Jews as Political Pawns

Cuomo and Adams Prove They Love Jews By Attacking Only (Major)* Jewish Candidate Running for Mayor

I could write an entire book on the weaponization of Jews and antisemitism in politics (in fact I’m trying to!) but the way its playing out in the New York mayoral race is bordering on a Kafka story. Self described liberal zionist and lifelong Jew, Brad Lander, is being attacked for not supporting Jews (Israel) enough by Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams claims attacks against him are based in antisemitism.

Currently the weaponization of antisemitism is always about support for Israel. In the past its also been used to attack Critical Race Theory or to further justify Islamaphobia, but right now politicians are trying to make a 1:1 correlation with support for Jews and support for Israel. The politicians who are doing this are, unsurprisingly, rarely Jewish (they’re also often Republicans but Adams is barely a Democrat and Cuomo is being funded by Republicans).

The majority of Jewish voters don’t agree with the conflation of support for Israel and support for Jews. 91% of Jews think its possible to criticize Israel without being antisemitic. Last year only 25% of Jews ranked Israel as their most important voting issue (with the future of democracy, abortion, and the economy ranking higher). Only 31% of Jews support Trump’s handling of antisemitism which has mostly been focused on punishing Israel critics. Multiple Jewish politicians, such as Reps Nadler and Raskin, stood up against the Antisemitism Awareness Act which wanted to enforce the IHRA definition of antisemitism that would classify most Israel criticism as antisemitism.

So if its not a way to win Jewish voters what are these politicians doing? In most of the country Jews don’t make up a large enough percentage of voters to swing an election (we’re only 2% of the population), but obviously the New York City mayoral race is one of the few places that’s not true. Politicians are often speaking more to Christian zionists than Jews as there are many many many more of them. While Christian zionists likely don’t make up a large voting bloc in NYC-their money still talks here as does AIPAC’s.

Additionally, non-Jewish politicians are horrible at talking about antisemitism, or recognizing it, or having any useful strategy in combatting it. So Israel is an easy stand in if you don’t want to have to think about antisemitism or engage with actual Jewish groups beyond the pro-Israel ones you’ve already talked to. In reality the focus on Israel usually fuels antisemitism and supports the dual loyalty trope that we as Jews care more about (and are more loyal to) Israel than we are to the US.

Eric Adams is actually running on an “EndAntisemitism” ballot line since he’s skipping the Democratic primary. Adams has significant support with the Orthodox Jewish community but he has eschewed any voices from other parts of the Jewish community. Adams has also bizarrely called himself a modern-day Maccabee and compared calls for him to resign to “Mein Kampf.” Rather than showing respect and care for Jews, both those comments are offensive and honestly just antisemitic while also just being weird and nonsensical.

Cuomo has a long history with the NY Jewish community, mostly just because he has a long history with NY politics. At a speech at a synagogue Cuomo said that antisemitism was the most serious and important in the NYC mayoral primary. Now don’t get me wrong-antisemitism is a serious and important issue, but as a Jew who cares about antisemitism, that claim is just ridiculous. It comes off as blatant pandering. Antisemitism is not a bigger issue than other violent forms of hate in NYC, and maybe we could make sure we’re focusing on protecting our immigrant communities at the moment. Cuomo also (wrongfully) proclaimed that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. In another bid to show how much he supports Jews, Cuomo also joined the legal team assembled by Alan Dershowitz to apparently defend Netanyahu at the ICC (only about a third of American Jews support Netanyahu).

Brad Lander is a Jewish politician who was raised going to synagogue. While he openly identifies as a liberal zionist (I am not defining zionism in this article or debating if his positions fit that label), Lander has also been critical of Israel and governmental actions taken supposedly in support of Jews and Israel. Lander first expressed his support for a ceasefire in November, 2023 only a month after 10/7 and has maintained such calls since. He has also said he opposes the occupation while maintaining his support for liberal zionism. Lander has criticized things that have been said at anti-Israel rallies but has stood up against the targeting of protestors and the ICE detentions of students. Lander also rightfully wants to address antisemitism alongside other issues of hate and public safety.

Because Lander has an actual nuanced approach based in Jewish values, Cuomo is attacking him for his position. Cuomo even had the audacity to accuse Lander of aiding the forces of antisemitism. I appreciate that Lander has used a Yiddish curse against Cuomo and stood up against Cuomo’s attacks by rightly saying Cuomo doesn’t get to tell him how to be Jewish. Cuomo positioning himself as the arbiter of antisemitism speaking over actual Jews gives far more aid to antisemitism.

The Jewish Vote, the electoral arm of the progressive organization Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, has endorsed Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani. I couldn’t agree more. Both these candidates will be good for New York City and much better for Jews than either Eric Adams or Andrew Cuomo.

*Scott Stringer is running too but he has no chance of winning and I keep forgetting he’s even running