The People of New York City Have Spoken

November 4, 2025 – Our tradition teaches that a leader is not to be appointed until the community is consulted (Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a).  

Over a hard-fought and deeply polarizing campaign, New Yorkers heard extensively from the candidates and each other. In this moment, we urge the Jewish community to help lower the temperature, listen generously, and take steps to promote healing. Reasonable people across the political spectrum – and across the Jewish community – must aspire to respectfully disagree, and we will do our part to bring people together without erasing real differences.  

The results of this election are being received with joy and hope by some New Yorkers and disappointment and concern by others. We will welcome opportunities to work with Mayor-elect Mamdani on issues of shared concern, and we will never hesitate to speak truth to power when the circumstances demand. We will hold the new mayor accountable to his commitments to protect Jewish communities and all New Yorkers, to confront antisemitism and every form of hate, and to safeguard civil rights and peaceful expression. 

City Hall does not have a foreign policy, but we will not hesitate to push back if anti-Israel policies or rhetoric make Jewish New Yorkers who are deeply attached to Israel more anxious and less safe. Consistent with our values, we will speak with moral clarity and demand that the city take all possible steps to ensure the safety of the nation’s largest Jewish community, including and especially those who publicly express their ties to the State of Israel. And we will challenge any rhetoric or policies that endanger the safety or dignity of Jewish New Yorkers.  

Rather than letting the results of this election further divide us, may all New Yorkers find within themselves the capacity to work together to shape a more just, inclusive, and tolerant city. We pray, too, that the first Muslim mayor of NYC is a source of pride to all and that he may serve as a beacon of how a city with many faiths and cultures can appreciate - and even celebrate - the diversity of its people.  

As always, our commitment is to a democracy in which every voice is heard, and every vote is counted. And tonight, we remain steadfast, too, in our commitment to belonging and security for every New Yorker.