When Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election in the fall of 2025, I began hearing talk of Jews making plans to leave the city, home to about 1 million Jews.
While the conversation surprised and saddened me—and I was certainly alarmed by Mamdani’s victory—it was not until this past Tuesday night that I had to ask myself: how long will life be sustainable for Jews in NYC?
Or put another way: Is this NYC’s Anatevka moment?
For those confused by the reference, Anatevka is the mythical Russian shtetl where Sholom Aleichem’s Tevye the Milkman and family lived in poverty but relative peace with their non-Jewish neighbors until a pogrom drove them out.
The spectacle of the Jews of Anatevka packing up their belongings and leaving is the most heartbreaking moment of the show Fiddler on the Roof (and the 1971 movie), both based on Sholom Aleichem’s story, and rendered especially poignant in the latest Yiddish-language version.
It is hard not to see the results of New York’s Democratic primary on Tuesday as a political pogrom, with overtly anti-Israel candidates ousting moderates, screams of “Free Palestine” at post-election celebrations, and the mayor of our city dipping into the antisemite’s playbook to vilify AIPAC—among all special interest lobby groups—calling them “monsters.”
NYC, we have a problem.
This is what is most concerning about the primary results: Former encampment organizer and Hamas sympathizer Darializa Avila Chevalier winning in the 13th District, New York State Assemblymember Claire Valdez winning in the 7th District, and former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander winning as congressman in the 10th District, ousting the incumbent Dan Goldman. Just last week, Goldman was informed via Instagram post that he was not welcome as a patron at a Brooklyn coffee shop Poetica because, as a pro-Israel Jew, he is allegedly a “genocide-enabler.”
All three political victors were backed by Mamdani. All three put Israel/Palestine at the core of their campaigns. Two of the three—Chevalier and Valdez—are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, a progressive group which has been accused of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. And Lander, despite being Jewish and a self-described “liberal Zionist,” has sided with unabashed haters of Israel, validating their claims and canards.
There is plenty of shock and anger to go around, not to mention fear and sadness, at the possibility that, like many great centers of Jewish life, New York City could turn against its Jewish residents. For those who live here, and in the contiguous suburbs, the results of the primary are just the cherry on top of the sundae of shock and horror within a city that has experienced vicious mobs chanting antisemitic slogans outside of synagogues and the iconic 92nd St Y; red paint splashed on the facades of kosher restaurants; a Jewish member of Congress denied service at a coffee shop because he supports Israel; posters of murdered Israeli children torn down; public calls for global intifada.
Suddenly, all the cool kids hate Israel and, by extension, the majority of Jews who support her.
Following the election returns, my social media feed reminded me of an online shiva call. “I haven’t been this upset about an election since 2024. That tells you something. I’m now officially politically homeless. And I sense I’m not alone. In truly dark despair,” wrote Jeffrey Salkin, a Reform rabbi and author of numerous books.
Zioness, a coalition of Jewish activists. posted yesterday: “Last night in Democratic primaries in New York City … Jewish identity was used as a potential liability. … Zionist identity was treated as disqualifying, and the ‘good Jew/bad Jew’ dichotomy was leveraged for power.”
Others were more blunt.
“We’re f-ed. Goodnight.” wrote the actor and spoken-word artist, Vanessa Hidary, as the primary results poured in on Tuesday night.
Two days after the New York Democratic primary, the mood is heavy, possibly shell-shocked. Nearly three years after the genocidal attacks against Israel of 10/7, Israel and pro-Israel Jews are suddenly, illogically genociders. Anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian rhetoric is the new normal in Mamdani’s New York City, with a side of overtly antisemitic language and tropes.
In her victory speech, Valdez proclaimed: “I will continue to call for Palestinian liberation. … We will stand up to the genocide. We will refuse to abide by apartheid. And we will use our money to improve lives here instead of destroying them abroad.”
This is not the New York state of mind that Billy Joel (a Jew!) wrote about 50 years ago.
So do we pack up like Tevye and the residents of Anatevka?
The decision of where to live is personal, of course, and no, it is not crazy to want to jump from a sinking, burning ship, but for now, I am digging in my heels, rolling up my sleeves, muscling up, and bracing for the fight of my lifetime.
This is my city, where I was born, where I came of age, where I raised a family, where I worked, played, and worshipped. It was in this city that I held my head up high because we Jews were an inextricable part of the social, intellectual, and political elite; we produced films, plays, and music; we composed Broadway musicals; we wrote award-winning books; we were feisty, muckraking journalists, acclaimed lawyers, and pioneering doctors. We have been the thought leaders, the entrepreneurs, the institution builders, the donors whose names adorn museum buildings and hospitals. Our spiritual leaders were known and respected. We were neurotic, self-reflective, self-deprecating, and sometimes self-aggrandizing.
The fact of my Jewishness is interwoven into my very New Yorkness.
For at least a century, New York City was the Jerusalem on the Hudson because it celebrated its Jewish citizens—creative visionaries, rabbis, and rebels.
One thing is for certain: if New York City turns against its Jewish residents, the city is over. Cooked. Dead. Kaput.
But I have built a fortress from my rampart in Morningside Heights, and damned if I am going to let my city go down without a fight.
