NEW YORK — Rabbi Marc Schneier, a leading figure in Jewish-Muslim interfaith work, has published a Rosh Hashanah op-ed sharply criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and urging him to embrace peace and reconciliation. Schneier said Mamdani’s past statements on Israel and related rhetoric are out of step with Jewish values and with mainstream Muslim leadership, and called on the candidate to “get on the peace train.”
Schneier framed his comments as an effort to protect Jewish communal security and to insist on consistent public standards for political leaders. In the op-ed, he wrote that accusations that criticism of Mamdani amounts to Islamophobia are misplaced and that the community’s concern rests on substantive statements about Israel rather than religion.
The rabbi’s intervention comes as dozens of New York rabbis and a wider national cohort have publicly registered alarm. Organizers of an open letter titled “A Rabbinic Call to Action: Defending the Jewish Future” say more than 650 rabbis and cantors initially signed the statement, and subsequent reporting shows the number of signatories rose to roughly 850 and then surpassed 1,000 in follow-up tallies.
The letters warn that Mamdani’s previous defenses of provocative slogans, past support for boycott and divestment measures, and comments rejecting Israel’s legitimacy risk normalizing anti-Zionist positions at the expense of Jewish safety.
Schneier is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and founding senior rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue. He is widely known for decades of interfaith diplomacy and missions aimed at building Jewish-Muslim ties across the Middle East and beyond. In his op-ed and public posts, he invoked that experience in arguing that mainstream Muslim leaders are embracing coexistence and that Mamdani should do the same.
Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman and the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, has defended his record and his identity amid a wave of criticism and intense national scrutiny. Supporters and some Jewish officials have argued that criticisms of Mamdani have at times crossed into Islamophobia, pointing to threats and hostile rhetoric directed at the candidate since his primary victory.
Critics point to several public moments in which Mamdani either used or declined to disavow inflammatory language regarding Israel, including past remarks about “globalize the intifada” that Mamdani has said he would discourage, and to his earlier support for BDS-style measures. Supporters counter that he has repeatedly condemned antisemitism and pledged to protect New York’s Jewish communities if elected. The dispute reflects a larger debate in American Jewish life about how to balance security concerns and political pluralism.
The rabbinic letters and Schneier’s op-ed have prompted debate inside the Jewish community. Some leaders applaud Schneier and the signatories for drawing bright lines against anti-Zionism. Others have warned that broad, public denunciations risk deepening intra-communal divisions. Commentators note that the intensity of the reaction reflects both the stakes of the mayoral contest and the wider polarization over Israel and the war in Gaza.
Requests for comment sent to Mamdani’s campaign and to Rabbi Schneier’s office were not immediately returned. Schneier has promoted his op-ed and related posts on social platforms and framed his critique as a call for leaders to adopt a posture of reconciliation rather than rhetoric that, he argues, endangers Jewish life in the city.
This episode underscores the fraught intersection of municipal politics, interfaith relations, and communal security in a city with large and diverse Jewish and Muslim populations. It also highlights the influence of senior clergy who can both shape and reflect public sentiment in contested political moments.
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This article is based on verified information from the New York Daily News, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel, Reuters, and the Associated Press.