Erev Election Day

Children Of Israel Are Never Alone

Hey, beloved tribe.

It’s Election Day eve.

The bitter infighting within the Jewish world, raging for well over a year now, shows no sign of abating even in the wake of the war’s end. With the mayorship of Zohran Mamdani looming in New York City, it’s at a fever pitch across the country, pitting Jew against Jew.

I have been very outspoken and unequivocal about how I would vote if I still lived in my favorite city. My ballot would not go to Mamdani. To say I distrust him is a wild understatement. He pays lip service to listening to the Jewish community and toning down his rhetoric by a barely perceptible degree or two, then phone banks with Jeremy Corbyn, rejected by the Labor Party in the UK for his own rank antisemitism in 2019.

Yes, of all the people in the wide world that Mamdani could have picked to campaign with, he chose the one man in the world capable of making me happy that Boris Johnson won that election — truly his own European counterpart. If only, like Corbyn, he too was destined to lose.

And yet.

In my opinion, there are no good choices in this election, and I do not put a vote for Mamdani in the same moral category as, say, a vote for Trump. American life is no longer liveable for the vast majority of this country, and nowhere is that truer than in NYC.

My feelings about Mamdani are somewhat similar to my feelings about AOC.

Is AOC a friend? In my opinion, absolutely not. But is she a supervillain on par with Trump or Vance, or even Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib? In my opinion, also no. She’s among the most prominent members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), but she unequivocally condemned the celebration in Times Square in the immediate wake of October 7 and she has shown other signs of baseline decency in response to antisemitism. And I believe she’s motivated by a genuine desire to make the lives of the vulnerable better.

While I do not find Mamdani benign, I do know even Zionist Jews who are planning to vote for him. While I personally find that disappointing, I do not doubt their love of our people or their moral fiber.

Just as I knew people who felt very differently about Israel’s recent war against Hamas — indeed, people along the entire spectrum, from the most dovish to the ultra-hawkish — without feeling malice toward any of them, because the issues were far from cut-and-dried, so too I know Jews who hold a range of opinions about Mamdani, all of whom are people I respect.

As any regular reader of this column surely knows by now, I don’t bring this attitude to every political issue. I have no respect for Trump voters — full stop. But there are many more complicated layers to this election than there was to Trump’s election.

Every mayoral candidate in this race is deeply and fatally flawed. Many Jews who occupy more than one vulnerable social category find Mamdani a more convincing champion on other fronts and they are driven to include those in their calculus.

This election is one context where I devoutly believe we would do much better to listen to each other than condemn each other.

Which brings me to the rant I posted on Facebook earlier today:

I am utterly repulsed by the way a considerable swath of our community is going after Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, with some even declaring that she’s not a real Jew.

If that’s you, I’m here to tell you that you’re a walking chillul Hashem and I would be grateful if you checked out of our Facebook friendship at the soonest opportunity.

There is no one more Jewish than she is and no one who’s deepened my love of Judaism more than she has. For that matter, I am never prouder to be Jewish than I am every time Rabbi Buchdahl opens her mouth.

She has spoken out on Mamdani. She has acknowledged the many excellent reasons not to vote for him and other understandable reasons that valued community members might choose to vote for him anyway. She has the humility and integrity to listen to all sides and not attempt to steamroll her congregants. That’s called true leadership. I’m grateful for her every day.

Rabbi Buchdahl has, over the last several weeks, dropped several barbs against Mamdani into her sermons but she has stopped short of telling her congregants how to vote. And finally, in the face of the rising clamor by people pressuring her to take a stand, she returned to the pulpit in the midst of her sabbatical and addressed Central Synagogue and global Jewry with incredible clarity and integrity. Just in case you’re among those who haven’t yet heard her words, you can listen to them here:

Rabbi Buchdahl has always believed that the passionate diversity of opinions within the Jewish world is not a liability but a superpower. She explained to her flock that there are people of all political persuasions within Central Synagogue and she believes her job is to listen to them carefully and offer them moral clarity to the best of her ability, but not to tell them what to think or how to vote.

The resentment coming at her from all sides for this very reasonable and deeply considered stance depresses me more than I can convey. The only thing I find bleaker than the many hot takes skewering her are the comments beneath them, often so racist and vile that it scorches my heart to read them.

With attitudes like this within our own ranks, who needs antisemitism to take us down?

Ironically, in my own daily struggle with wanting to be a force for Jewish unity while despising the political leanings of too many of my siblings, no one has offered me more consolation or sounder guidance than her.

By this time tomorrow, or maybe a few hours later, we will likely know who NYC’s next mayor will be, and as unexcited as I am about that prospect, it will be a relief to have this phase, and this pitch, of Jewish infighting behind us.

If you haven’t listened to Rabbi Buchdahl’s most recent sermon above, I devoutly hope you will, and I hope we can go forward with her deeply wise counsel in mind.

Am Yisrael Chai.