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A New York City Jewish leader is speaking out about the possibility of a Zohran Mamdani term as mayor of New York City, telling Fox News Digital he is concerned about the safety of Jewish residents, as well as all New Yorkers.
Scott Feltman, executive vice president of the One Israel Fund, told Fox News Digital that the Jewish community in the country’s largest city is “not against” a Muslim or any person of faith running for office, but what they do oppose is candidates that “align themselves with nefarious actors” like Hamas or Hezbollah.
“He was just recorded at a local mosque where the Imam of that mosque has basically called for the death of IDF soldiers and praised the efforts of Hamas,” Feltman said. “So that’s what we’re opposed to, and it’s a very, very real serious concern.”
Feltman pointed to the rise of antisemitic attacks in recent years, particularly in New York City, which he says has “created a certain trepidation in the Jewish community and having this particular candidate now making such inroads” is a “real concern.”
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Two Israeli embassy staffers were killed in Washington, D.C., earlier this year by a man shouting “free Palestine” around the same time that an Egyptian man targeted a pro-Israel demonstration, killing one person and injuring several others, in Boulder, Colorado.
“I know that every single day I fear for my own staff knowing that our organization has been called out by this candidate, and we have no idea, you know, who’s following him and what their interests and what their actions may be. So it is a real serious concern.”
Mamdani, along with actress Cynthia Nixon, called out the One Israel Fund earlier this month in a post Feltman responded to with an article in American Thinker.
“When you go out and you align yourselves with terminology like globalize the intifada, which is basically a euphemism for kill Jews all over the world, that’s what it is, the intifada was basically a movement in Israel 25 years ago to destroy the state of Israel and didn’t discriminate against civilian or military personnel,” Feltman told Fox News Digital.
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“And when you want to globalize that, the messaging is very clear to the people who are listening and following and that has put many people in the Jewish community, if not all of us, on notice and has created the feeling of genuine concern. I’m concerned for New York City in general. It’s not just the Jewish community. His platform of defunding the police and basically offering all kinds of free things to people, which I don’t think he can even accomplish, even though he keeps doubling down on the rhetoric, but just defunding the police puts everyone here in jeopardy.”
Mamdani has been widely criticized for his initial failure to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada”, which many Jewish people view as a call for violence. Mamdani eventually walked back his initial reluctance by saying he discourages people from using the phrase and told business leaders he would not use it.
Feltman referred to Mamdani as a “social media darling” and complimented the way he has been able to mobilize voters but said, ultimately, while discussing his rise, that the education system has done a “tremendous injustice to our children, especially on the university level where we see antisemitism exploding exponentially.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.
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