More than 650 Reform and Conservative “rabbis” from across the United States have signed an open letter warning against the rise of anti-Zionism in American politics — and singling out New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as a troubling example.
In the statement, titled “A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future,” they write, “We cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism and its political normalization throughout our nation.”
The letter condemns Mamdani’s defense of the slogan “Globalize the Intifada” — which he has since said he would “discourage” — along with his refusal to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and repeated accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“We will not accept a culture that treats Jewish self-determination as a negotiable ideal,” the letter says, calling on Americans “to stand up for candidates who reject antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.”
The statement, organized by the Jewish Majority advocacy group, carries the signatures of several of New York’s most Jewish “leaders”, including Rabbi Joshua Davidson of Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi David Gelfand of Temple Israel of the City of New York, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Kehilath Jeshurun, and Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, president of the New York Board of Rabbis.
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3 Responses
These rabbis are not all Conservative or Reform. Some are Orthodox, although pitifully few. Rabbi Steinmetz, mentioned in the article already, is Orthodox. Looking at the full list, I do recognize some names and know of their congregations.
What’s a shame is how few Orthodox rabbis signed this. First of all, yes, there is a function in signing the same letter as the Conservative and Reform rabbis – the letter is not a matter of theology!
But in any case, why yield to Zohran’s tokenized? Why should Satmar (businesspeople, mostly not rabbis) have the only say and go unchallenged? Is it a Kiddush Hashem when the Reform and Conservative who do care about a Jewish future see that the only yeshivish or chassidic rabbis who say ANYTHING about Mamdani are Satmar?
Satmar’s cozying up is worthless. Either they’ll vote for him, in which case they are actively contributing to the antisemitism problem in NYC. Or they won’t, which will make their friendliness useless once the new City Hall sees election results from Williamsburg.
To any anti-Zionists here: The Conservative and Reform rabbis who signed this letter are of a better nature than the ones who undermined it. Because in this context, your company is Abby Stein. Is Stein opposing Zionism as a true Jew?
These liberal secular fake self-hating pieces of trash are the reason we are getting these radical terrorists elected to office. They have nobody to blame but themselves
Great to see Jewish leadership that can often lean politically left take a strong public stand!
I stumbled upon the name of an Orthodox RCA Rabbi I personally know on the list and then quickly found another Rabbi who leads a MO congregation.
Not sure why the assumption was made that only Reform & Conservative Rabbis had signed?
We need Jewish unity in this time of heightened antisemitism!
The list is growing rapidly it’s now 800+!