How the Israel-Hamas War Could Shape the New York City Mayoral Race

The Israel-Hamas war has divided Democrats across the nation, particularly in New York City, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

The fissures over the war have been evident in street protests, at college campuses and at the ballot box, where pro-Israel interests helped defeat Representative Jamaal Bowman in a Democratic primary in June. Now they threaten to roil next year’s Democratic primary for mayor.

Tensions rose last month, when Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, entered the mayoral race. Mr. Lander, who is Jewish, defines himself as a “progressive Zionist,” and has called for a cease-fire while expressing concern for Israeli hostages and Palestinians.

Some of his views on the war fall in line with other Jewish Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, but Mr. Lander also has ties to the Democratic Socialists of America, which has harshly criticized Israel and asked candidates to oppose all funding for the country. Mr. Lander’s positions are particularly unpopular in the Orthodox Jewish community, whose support helped Eric Adams become mayor in 2021.

Some of Mr. Adams’s Jewish allies are pushing the notion that Mr. Lander’s candidacy is a nonstarter for them, and some have gone as far as to question his ties to Judaism. That has outraged Mr. Lander, who said in an interview that his faith was so central to his life that he seriously considered becoming a rabbi after college.

“Coming at people’s identity — coming at people’s Jewish identity — is pretty rotten and pretty suspect,” he said in the interview, blaming Mr. Adams for the tactic.

Mr. Lander added: “It’s not surprising that someone who mocked how you talk would have allies come for you.” (Mr. Adams has publicly derided Mr. Lander, imitating his voice in an exaggerated nasal tone.)

Mr. Adams has been a fierce supporter of Israel, visiting the country last year, two months before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. And when pro-Palestinian encampments engulfed college campuses in New York, the mayor aggressively cracked down, deploying the police to end a student takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University.

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, a  senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan who serves on the mayor’s charter commission, said in an interview that Mr. Adams comforted the Jewish community after Oct. 7 and “let us know that he was our friend” while pledging to protect the community from antisemitic attacks.

“We look at all of the issues, and this issue is going to jump out at us, and candidates that perhaps don’t see this alliance as significant will be judged accordingly,” Rabbi Steinmetz said of the alliance between Israel and the United States.

Michael Nussbaum, a former president of the Queens Jewish Community Council and publisher of The Queens Daily Eagle, said he was “disturbed” by Mr. Lander’s positions: “It’s incomprehensible to support the state of Israel while supporting the D.S.A.” Mr. Nussbaum, who runs a pro-Israel political action committee, said he would consider using it to oppose Mr. Lander.

The Jewish vote is hardly monolithic: There are liberal voters on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and in brownstone Brooklyn, ultra-Orthodox voters in Brooklyn who have supported former President Donald J. Trump and Russian speakers in coastal Brighton Beach.

Mr. Lander is a member of Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive synagogue in Park Slope in Brooklyn that called for a cease-fire within weeks of the Oct. 7 attacks. A rabbi there officiated his wedding and his children’s bar and bat mitzvahs.

Ruth Messinger, a former Manhattan borough president who is Jewish, hosted a joint fund-raiser for Mr. Lander and Mr. Bowman in May. She said she believed that the mayor’s race would center on city services and managing the influx of migrants to the region, not on Israel.

“I don’t think it’s where voters will be focused, and in any event, I think his views are clear and resonate with a great many people in the very diverse Jewish community,” she said of Mr. Lander.

Two other potential candidates may also make Israel a central issue in the race: Andrew M. Cuomo, the former governor who has strongly defended Israel, and Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens who is Muslim.

Mr. Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 over a sexual harassment scandal, appears eager to make a political comeback and recently appeared at a fund-raiser in the Hamptons for a nonprofit he leads that is focused on combating antisemitism. The group released an ad this summer criticizing campus protesters.

Mr. Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is considering running for mayor, according to someone who was familiar with his plans. He intends to focus on rent increases — an issue he highlighted in a viral subway video — and to draw attention to frustration among some voters over Mr. Adams’s support of Israel.

Two more likely mayoral candidates, Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller, and Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn, could draw support from liberal Jewish voters who have concerns about Mr. Lander. Mr. Stringer is Jewish, and his wife was a leader at two major Jewish museums in Manhattan.

Representative Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from the Bronx and a prominent supporter of Israel, said the war could be a make-or-break issue for some voters in the mayoral race and was not merely a “matter of foreign policy” for Jews who had a visceral reaction to the Hamas attacks. He declined to comment on specific candidates, but similarly predicted that there would be “heightened scrutiny” of their records.

“If you align yourself with or you are adjacent to those advocating for the destruction of Israel, it reveals a deep rot at the core of your worldview,” he said.

At the same time, Muslim and progressive leaders have criticized Mr. Adams’s response to the war. Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, called the mayor’s reaction to protests in the city “disheartening, shameful and dangerous.”

One such protest arose in Harlem on Wednesday night, when a large pro-Palestinian rally outside a political event for Vice President Kamala Harris ended in chaos and numerous arrests. Protesters stormed a restaurant hosting an after-party chanting, “Harris, Harris, you’re a liar. You set Palestine on fire,” and a green smoke bomb went off in the outdoor dining area.

Mr. Adams, who was at the Harris event, defended his relationship with Muslim New Yorkers on Tuesday and said that he would not play the “word game” to be pressured to say certain things such as supporting a cease-fire.

“I have a long record on standing up on behalf of the Muslim community, probably a record that’s more impressive than any of the elected officials,” the mayor said at his weekly news conference.

New York City also has a large and diverse Muslim population. In 2021, Shahana Hanif became the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council in the district Mr. Lander once represented in Brooklyn. Ms. Hanif, who is close with Mr. Lander, is expected to face a primary challenge based in part on her criticism of Israel.

Mr. Lander said in the interview that he was “deeply disappointed” by people like Ms. Hanif who did not immediately condemn the October attacks, but that it was “important to keep political relationships across lines of difference as part of efforts to combat hate.” He said he had encouraged Ms. Hanif and other elected officials to meet with the families of Israeli hostages.

Mr. Lander condemned a protest that was promoted by the Democratic Socialists of America on Oct. 8, the day after the attacks.

It is possible that the war might not be such a pressing issue next summer, and Mr. Lander argued that the focus of his campaign is managing the city better than Mr. Adams. Several Jewish leaders have defended Mr. Lander. Rabbi Roly Matalon of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a large synagogue on the Upper West Side, said he cared more about Mr. Lander’s work on housing and welcoming migrants than his positions on Israel.

“He’s a person of great compassion and a commitment to justice,” he said.

His entry into the mayoral race has brought new scrutiny to some of Mr. Lander’s comments on the Middle East, including a letter he sent during college to a Jewish newspaper in his hometown, St. Louis, canceling his subscription. He said he could no longer tolerate its “rabid and racist anti-Arab sentiments” and “cold, prejudiced and unfeeling attitude toward the Palestinian people.”

After the letter upset his mother, Mr. Lander said he wrote a second — “to try to heal things a little with my mom as a good Jewish boy would” — that ended more gently, expressing “hope for peace.”

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.