For New York’s 1 million-strong Jews, the 2025 mayoral election comes at a time of high anxiety.
Hate crimes against Jews in the city have risen since Oct. 7, 2023, accounting for over half the city’s total hate crimes last year, and the ongoing Israel-Hamas War and pro-Palestinian protests in the city have divided Jewish communities. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s election — and his intervention in the city since taking office — has New York City’s many liberal voters hoping for a mayor who will stand up to the Republican president.
A crowded — and growing — pool of candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination in the June 24 primary, which will in all likelihood determine who becomes mayor in 2026.
The field of Democratic challengers spans a wide spectrum of viewpoints, and while some candidates are household names, others may be far less familiar. A few are themselves Jewish. Keep scrolling to see what each of the candidates have said publicly about antisemitism, Israel and Jewish-related topics.
If you’re looking to learn what each candidate said in response to the recent arrest and possible deportation of former Columbia student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, click here.
Adrienne Adams
(Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams officially kicked off her mayoral campaign on March 8. A scandal-free (so far), moderate alternative to embattled incumbent Eric Adams and presumptive favorite Andrew Cuomo, she faces an uphill battle given her lack of name recognition outside political circles — and, ironically, the potential confusion that comes from sharing a surname with the current mayor, to whom she is not related — plus a late start on raising funds.
However, if elected, Adams, 64 — who represents the Queens’ 28th district, which includes parts of Richmond Hill, Jamaica, South Ozone Park and Rochdale Village — would be the first woman to serve as NYC mayor, as well as the first Council speaker to do so.
While in office, Adams has observed important Jewish commemorative dates such as the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and, last year, she attended a Passover Seder with approximately 70 Holocaust survivors,
Shortly before she launched her mayoral campaign, the executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, which works with thousands of Holocaust survivors across Brooklyn, said Adams is a “blessed leader” who “ensures that even the most underprivileged New Yorkers are not forgotten. Adams had worked with the group to establish the city’s first three trauma recovery centers, which are “designed to reach survivors of violent crime who have less access to traditional victim services,” according to the Council website.
In 2022 she skipped a City Council educational trip to Israel, led by the city’s Jewish Community Relations Council, though she said she supported her colleagues who attended and was “proud” that they did so. She did not indicate that she had any qualms about taking part in the trip, but decided that it was “prudent” to remain in New York to focus on budget and pandemic issues, a spokesperson told the Forward at the time.
Eric Adams
(Graeme Sloan / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Recent polls suggest that New Yorkers aren’t excited by a prospective second term for Mayor Eric Adams, who’s been the subject of a federal corruption probe and became the city’s first sitting mayor to be indicted last September. According to a Quinnipiac University poll last week, his approval rating is at 20% — the lowest for any mayor since Quinnipac began polling registered NYC voters in 1996. More than half of respondents said Adams should resign.
Adams, 64, has been criticized by his Democratic challengers for cozying up to Trump since Trump was voted back into the White House. He has also been accused of striking a quid pro quo with the Justice Department, which would drop all corruption charges in exchange for Adams’ assistance in carrying out Trump’s immigration policies. Adams’ camp has denied any wrongdoing.
Adams is staunchly pro-Israel, and as Brooklyn’s borough president from 2014 to 2021, he has successfully courted support from the city’s Orthodox communities, which helped prop up his nomination for mayor back in 2021. He’s one of a growing number of politicians who’ve visited the gravesite of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Chabad Rebbe; Adams has made at least six visits to the site.
That close relationship hasn’t always sat well with the city’s more liberal Jewish communities. In 2022, Adams met with 55 women rabbis and cantors, who sought the meeting out of concern that the Orthodox Jews Adams regularly consulted don’t represent the political or religious diversity of the city’s Jewish community. A year later, when Adams inaugurated his Jewish Advisory Council — which was assembled to address issues affecting Jewish New Yorkers — he faced criticism for its lack of diversity: Of its 37 members, 23 were Orthodox, and only nine were women.
During his time as mayor, Adams has called himself “a modern-day Maccabee,” at a pre-Hanukkah party at Gracie Mansion last year, and compared calls for his resignation to “Mein Kampf.” Blowback ensued.
Adams has consistently denounced antisemitism and been a vocal supporter of Israel. He has condemned antisemitism at numerous pro-Palestinian protests, as at Columbia University, and defended the NYPD after violent arrests were made at a demonstration in Bay Ridge.
