NEW YORK — More than 850 American rabbis and cantors ave signed a letter opposing New York mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism.
The letter, “A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future,” cited Mamdani’s defense of the slogan “globalize the Intifada,” his denial of “Israel’s legitimacy” and his view that Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza.
The letter quotes Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side, who told his congregants last week that Mamdani’s rhetoric will “delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility toward Judaism and Jews.”
The letter included signatories from over 30 states as well as Toronto. It was organized by the new Jewish Majority, led by AIPAC veteran Jonathan Schulman.
Rabbis from Denver and the intermountain region who signed the letter are
Denver metro: Doug Weber, Richard Rheins, Sarah Schechter, Susan Miller Rheins, Baruch HaLevi, David J. Zucker, Joseph Black, Michael Shields, Bruce Dollin.
Boulder: Jamie Korngold, Marc Soloway, Charna Rosenholtz, Ori Har, Hannah Laner.
Colorado: Jay Sherwood, Colorado Springs; Joel D. Newman, Vail.
Montana: Francine Roston, Whitefish; Robbie Schaefer, Missoula
New Mexico: Harry Rosenfeld, Paul Citrin, Albuquerque; Jack Shlachter, Los Alamos and Santa Fe.
Utah: Jeff Dreifus, Park City; Samuel L. Spector, Salt Lake City.
About 60 rabbis in New York City signed on. Gerald Weider and Andy Bachman, former rabbis at a liberal congregation in Brooklyn, where Mamdani spoke earlier this month, signed.
Others who signed include author David Wolpe and Marc Schneier, who has frequently criticized Mamdani from his pulpit on Long Island.
Mamdani has said Israel has a right to exist as a state with “with equal rights for all”; he would “discourage” the phrase “globalize the intifada” and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York.
“We will not accept a culture that treats Jewish self-determination as a negotiable ideal or Jewish inclusion as something to be ‘granted,’” the rabbis’ letter says. “The safety and dignity of Jews in every city depend on rejecting that false choice.”
“We also call on our interfaith and communal partners to stand with the Jewish community in rejecting this dangerous rhetoric and to affirm the rights of Jews to live securely and with dignity,” the letter concluded.
“Now is the time for everyone to unite across political and moral divides, and to reject the language that seeks to delegitimize our Jewish identity and our community.”
