On May 10, after Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas firing rockets at Israel, in what Hamas claimed was a protest of Israeli raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque, Andrew Yang sent a tweet. “I’m standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists,” it read. “The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.” In any previous mayoral campaign, this commentary might have been conventional and unremarkable, especially for a candidate who has been endorsed by key Orthodox Jewish leaders in the city.
But the dynamics are changing in New York politics. Criticism of Yang on Twitter was pretty much immediate; the next morning, when Yang appeared at an unrelated campaign event in Astoria, he got an analog earful from passing pedestrians: “Do you condemn Israel for their unjust acts against innocent Palestinians?” a man named Abid Rahman asked, before Yang aides reportedly pulled the candidate away. Then came a louder slap, from New York’s biggest political star, Queens congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Utterly shameful for Yang to try to show up to an Eid event after sending out a chest-thumping statement of support for a strike killing 9 children, especially after his silence as Al-Aqsa was attacked,” she tweeted. “But then to try that in Astoria? During Ramadan?! They will let you know.”
Yang backpedaled, expressing sympathy for the loss of life on all sides. But the skirmish was revelatory in a variety of ways. While the cliché that there are more Jews in New York than anywhere outside of Israel remains true, the city’s Jewish voters have never been a monolith, and the ideological gap between the Upper West Side and Borough Park has always been large. In recent years, though, the distance between those poles has increased while a complicated fragmentation is developing. “There used to be a middle group of Jewish voters,” a former top adviser to the current mayor, Bill de Blasio, says. “There were Jews who were politically conservative but culturally and economically voted more like old-school Italian or Irish New Yorkers. That middle group has pretty much vanished though. And now there is almost no distinction between liberal secular Jews and any other liberal Democrat.” At the same time, the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn that have long voted as a potent bloc are becoming somewhat less predictable. “It’s very different than even eight years ago when de Blasio won for the first time,” says a Democratic strategist with deep ties to New York Jewish politics. “And it’s driven by greater internet access and fluency. Orthodox voters aren’t just pulling the lever according to the flyer that leadership sends home in their kid’s backpack from yeshiva. More people are gathering their own information.”
Then there’s the generational change among secular Jews. “There’s no doubt about it, there’s a real divide: The politics of younger New York Jews have definitely skewed left,” says Jonathan Greenspun, a strategist who advised the campaigns of George Pataki and Mike Bloomberg on Jewish issues. “Another thing that’s different is the organizations that are relatively new on the scene, like JFREJ Action, that at rallies will be sprinkled in with groups like New York Communities for Change, and Democratic Socialists of America.”
Even with those shifts, however, the candidates are largely playing it safe, believing that local issues are what voters care about—which is why Yang signaling that he would allow the Orthodox latitude on yeshiva curriculum has earned him support. Eric Adams, Yang’s chief rival for conservative Jewish votes, issued a similar pro–Israel tweet, which got him dropped for endorsement consideration by a coalition of New York Muslim groups. Dianne Morales, the furthest left of the current contenders, sent out a statement saying, “We must condemn state violence unequivocally.… What is and has been happening in Palestine is apartheid.” When I asked whether Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is a social justice issue, as it is frequently characterized by progressive advocates, the only candidate to respond, other than Morales, was Shaun Donovan. “Of course it’s a social justice issue—kids are dying,” Donovan said. “As a father, my heart breaks for the parents of the children who have lost their lives. Although I support Israel’s right to defend itself, and condemn the indiscriminate rocket attacks carried out by Hamas, we must also strongly condemn the killing of innocent Palestinians—including women and children. I am glad to see President [Joe] Biden take action to help de-escalate the situation.”
Maya Wiley and Scott Stringer are competing fiercely for progressive votes. But they seem to see little percentage, and high risk, in criticizing Israel, even if it might help them win the blessing of Ocasio-Cortez. The congresswoman has endorsed Brad Lander, who is running for city comptroller, but has so far stayed out of the mayoral race, other than her recent strafing of Yang. “What Yang said didn’t sound all that different to me from what Andrew Cuomo or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama have said over the past 15 years,” the Democratic strategist says. “AOC being very vocal about it is a sign of the times. But it’s also a sign that Yang is the front-runner to be mayor, and progressives are getting worried.”
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