As a former police captain, Adams has been strongly pro-police throughout his term — for example, in an effort by Adams to reduce crime in the city’s transit system, the NYPD’s overtime pay for officers in the subway skyrocketed from $4 million in 2022 to $155 million in 2023. In November he appointed Jessica Tisch, who hails from a prominent Jewish family, as NYPD commissioner, making her the first woman to hold that position in the department’s 179-year history.
Michael Blake
(Andy Katz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Before finishing second to Ritchie Torres in the Democratic primary for a seat in Congress in 2020, Michael Blake served as a state assemblymember representing part of the Bronx from 2015 until 2021. And now, Blake, 42, a former Obama staffer who also served as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, is running for mayor on a platform that includes universal child care and a tax break for middle-class homeowners.
Blake’s views on Israel have seemingly transformed since Oct. 7, 2023. Speaking at an AIPAC policy conference in 2017, Blake said that his trip to Israel with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation made him a “better legislator” and “a better activist.” He added, “It helped me to understand that as a leader within my community and the Democratic Party, I have a responsibility to support America’s friend and ally, Israel.” Blake has also spoken about the impact that traveling to Israel had on him as a Christian.
More recently, however, Blake has been vocally critical of Israel, tweeting on Oct. 23, 2023, “Genocide. It’s happening right before our eyes,” and aligning himself with elected officials like then-Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who Blake said was being attacked by pro-Israel advocates “for having principles.”
He voiced support for the campus pro-Palestinian protests in the spring of 2024, posting on X that the discussion should not be centered around the number of protesters arrested but rather “WHY people are protesting.” He added, “It’s not Antisemitic to speak your mind. It’s not Islamophobic to speak your mind. It’s America.”
In a statement on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Blake wrote that we “must continue finding every possible way for the return of the hostages,” and that “[t]he path to peace begins by acknowledging Hamas’ act of terror.”
Andrew Cuomo
(Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images)
Andrew Cuomo’s 10-year stint as New York governor came to an end in 2021, when he resigned after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. The Justice Department announced, following a settlement, that Cuomo had sexually harassed 13 women who worked for the state over an eight-year period. Now, one election cycle later, Cuomo is seeking a political comeback, having officially entered the mayoral race last week.
Cuomo, the son of former three-time New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, has a commanding lead in the polls — likely a combination of sky-high name recognition and a relative dearth of centrists in the race.
Cuomo, 67, who has lots of history with New York City’s 1 million Jews, may try to tap into the Jewish constituencies that supported him during his decade in Albany — from pro-Israel activists to the city’s haredi Orthodox communities. In his 17-minute campaign launch video, Cuomo declared that New York should “be at the forefront” in “leading the fight against the global rise of antisemitism.”
As governor, Cuomo took public steps to stem antisemitism, like ordering the formation of a hate crimes unit in the state police, providing additional security funding for Jewish institutions, putting more police in Jewish neighborhoods and spearheading a law defining antisemitism as domestic terrorism.
But while Cuomo cultivated haredi Orthodox votes during his three runs for governor, his relationship with these voters soured in 2020 when he sought to enforce COVID-era public health restrictions in neighborhoods like Borough Park and Midwood — singling out haredi Orthodox communities, critics said. That October, the haredi umbrella body Agudath Israel of America sued him for discrimination.
The next year, the New York Times reported that Cuomo had expressed disdain for Jewish practices: While at an event celebrating the fall festival of Sukkot, he allegedly remarked, “These people and their f—ing tree houses.” His spokesperson denied the allegation and said, “He has the highest respect for Jewish traditions.”
As governor, Cuomo was a vocal supporter of Israel, signing an executive order banning the state from investing in companies that promote boycotts of Israel. In 2014, he visited Israel during a previous war with Hamas in Gaza. In 2018, he was the grand marshal of the city’s Celebrate Israel Parade.
After he resigned, pro-Israel activism was part of his incipient comeback bid. Last year, he announced the launch of a group called “Progressives For Israel.” He later renamed it “Never Again, Now!” and in July mounted an ad campaign criticizing pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Recently, however, the New York Times reported that the group’s actions “have amounted to little beyond a few private informational receptions and opinion essays.”
Brad Lander
(Luke Tress)
Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller responsible for fiscal oversight, announced his mayoral run last July. He is the city’s highest-ranking Jewish official — and among the most progressive.
