The Jewish Vote

By Larry Gordon

Are the Jews in New York, who are looked down upon with so much unbridled disdain by Zohran Mamdani, going to cast their votes to elect him as the next mayor of New York City come November? If the election were held today, that is exactly what it looks like might happen.

Last week, it was reported that as many as 20% of Jewish voters cast their ballot for Mamdani in the Democratic primary that featured an array of personalities, including former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Mamdani beat out Cuomo and the rest of the crowded field of would-be mayors with an 8% margin over Cuomo, who at one point was said to be ahead of the radical leftist by as much as 20 points. On Sunday on WABC radio, the idea of 20% of New York’s Jewish voters was broken down to illustrate the unlikeliness of such an occurrence. In other words, it’s not that simple to just say that 20% of New York Jews voted for a Jew-hating, anti-Israel socialist for mayor of New York.

Andrew Cuomo – credit Pat Arnow.jpg

Zohran Mamdani

Curtis Sliwa

Why does anyone think that as a community we would want a leader who’s going to call for free food in our supermarkets, free train and bus rides, and an endless freeze on rents in building across the city?

There are five million registered voters in New York City. Granted, an overwhelming majority prefers a leftist Democrat like Bill de Blasio or even Eric Adams, but are voters willing to go so far as to place a certified hate-filled lunatic into City Hall to run the city even further into the ground?

Under Mamdani it’s a given that crime will rise to an all-time high. One of his top agenda items is that no one should be held in prison. If you commit a crime, you might have to appear before a judge and receive a summons that might demand you show up to a hearing in court sometime over the next year or two.

There is a way to stop the Mamdani plan to take over City Hall, but it requires surgically removing the personal ambitions and selfishness of the other candidates like Cuomo and Adams, who are running as Independents, and Curtis Sliwa, who is running as a Republican.

Right now, each man is sitting tight and refusing to budge. That can translate to a Mamdani victory and put a definitive end to the New York City we once knew and loved.

The Jews in the mix are not the kind of Jews you think of when you say the word Jew. They are people like Jerrold Nadler, Brad Lander, and even the “Shomer Yisrael,” Chuck Schumer, who is still playing around with whether or not he’s going to endorse the Communist candidate or not.

For now, we can put it this way: If Schumer, who has been a major disappointment to Jews and Israel, ends up endorses Mamdani, he can rest assured that the notorious AOC will be running against Schumer next year and the anticipated result is that she will kick him to the curb and into retirement where he just might belong.

The only way Mamdani can be outmaneuvered in the race is if President Trump gets involved. What we really need here is a meeting in the Oval Office with the three contenders for mayor aside from Mamdani, who represents a nightmarish future for New York if things don’t change.

I don’t know at this point how Trump is going to do it, but two of those three have to step down from the race in order for the third to be victorious. I believe that Adams and Sliwa would show up to a meeting with Trump. Cuomo might also if he can genuinely get past his arrogance and sense of entitlement that for some reason the job of mayor belongs to him.

Losing to Mamdani in the primary by 12% was quite a beating for Cuomo that he was forced to absorb as graciously as possible. On Sunday, Eric Adams said he was surprised that Cuomo insisted on remaining in the race considering his horrible track record. Not only did he take a whooping from Mamdani as a Democrat, but when he was forced to resign as governor back in 2022, he had to do so in shame.

Adams does not have too many things to be proud of either. As a matter of fact, his last three-and-a-half years as mayor have been a failure. There’s no other way to describe it. Under more conventional circumstances, he would be awaiting a prison sentence for abusing the fundraising system in New York and for taking illegal contributions from the Turkish government and their interlocutors in New York City.

Adams was ready to go down and was on the verge of being indicted had he not been rescued by Mr. Trump. The president on one level felt that the Biden administration was coming after Mayor Adams because he challenged Biden and requested that the federal government assist the city economically with the extraordinary number of migrants that were flooding it.

The Biden people refused to fund the city that was pulling as much as $12 billion from other departments in order to pay for the migrant influx. Biden ignored Adams, with his spokespeople asking him what he was going to do if the federal government didn’t fund New York. “Are you going to vote for Trump?” they asked.

Adams declared publicly that, “the president [Biden] and the White House have failed New York City.” 

That attitude did not sit well with the audacious Biden people and shortly thereafter the FBI raided his offices and the homes of a number of his aides. It took a while, but Trump ultimately came to his rescue, eventually arranging for the Department of Justice to drop all charges against Mayor Adams.

The quid pro quo was that Adams and the NYPD would cooperate with the Immigration Customs Enforcement, or ICE, personnel and the rounding up of illegal migrants in New York. That made Mr. Adams somewhat unpopular with New York Democrats, which led to Mr. Mamdani gaining popularity, Cuomo entering the race, and Adams being forced to run as an Independent.

The result now is that, with all things remaining the same, the election will conclude with an anti-Israel, Jew-hating Mamdani becoming the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. Those components can lead to a combination of a terrible political mess and an uncomfortable situation for New York Jews.

Only Donald Trump can get all these folks into his office to hammer out a deal that leaves one candidate running singularly against Mamdani. The reality is that Adams and Sliwa would have no problem sitting down with the president. Cuomo, with his infamous arrogance, presents the matter with a different possible problem.

Cuomo harbors a great deal of animosity for Mr. Trump and I don’t know if he can down sit with the president like a political professional or a mensch. Trump probably feels the same way about Cuomo, but if it comes down to saving the city he loves from this AOC-like radical left lunatic, Trump will do it.

The president will have to make a move to offer something worthwhile to two of the candidates in order to get them to withdraw from the race to reduce the number of choices that New Yorkers have to vote for. This can be the only way to sideline the Mamdani insanity that has taken hold of the city.

Chances are that if Trump makes that move, it will be to bolster the candidacy of Mayor Adams while sidelining Cuomo and Sliwa from pursuing residence at Gracie Mansion. The odd thing about this election is that Jewish residents of New York are currently and even oddly predisposed to choosing Adams over the others.

Let’s hope that two of the three folks running for mayor will have the good sense to take a step back and help New York City dispose of its Mamdani problem. n

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.