Overview

• Several Jewish House Democrats, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Greg Landsman, called Mamdani’s pro-BDS stance and refusal to condemn “globalize the intifada” a “huge problem” in a city with the nation’s largest Jewish population.
• Members cited the American Jewish Committee’s definition of the slogan as a call for global violence against Israel and pressed Mamdani to explicitly repudiate it.
• Mamdani defended his position as a matter of preserving free speech, saying the mayor’s office should not police political slogans.
• He pledged to increase New York City’s hate-violence prevention funding from $3 million to $26 million and to protect all communities from discrimination.
• Strategists like James Carville and lawmakers including Hakeem Jeffries urged him to clarify his stance on antisemitic language as he advances toward the general election.