A New York Magazine feature billed as a celebration of Arab and Muslim culture in New York City has triggered a sharp backlash from critics who say the story instead centered on allegations of Israeli “genocide” against Palestinians while giving little attention to the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. The controversy has led some angry readers to cancel subscriptions, as insiders and critics question the magazine’s editorial approach.
The Monday cover package, titled “Habibi City,” drew widespread criticism from readers and Jewish advocates who accused the publication of “erasure of Jews” with roots in Arab countries and of portraying Israel in a one-sided way. Detractors also objected to the timing, pointing to rising hate crimes under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with more than half of reported incidents targeting Jewish New Yorkers.
New York Magazine described the story as a look at “a blooming cultural ecosystem, led by young SWANA New Yorkers … born out of the resistance and protests in the months following October 7.”
The outlet characterized the Southwest Asia and North Africa community as “bound together by shared values” and said it was “born out of the pain of the genocide in Gaza,” language that further inflamed critics of the once highly regarded cultural publication.
Opponents of the piece said it repeatedly emphasized Israel’s military response after Oct. 7 while failing to adequately acknowledge the Hamas massacre that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 others abducted into Gaza.
“I am not going to pay for a subscription to a magazine I’ve long loved – and written for – that actively seeks to negate Jewish history and identity,” journalist Jordana Horn told The Post.
Horn said she canceled over the 31-page, six-part package and included a searing note with her decision: “You’re deliberately stoking the flames of anti-Jewish sentiment in this city and I’m not going to help pay for it.”
Jewish organizations also condemned the main article for expressing sympathy with SWANA New Yorkers who, it said, continue to “face xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Zionism — along with the repercussions of speaking out against them.” Critics argued that placing Zionism alongside forms of bigotry amounted to a deeply offensive and dangerous comparison.
“Treating Zionism as though it belongs in a list of identity-based hatreds erases what it actually means to millions of Jews: the belief that Jews, like other peoples, have a right to national self-determination and safety,” wrote AIPAC, the American-funded pro-Israel lobbying group that’s become a boogeyman for the ghoulish political fringes.
Jewish civil rights group End Jew Hatred took aim at the “dangerous” package that all but erased Jewish representation, ripping the outlet for “increasingly defining belonging around their prescribed ‘position’ on Gaza, effectively pushing Mizrahi Jews, whose families lived across the Middle East and North Africa for generations, out of their own regional identity.”
The main piece’s post-Oct. 7 reference to SWANA New Yorkers “living under the threat of annihilation” – without support to back up the claim – left End Jew Hatred furious at New York mag for “failing to mention the massacre of Jews that actually happened that day and the ongoing threats from Hamas, the regime of Iran, and its terror proxies.
“This isn’t harmless ‘cultural clout.’ Jewish identity is not theirs to erase, and Jewish history will not be rewritten to fit a political narrative,” the group added.
Pro-Israel activist Yardenne Greenspan echoed the criticism, ripping the mag for deciding “they get to define who *really* counts as Middle Eastern.”
New York immigration lawyer and Jewish Syrian native Abraham Hamra also fumed over the piece’s Jewish erasure.
“For a publication that prides itself on diversity and social justice, erasing more than 120,000 New York Jews whose families come from Arabized countries isn’t an oversight; it’s exclusion dressed up as inclusion,” the pro-Israel advocate told The Post.
“As a Syrian Jew, I know what cultural erasure looks like, and it’s particularly insulting to watch it repackaged as progress.”
Tablet Magazine, a spicy Jewish outlet, blasted the “antisemitic, absurd” issue that included a six-page piece on the throbbing Middle Eastern restaurant scene that read more like a loaded “intifooda.”
New York’s mention of controversial restaurant Ayat, which bills itself as serving “honest, authentic” “Palestinian soul food,” included a nod to its menu with a “cheerful, tourist-style map in which the land mass currently called Israel is titled ‘Discover Palestine.’”
An irate consultant brought in on the piece railed, “As someone who saw the behind-the-scenes of the food article being written, it was a hit piece on Jewish and Israeli chefs cloaked in middle eastern cuisine and food and culture.”
The insider told The Post that the fact-check process with the mag was “super shady.”
Former New York writer Eve Barlow, who claimed that the outlet “fired” her for her stance against Jewish hate in 2020, said she’s hardly surprised by the egregious tropes and tone deafness of the issue.
“It’s been a long time coming,” she told The Post, adding that New York “ghosted” her once she started getting vocal.
“They never had complained about any of my work up until that point. In fact, they rained nothing but praise on me,” she said, adding that multiple staff writers and editors unfollowed her on Twitter in lockstep.
“I had a great working relationship with them, and they ghosted me.”
The outlet was even accused of using the long-defunct Nazi-adjacent “Fraktur” font for the cover story, questioning its intention to send a certain message.
New York, which has seen a steady circulation decline over the years – halving its print schedule more than a decade ago – was once “at the vanguard of Manhattan publishing,” as the New York Times proclaimed in 2013.
Tablet Mag saucily summed up the infuriating edition: “If you don’t think Israel committed genocide, you’re not from the Middle East.”
The Post has sought comment from New York Magazine.
