Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has formally severed ties with the Democratic Party after more than six decades, warning that the party’s leftward shift on Israel — and its embrace of figures like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — represents a dangerous new era of antisemitism cloaked in progressive politics.
In a blistering interview, the prominent civil liberties attorney and lifelong Democrat accused Mamdani of harboring virulent anti-Israel views and called his rise emblematic of a broader hostility toward Jewish identity within the party.
“He’s a vicious antisemite,” Dershowitz said of Mamdani. “If he’s elected mayor, it will spread to other Democratic cities. That’s why, after 60 years as a Democrat, I’ve formally quit the party.”
Dershowitz, known for his defense of civil liberties and staunch support for Israel, blasted Mamdani for what he called a blatant double standard.
He noted that while Mamdani refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, he simultaneously expresses no objection to Islamic governance in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar.
“That’s the core of antisemitism,” Dershowitz said. “If you apply standards only to the Jewish state that you don’t apply to Muslim states, that’s textbook bigotry.”
He further lambasted Jews who support Mamdani’s candidacy, accusing them of moral and political blindness.
“Just because you’re Jewish doesn’t mean you can’t be a total political fool,” he said. “These are self-hating Jews — people who know little about Judaism but start every sentence with, ‘As a Jew, I support Hamas or Mamdani.’”
Dershowitz warned that the symbolism of Mamdani’s possible election as mayor of New York could reverberate across the country, chilling moderate voices and empowering radical anti-Israel elements in the Democratic base.
“It could have an enormous political impact,” he said. “People like [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer know that Mamdani’s supporters will run against them in primaries, so they stay quiet.”
He also criticized Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa for staying in the race, arguing that his presence risks splitting the anti-Mamdani vote and handing the election to the far-left candidate.
“It’s all ego,” Dershowitz said of Sliwa. “He doesn’t have a chance, but he could make the difference.”
When asked about former President Barack Obama’s recent conservation of Mamdani, Dershowitz was dismissive — invoking their public falling-out over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Barack Obama has never been a friend of Israel,” he said. “He told me he had Israel’s back, and then he made the terrible Iran deal. I have nothing but contempt for him.”
He described the party’s evolution as part of a broader global trend, citing similar shifts in Canada, the UK, France, and Spain, where support for Israel among left-leaning parties has eroded.
“Since 1948, we’ve had bipartisan support for Israel — that is ending now,” Dershowitz warned. “The Democratic Party is becoming an anti-Israel party.”
Despite the grim outlook, Dershowitz urged Jewish New Yorkers not to flee the city if Mamdani wins, but to mobilize and fight back through legal, civic, and economic pressure.
“No — fight back,” he said. “I’ll be happy to lead the fight against Mamdani. We’ll use legal, political, and economic tools to oppose him. Don’t leave — stay and fight.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
14 Responses
Classic, “do as I say, not as I do”.
Well said man. At least someone says it like it is.
with apologies to mr dershowitz, it’s better to leave nyc. mamdani’s policies will bankrupt the city, but they shouldn’t bankrupt the people he describes as “too rich and too white” – they can work from outside the city, and enjoy not paying for his socialist paradise of freebies and rent control.
Every Jew needs to quit the antisemitic Democrat Party.
Demon rats are satanic look
At the endless list of
Kapos. self hating leftist Jews, fake Jews, who are
on that commie party
it is now the party of anti-Israel pro-abortion anti-Gd
anti-Torah
but unfortunately on the right, you have Qatar Carlson, who is evil Nazi
On 2024 September 7, Alan Dershowitz publicly announced that he QUIT the Democratic Party. This was reported in newspapers, at that time.
__________________________________________
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
The security of Israel is not assured.
Israel is the only nation in the world
whose very existence is threatened
by enemies, external and internal,
supported by a majority of the United Nations.
It is the only nation in the world whose
national movement, Zionism, has been
declared a form of racism by the United Nations.
It is the only nation in the world threatened
by genocidal war, the purpose of which
is not military victory alone, but extermination.
The genocide of Israel’s Jewish population
– a population roughly the size of the Polish Jewish
population at the beginning of World War II –
is not an unrealistic nightmare.
Nothing today prevents it other than Israel’s
military superiority over the combined
Arab armies and terrorist organizations.