Citing the fight against antisemitism as a priority, Lander laid out his plans for combating crime with a 17-page proposal last week. “I take that very seriously as the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in city government, and will do everything I can to combat it as mayor,” he told the Times of Israel.
A veteran of progressive nonprofits and a former City Council member representing the liberal Brooklyn bastion of Park Slope as well as a slice of Borough Park, Lander is a member of Kolot Chayeinu, a congregation that makes a point of welcoming a diversity of views on Israel. He has also been a regular attendee at Israeli-led rallies calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“That has been a place where I feel both proud to go and have my neshama nourished,” Lander told the New York Jewish Week last year, using the Hebrew word for soul. “People are going to criticize whatever you do. All I can say for sure is, I come by my point of view here honestly. This is who I am Jewishly and politically.”
Lander, 55, grew up in a Reform Jewish community outside of St. Louis and worked at a Reform movement summer camp. He counts campaigning to liberate Soviet Jews and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the mid-century Jewish scholar and civil rights activist, as two political inspirations.
Lander first called for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in November 2023, shortly before there was a weeklong truce. He kept up the ceasefire calls after that, when such positions were still uncommon among even progressive Jewish officials.
“I was before and am now a liberal Zionist who fiercely opposes the occupation,” he told the New York Jewish Week in August.
Lander has drawn criticism from some in the Jewish community for maintaining alliances with politicians and activists who oppose Israel. For example, pro-Israel advocates in Lander’s former Park Slope district have voiced concern over whether he’s close with his successor, Council Member Shahana Hanif, who’s come under fire for a track record on Israel that includes retweeting the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.” Lander told the New York Times that he was “deeply disappointed” by people like Hanif who did not immediately condemn the Oct. 7 attack, and said he’d encouraged her and other elected officials to meet with families of Israeli hostages.
Zohran Mamdani
(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
A state assemblymember representing Astoria, Queens, Zohran Mamdani is described by City & State as a “pro-Palestine Socialist Democrat who isn’t shy about it.” Perhaps the candidate who’s farthest to the left, Mamdani — who, if elected, would be NYC’s first Muslim mayor — is running on the promise that he will “freeze the rent, make buses fast + free, and deliver free universal healthcare,” as his bio on X states.
While many New York officials condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Mamdani’s statement the next day focused largely on Israel: “I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours,” he wrote. “Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come.”
He added, “The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the apartheid and dismantling the occupation.”
Nonetheless, Mamdani condemned the Democratic Socialists of America-promoted pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square the next day. “My support for Palestinian liberation should never be confused for a celebration of the loss of civilian life,” Mamdani said in a statement. “I condemn the killing of civilians and rhetoric at a rally seeking to make light of such deaths.”
Mamdani, 33, has voiced support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, calling it “righteous,” and introduced a bill called the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act,” which would block charities in the state from supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank. (The bill failed to advance after opposition from legislative leaders.)
Mamdani has found support from progressive Jewish organizations like Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, while other Jewish leaders have encouraged NYC voters to register as Democrats in order to stifle his primary bid.
Zellnor Myrie
(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
A state senator for the 20th district in central Brooklyn, Zellnor Myrie has lagged far behind in the polls; just 1% of likely Democratic voters picked Myrie as their favorite candidate in a December poll by Progressives for Democracy in America. In February, however, he garnered a high-profile endorsement from Jewish Rep. Dan Goldman, who praised Myrie in a joint appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and called the candidate a “true visionary” who would stand up to Trump.
Myrie, who is the son of Costa Rican immigrants and would be NYC’s third Black mayor if elected, occupies a more progressive lane among the candidates — but in a 2024 Politico interview, he shied away from labels. “When I talk to everyday New Yorkers, their concern isn’t whether I’m a progressive, a moderate or conservative,” he said. “Their concern is can I make the city more affordable? And can we run government in a competent way?”
Myrie, 38 — whose district includes Crown Heights, home to a significant Orthodox population — has courted Jewish leaders and Orthodox voters who generally lean to his right. In 2019, two weeks after the Chabad of Poway shooting in California, Myrie introduced a bill honoring the birthday of Chabad’s Schneerson, to “truly recognize the work that the Rebbe did.” Myrie has advocated for increasing funding for hate crime prevention and suggested expanding the state curriculum to include education on Jewish history.
