly or not, to abet their own undoing.