If the Arab armies and terrorists were
capable of defeating Israel, destroying
its Jewish population, and “reclaiming”
ALL of current Israel, there can be
little doubt that they would try to do so.
Indeed, if any Arab leader were militarily
capable of destroying Israel, but refrained
from doing so, he would be replaced
by someone who would at least try.
…Although there are some moderate voices
within the Palestinian and Arab movements,
these voices are listened to only because Israel
is too strong today to be defeated totally.
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 247) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“The world may have to deal with terrorists in order to save lives.
But the moral scandal is that in addition
to simply dealing with these terrorists,
much of the world has HONORED them.
The standing ovation accorded to Yassir Arafat
– the architect of international terrorism –
by many UN [United Nations] representatives
in Geneva in [year] 1988 [CE] will live in infamy.
The willingness of world statesmen – including
the Pope and other moral leaders – to treat
Arafat as a person deserving of tribute
is beyond moral comprehension.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 220) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“It is virtually impossible to get the United Nations
to condemn any Arab terrorist group or state
for any attack on Israel or Jewish institutions.
Yet there is an eagerness to condemn Israel,
whether Israel is right or wrong.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 225) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/why-jews-are-quitting-the-democratic-party
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/alan-dershowitz-and-others-speak-truth
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“But more always seems to be demanded of the Jewish nation
and of the Jewish people than of others.
Jews, unlike other groups, are expected to be in the forefront
of defending the rights of their sworn enemies.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 5, page 170) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
__________________________________________
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“I refuse to bend over backward to single out Israel – or other things Jewish – for super-scrutiny.
I refuse to gloat, as so many in academia and the media seem to, over Israel’s shortcomings.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz (chapter 7, page 211)
published in year 1991CE by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“It is true that the American legal system derives
much of its content from the Old Testament
[also known as the Jewish Bible or Tanach]…
When we were growing up, my friends and I
would take great pride in discovering the
Jewish sources of American laws, such as:
the privilege against self-incrimination,
the requirement of two witnesses for certain types of crime,
and the very idea that punishment must be proportionate to the crime committed.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 10, page 318) year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
__________________________________________
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“…Zecharia, like so many of his contemporaries,
worked for a time in a sweatshop.
The shop he worked in, making pocketbooks, was located in a building just east of Washington Square [in Manhattan], site of the ill-fated Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
On the Saturday of the great fire in [March 25,] 1911 [CE] that engulfed the building and killed 145 workers, Reb Zecharia was at home. It was the Jewish Sabbath.
He learned two lessons from this: he vowed that his children would never become factory workers and he vowed that they would never work on the Sabbath.”
EXPLANATION:
Zecharia Dershowitz moved from Galicia to the USA in year 1888 CE.
He was the great-grandfather of Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz.
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 1, page 26) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“It is true that the American legal system derives
much of its content from the Old Testament
[also known as the Jewish Bible or Tanach]…
When we were growing up, my friends and I
would take great pride in discovering the
Jewish sources of American laws, such as:
the privilege against self-incrimination,
the requirement of two witnesses for certain types of crime,
and the very idea that punishment must be proportionate to the crime committed.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 10, page 318) year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
__________________________________________
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“…Zecharia, like so many of his contemporaries,
worked for a time in a sweatshop.
The shop he worked in, making pocketbooks, was located in a building just east of Washington Square [in Manhattan], site of the ill-fated Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
On the Saturday of the great fire in [March 25,] 1911 [CE] that engulfed the building and killed 145 workers, Reb Zecharia was at home. It was the Jewish Sabbath.
He learned two lessons from this: he vowed that his children would never become factory workers and he vowed that they would never work on the Sabbath.”
EXPLANATION:
Zecharia Dershowitz moved from Galicia to the USA in year 1888 CE.
He was the great-grandfather of Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz.
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 1, page 26) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
The good thing about Mamdani winning is…
….Hopefully he will do such an amazing job running our city to the ground that a Republican or at least a moderate Democrat will win in a landslide in 2028.
(Obviously I am still unhappy about his winning but just trying to wait it out and be optimistic)
And for those who say that this is not true based off of Bill DE Blasio, Mamdani will be an even worse Mayor if that’s even possible.