Nearly 700 rabbis denounce Mamdani’s AIPAC ‘monsters’ speech as ‘dangerous’ to Jews

NEW YORK — More than 680 rabbis on Friday released an open letter denouncing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s speech last week that likened AIPAC to “monsters,” saying the comments endangered American Jews and demanding an apology.

The rabbis hail from New York and around the US and represent a range of denominations, including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist.

“Mamdani’s recent speech about pro-Israel civic participation is dangerous, unacceptable and beneath the office he holds,” said the letter organized by The Jewish Majority advocacy group.

In Mamdani’s speech earlier this month, he likened AIPAC, the prominent pro-Israel lobby, to “monsters” deploying “millions in dark money” to “preserve their power,” enact genocide and foment societal divisions.

Jews have long been accused of conspiracies, warmongering, financial deviance and pulling the strings of power from the shadows.

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After accusations that the comments deployed historical antisemitic tropes, Mamdani doubled down.

The rabbis’ letter said the rhetoric was dehumanizing, and that “when the targets of that dehumanization are overwhelmingly associated with the Jewish community the consequences become especially dangerous.”

Antisemitism tends to turn violent when Jews are both seen as a threat and dehumanized, they charged.

“Mamdani’s words invoke a familiar story about Jewish power, Jewish money and Jewish manipulation of public life,” the letter said. “By casting pro-Israel civic participation as monstrous, conspiratorial and anti-democratic, Mr. Mamdani has put a target on the backs of American Jews and their allies.”

Signatories included representatives of prominent New York congregations, including the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, Temple Israel of the City of New York, the Lincoln Square Synagogue, Romemu, Kehilath Jeshurun and Park Avenue Synagogue.

The rabbis cited recent deadly violence against Jews in Colorado and Washington, DC, and violent plots targeting AIPAC that were thwarted by law enforcement.

Mainstream Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, which are often at odds with Mamdani, denounced his speech, as well as leftist Jewish groups who are more sympathetic to the mayor.

New York City Council member Eric Dinowitz, a moderate Democrat who chairs the city’s Jewish Caucus and Bipartisan Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, said the statements “invoked age-old antisemitic tropes while ignoring the reality of super PAC spending across our political system.”

The rabbis’ letter also decried a “double standard” when it comes to AIPAC, pointing out that US politics are awash in spending from groups like corporations, ideological super PACs and business groups.

“When the outrage is reserved for pro-Israel advocacy, and when that advocacy is described with language of hidden money, secret control and sinister power, it gives the appearance of antisemitism. Worse, it places Jews in danger,” the letter said, demanding an apology from Mamdani.

“Criticizing Israeli policy is not antisemitic. Treating millions of Zionist Jews as morally suspect, politically illegitimate or less deserving of equal participation in public life is,” the rabbis said.

The letter follows a Jewish Majority poll last month that found that the vast majority of Jewish New Yorkers, 82 percent, said they were very or somewhat concerned about the rise of antisemitism in the city, and 17% said they were only slightly or not at all concerned.

Anti-Zionism was seen as a contributor to antisemitism, with 58% of respondents stating that the rise in antisemitism was “linked to the normalization of anti-Zionism,” while 25% disagreed.

Mamdani has pledged to fight discrimination against Jews and has repeatedly condemned “classic” antisemitism, such as swastika graffiti, but does not recognize any rhetoric that touches on Israel or Zionism as discriminatory. Polls have repeatedly found that a vast majority of Jews feel connected to Israel.

After the Anti-Defamation League found last year that some of his appointees had made anti-Zionist statements, including that “Zionism is racism,” calling Zionism a “genocidal ideology,” and stating that Zionists are worse than Nazis, Mamdani defended the rhetoric.

“We must distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government,” he said.

Mamdani has identified as an anti-Zionist and has framed anti-Zionism as an oppressive “modern political movement” that is separate from Judaism. Opposing political movements is not considered discriminatory in the US.

“We are often tarred with the characterization of being antisemitic, and let’s be clear — anti-Zionism is not antisemitism,” Mamdani told a crowd in 2023. “We will not be scared into believing that it is because we know that this is a politically motivated charge seeking to silence us.”