A top New York City rabbi has issued a chilling now-viral warning after Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win: The pol’s positions on Israel may “severely threaten Jewish safety everywhere in the city.”
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch delivered his blistering take on the radical extremist in a fiery sermon at his liberal Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side on Friday.
Hirsch claimed Mamdani’s “opposition to Israel is existential."
“He believes that Israel has no right to exist at all — as a Jewish state in any territory,’’ the Manhattan rabbi said.
Hirsch, president of the New York Board of Rabbis, explained that he and other “prominent and liberal” rabbis went with “open hearts and open minds” to a one-hour meeting with the then-candidate in August.
He said they left horrified by his dangerous positions on Israel.
Throughout the meeting, the rabbis’ moods “steadily darkened,” Hirsch said.
“And our fears increased.”
Mamdani, who founded a controversial Students for Justice in Palestine chapter while in college, is a “dogmatic opponent” to the Zionist ideal, Hirsch said.
“He is not simply a critic of Israel,” said the rabbi, who moved to Israel as a teen and served in the Israel Defense Force.
“He does not believe in coexistence” or “two states for two peoples.”
Despite relentless accusations of antisemitism, Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim immigrant and supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, captured one-third of Jewish voters in the city to win the mayor’s race last week, according to exit polls.
The mayor-elect has repeatedly refused to condemn the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” widely seen as a call to violence, and espouses extremist positions indistinguishable from Israel’s “most implacable foes,” according to the rabbi.
Hirsch compared the dangerous ideology to that of terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah and their supporter, Iran.
During the religious leaders’ meeting with Mamdani in August, security was the focus as the group expressed the “fears of New York Jews” if he were elected.
The rabbi warned that a phalanx of security alone can’t protect the Jewish community — only a safe environment can.
“You could put 50 police officers outside this building,’’ Hirsch told his congregants. “If the overall atmosphere is hostile to Jews, it will severely threaten Jewish safety everywhere in the city every day.
“And history has proven conclusively that what starts with Jews never ends with Jews. The city itself will become much nastier and much more violent,” he warned.
“And that is the main threat from the ideologically driven anti-Zionism of Zohran Mamdani.”
Congregant Ronen Schwartzman told The Post on Sunday that he’s “proud” of his rabbi for “being vocal when you need it.
He’s very pro-Israel and not afraid to speak up — a big contrast to the Reform movement, who don’t always support” the Jewish state,’’ the man said.
Some city Jewish activists championed the “progressive” rabbi’s speech, too.
“He is unafraid to speak the truth,” said Israel activist Lizzy Savetsky on social media. “We need more Jewish leaders like this.”