“I think the Orthodox community, much like the rest of the city, cares deeply about safety, but they have a particular sensitivity to this because they are visibly Jewish,” Myrie, who was born and raised in Crown Heights, told the Forward. “This has been part of who I am as a New Yorker, growing up in and around the Jewish community.”
Myrie issued a statement on Oct. 7 condemning Hamas’ attack on Israel, in which he said, “Israel has the right to defend itself, and I pray it does so in a way that increases the chances of an eventual lasting peace.” Myrie has said that he’ll “always defend the right to peaceful protest” and he has condemned pro-Palestinian demonstrations that harassed Jewish people, like at the Brooklyn Museum last year and in the Orthodox community of Borough Park this February. Like Stringer, he is seen as potentially appealing to Jewish voters who might view Lander as too critical of Israel.
Jessica Ramos
(Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A state senator representing parts of Queens, Jessica Ramos is one of a few progressive candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. Ramos says her campaign will focus on making the city more affordable and hospitable to immigrants. If elected, she would be the first woman and first Latina to helm the city.
Ramos, 39, regularly posts holiday and Holocaust commemoration messages for Jewish New Yorkers on social media, and she has also met with Jewish constituents including students from Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, a large Orthodox school. Though her own district — which covers Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights — does not have a large Jewish population, in 2023 she co-sponsored a bill requiring state correctional facilities to provide kosher and halal food options.
Ramos is also a longtime pro-Palestinian advocate. A decade ago, during a conflict between Israel and Hamas, she ignited an early firestorm in Democratic politics when she tweeted, using a notation meant to simulate a heart, “Palestine <3.” Last March, she became the 13th state senator to call for a permanent ceasefire in the current Israel-Hamas war, saying in a statement, “As a New York State Senator, I stand for de-escalation, diplomacy and human rights for all people — Palestinian and Israeli.” She also said at the time that she saw Israel’s actions in the West Bank as akin to repression in her parents’ native Colombia.
Scott Stringer
(Courtesy Stringer for Mayor)
Scott Stringer, a former Manhattan borough president who served as the city’s comptroller from 2014 until 2021, ran for mayor as the only Jewish candidate in 2021. An early adopter of progressive policies like closing Rikers Island and implementing a new property transfer tax, Stringer’s 2021 campaign was derailed by sexual harassment allegations that he denied. (A second woman also came forward accusing Stringer of sexual misconduct.) He sued the accuser for defamation, but the lawsuit was dismissed because he filed it after the statute of limitations for the case.
Stringer, 64, is a former aide to Rep. Jerry Nadler, the Jewish Democrat who has represented the Upper West Side (and now Upper East Side) for decades, and cited him as one of the people he turned to for advice on Jewish issues in his 2021 bid.
Stringer has also attended Congregation Rodeph Sholom, the Upper West Side Reform synagogue, along with his wife Elyse Buxbaum, the COO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Their two sons attend New York City public schools.
Stringer has not held public office since finishing his second term as comptroller and has made only limited public comments about the Israel-Hamas war. On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas attacked Israel, he posted on social about a pro-Palestinian demonstration that included celebration of Hamas, “This rally is total bullshit!” He is seen as likely to appeal to Jewish voters who see Lander as too far to the left on Israel.
Whitney Tilson
(Courtesy Eaglebrook School via Wikimedia Commons)
A former hedge fund manager and longtime advocate of charter schools, this is Whitney Tilson’s first foray into the world of electoral politics. Tilson’s campaign is focused on public safety and reining in government spending while growing the city’s economy.
While Tilson himself isn’t Jewish, his wife and two daughters are. Tilson told amNY that he’d planned to join an anti-Trump rally in Washington Square Park on Inauguration Day, but that he was taken aback by the speeches and chants that he encountered. “It’s an anti-Israel rally, which is not what I was expecting,” he said.
“It’s very concerning to me that protests which at least initially appeared to be expressing sympathy to the Palestinian civilians who are suffering tremendously, and I’m very sympathetic toward that, have morphed into anti-Israel and antisemitic rallies, which is very troubling to me,” Tilson said. “I’m hearing a lot of chants that are genocidal. I know what ‘From the river to the sea’ means.”
A Harvard University graduate, Tilson, 58, voiced his anger toward his alma mater for not standing up to antisemitism in the month following the Oct. 7 attack, and said that he declined an invitation to meet with a fundraising officer.
“The damage that Harvard has done to its brand since Oct. 7 is only rivaled in history by New Coke and what Elon Musk has done to Twitter,” he wrote.
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