Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing sharp criticism from Jewish leaders and pro-Israel advocates after referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its supporters as “monsters” during a campaign rally, remarks critics say could inflame antisemitism and encourage hostility toward Jews.
Chaim Steinmetz, the senior rabbi at Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, said he was shocked by Mamdani’s rhetoric at a June 18 rally featuring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialists of America candidates and other progressives ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections.
“Mamdani is accusing AIPAC of being a monster that subverts democracy, supports genocide and wants to divide Americans. This is pure incitement,” Steinmetz wrote in a social media post condemning the remarks.
The rabbi argued that language of that kind could encourage extremists, citing Elias Rodriguez, the man charged in the May 2025 killings of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, DC, as an example of someone who might be moved to “take violent action against AIPAC and its supporters.”
“Well, I’m an AIPAC supporter. And Mamdani is inciting hatred against people like me,” Steinmetz added.
During a forceful, roughly 30-minute speech at the rally, Mamdani accused AIPAC of acting like “monsters” and claimed the group was using “millions in dark money” to help elect pro-Israel candidates in the November midterm elections.
“Now is the time of monsters. These monsters take many forms today. In those who fund… bad faith attacks… those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be made to pay in taxes,” Mamdani told the crowd at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.
He continued by singling out AIPAC, saying, “In AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”
“They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another.”
However, Steinmetz says it is Mamdani who is “turning New Yorkers against each other in order to grab power.”
“New York already has an antisemitism problem. Right now, you are pouring fuel on the fire,” he wrote, directly addressing Mamdani.
“I shudder to think what happens next. But you will be responsible for it.”
The head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, also slammed Mamdani’s inflammatory remarks about AIPAC as abhorrent and bigoted.
“The claim that AIPAC exists not to pursue a political agenda, but to spread discord and wield influence for its own sake, is not new,” said Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Jim Berk.
Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics
“Soviet anti-Zionist campaigns and earlier antisemitic movements similarly portrayed Jewish organizations as pursuing power not to achieve political goals, but because Jews themselves were said to crave influence and control,” Berk continued.
“The suggestion that Jewish political participation is inherently suspect, illegitimate, or secretly manipulative is abhorrent. This is the same old story, retold in a new language.”
The prominent Jewish activist said many advocacy organizations lobby, organize, and support candidates — and their motives are assumed to be political.
“But when Jewish organizations alone are portrayed as uniquely divisive or corrosive, we cross into territory where old prejudices take root,” Berk said.
Mamdani’s comments come amid a rise in antisemitism, growing opposition to Israel in the Democratic party and turmoil in the Middle East involving the US, Iran, Israel and Iranian-terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The pro-Palestinian mayor is an ardent foe of Israel, and supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state.
He has repeatedly claimed Israel’s military has committed “genocidal war” in Gaza and even vowed last year to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes.
The Post has reached out to Mamdani for comment.
