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() With three months to go in the New York mayoral race, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani is finding support among a previously unlikely demographic: New York’s Jewish community.

According to a new poll by Zenith Research and Public Progress Solutions, 43% of Jewish voters in New York said they would vote for Mamdani, including 67% of Jewish voters aged 18 to 44. The poll also found that Mamdani would dominate all four of his opponents combined.

The poll is the first to examine the attitudes of Jewish voters ahead of the general election.

Zohran Mamdani’s criticism of Israel alarmed some

Mamdani’s fierce criticism of Israel has alarmed some in New York’s Jewish community. The 33-year-old State Assembly member has declined to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state and supports putting pressure on Israel through boycotts and other tactics.

Despite those views, Mamdani has done well in the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel.

Mamdani’s success has marked a shift in the views of many American Jewish voters, especially young voters, who are alarmed by Israel’s conduct in the war and increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“I think this campaign has really shown us something we have known for a while,” Ben Sadoff, a Jewish New Yorker who campaigned for Mamdani, told The New York Times. “There are a million Jewish New Yorkers who have wide-ranging opinions on all kinds of issues.”

For others, Mamdani’s success has sparked fear in a city where anti-Jewish hate crime has surged. Last year in New York, Jews were the target of more than half of all hate crimes.

“Definitely, people are concerned,” said Rabbi Shimon Hecht, of Congregation B’nai Jacob in Brooklyn.

The Zenith Research and Public Progress Solutions poll surveyed 1,453 New Yorkers from July 16 to 24, with a 2.9% margin of error among registered voters and a slightly higher margin among Jewish voters.
According to the Times of Israel, Public Progress Solutions commissioned the poll and is run by Amit Singh Bagga, an ally of Mamdani.