For more than six decades, the mayor of New York City stood shoulder to shoulder with Jewish New Yorkers at the annual Israel Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. It wasn’t a partisan gesture. Republican mayors did it. Democratic mayors did it. It was a reflection of the city’s identity — home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, a place where Jewish life and culture run deep through every neighborhood and generation.

That unbroken tradition now has a crack in it. Antisemitic incidents have nearly tripled across the city even as other crimes hit record lows. Agitators gather outside synagogues. Jewish families are left wondering whether their own government still has their back. And the signals coming from the top are not encouraging.

From Fox News:

Democratic-Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City is being slammed by Jewish groups for his decision to miss the city’s historic Israel Day Parade. His decision comes as the Big Apple wrestles with record levels of antisemitism.

Home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, Jewish New Yorkers have long viewed the annual parade as one of the city’s clearest public displays of solidarity with both the Jewish state and the community. On Tuesday, two of the city’s most prominent Jewish organizations declined an invitation to a Jewish heritage event held at Gracie Mansion in response to Mamdani’s latest snub.

So let’s be clear about what this is. Mayor Mamdani isn’t skipping a ribbon-cutting. He’s deliberately refusing to stand with a community that makes up 12% of his city’s population yet suffers more than 50% of all hate crimes — a statistic he himself acknowledged at a recent Gracie Mansion event. Every single mayor since 1964 showed up. Mamdani won’t. That’s not a scheduling conflict. That’s a declaration.

Former Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism Moshe Davis nailed it: “Not joining the parade is an affront to the history of New York City.”

A pattern, not an accident

If this were a one-time lapse in judgment, maybe you give the guy the benefit of the doubt. But the record tells a different story. Mamdani has flatly refused to recognize Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. He ignored Israel’s Independence Day last month. His office released a Nakba Day video framing Israel’s founding as an ongoing “catastrophe.” And — my personal favorite — he’s on record saying, “Israel is not a place, it is not a country.”

Read that again. The mayor of the most Jewish city in the Western Hemisphere doesn’t believe the Jewish homeland exists.

When a leader systematically denies the legitimacy of the Jewish state, dodges every opportunity to stand with Jewish constituents, and hides behind gauzy language about “equal rights for all people everywhere” — we should call it what it is. This isn’t principled neutrality. It’s antisemitism wearing a progressive lanyard.

Here’s the kicker: even New York’s Satmar Hasidic community — theologically non-Zionist for generations — isn’t aligned with Mamdani’s brand of political hostility toward Israel. When you’ve lost the non-Zionists, you’re not standing on principle. You’re standing alone.

Jewish New York punches back

The community isn’t sitting around waiting for a change of heart. The UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council — the city’s two most prominent Jewish organizations — boycotted Mamdani’s Jewish Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion. Their reasoning was blunt: they refuse to attend an event “hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage — the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.”

Meanwhile, the May 31st parade is on track for record turnout. And in a genuinely remarkable twist, Muslim groups will march alongside Jewish organizations for the first time in the event’s history. Asian American groups are expanding their participation too. The interfaith solidarity Mamdani pretends to champion is actually showing up — just not at his events.

Former Mayor Eric Adams offered a pointed reminder: “Celebrating this bond isn’t just for the Jewish community, it’s for our entire city.” Governor Hochul confirmed she’ll march as well.

Leadership has consequences

Mamdani recently floated a $26 million annual investment in hate crime prevention. Generous-sounding, sure. But pouring taxpayer dollars into combating hatred while your own office actively undermines Jewish identity isn’t policy — it’s performance art.

President Trump’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, put a finer point on it: “Leaders who fail to do so bear responsibility for the increase in antisemitic activity.”

On May 31st, Fifth Avenue will overflow with marchers — Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Americans of every background — celebrating a bond that one mayor’s absence cannot sever. The parade will be bigger than ever. Zohran Mamdani will be nowhere in sight. And history will remember both.

Key Takeaways

• Mamdani is the first NYC mayor in over 60 years to skip the Israel Day Parade.
• His pattern of denying Israel’s legitimacy reveals deep-seated antisemitism from City Hall.
• Leading Jewish organizations are boycotting the mayor’s own events in response.
• Record parade turnout and unprecedented interfaith participation prove the community refuses to be silenced.

Sources: Fox News, Times of Israel