New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani heard a clear message from rabbis on July 27. His public statements denouncing Israel and its prime minister are hurting Jewish New Yorkers and making it harder for them to work with him on shared priorities. The message came during an hour-long, closed-door roundtable at City Hall that included 10 rabbis from Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Modern Orthodox congregations invited by Mamdani.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said there was a "uniform sense" in the room that Mamdani needed to understand the impact of his frequent and harsh criticism of Israel, pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and call for protests against the country’s leader. "Everyone agreed that the current course can’t go on," Jacobs said. "The way he vilifies Israel, and so constantly, is really causing harm." Rabbi Rachel Timoner, senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, offered a similar account. Even some of the progressive rabbis in the room, she said, told Mamdani that while they and their congregants agree with him on many things and want to work with him and support him, "they have concerns about the way he is speaking about Israel." New NYPD data shows anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City rose 8.5% during Mamdani’s first seven months in office and made up 57% of hate crimes citywide, with July alone seeing a 53% jump from last year.