Antisemitism report raises concerns about NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani

FIRST ON FOX: Fox News Digital spoke exclusively with the Anti-Semitism Research Institute, which released a comprehensive report summarizing its concerns about New York City’s socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Coming just hours before election day, the report underscores the heightened scrutiny facing the Socialist candidate.

“It is the duty of voters to understand the ideological context from which Zohran Mamdani comes and that he represents,” Charles Asher Small, founding director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), told Fox News Digital.

His organization’s report entitled: “Zohran Mamdani: From SJP to Gracie Mansion?”, delves into Mamdani’s background and rise to fame. It explains that controversial views his father, a professor at Columbia University, about Israel, how Zohran founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Bowdoin College, his previous statements and positions, and lists the anti-Israel people who support him for mayor.

The report ends with a section examining the impact of Mamdani’s agenda.

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“He has repeatedly refused to condemn the slogan ‘Globalization of the Intifada,’ ignoring the fact that the word ‘Intifada’ is synonymous with terrorist attacks, suicide bombings and incitement to kill Jews,” the report said. Mamdani refused expressly condemn Instead, he simply said he would stop others from using it.

The report says Mamdani “downplayed” the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas while calling Israel’s response a “genocide” and accuses him of introducing a bill to “punish New York charities that support Israel.”

Mamdani sparked a political firestorm Last month, it sparked outrage from law enforcement after a smiling photo was posted with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn cleric who served as a character witness for the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and has long defended convicted terrorists and raised funds for their legal defense.

The ISGAP report mentions this association, but also examines some other controversial associations that the Mamdani campaign has with regards to radical Islam, which Fox News Digital states reported about it last weekincluding accepting a $100,000 donation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) through a super PAC, “despite being named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial.”

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“The normalization of anti-Semitism and anti-democratic rhetoric is now mainstream,” Small told Fox News Digital.

“The radical left, the far right and radical political Islam are attacking the democratic center, and these various political movements use anti-Semitism as a core element of their ideology to scapegoat Jews and blame them for everything that is wrong,” he said. “It is important to understand that words and ideas lead to actions. Mamdani’s anti-Semitic discourse will inevitably lead to more hatred and violence.”

Hundreds of rabbis banded together last month to oppose Mamdani. Fox News Digital reportedIn a letter, they explained their position that Jewish Americans “cannot remain silent” about discrimination against the Jewish people and urged voters to reject Mamdani.

Despite strong opposition from many in the Jewish community and numerous viral clips in which Mamdani – in his own words – uses inflammatory language against Israel, he is well ahead in pre-election polls and has also received the support of some Jewish leaders.

“There is a significant level of economic, social and political marginalization in New York and across the country,” Small told Fox News Digital about Mamdani’s popularity. “People are frustrated because their needs are not being met. In times of stress, populism and extremism become more attractive. Mamdani appears to be targeting the disenfranchised, particularly the youth. He offers fantastic policies that are attractive but impossible to implement.”

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In the report’s conclusion, ISGAP argues that a Mamdani victory could potentially “shak the city’s fragile communal trust and undo decades of hard-fought progress in protecting Jewish life.”

“Zohran Mamdani’s rise is not just the story of an ambitious local politician riding a wave of discontent over rents and inequality,” the report says.

“It is the story of how radical anti-Zionism was recast as socialist, populist, progressive politics – and how that ideology now threatens to undermine the sense of security of the New York Jewish community, the largest Jewish community outside Israel, and glosses over and legitimizes anti-Zionism, support for terrorism and even anti-Semitism.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment.