“You’re An Antisemite!” Mamdani Gets A Hostile Welcome In Crown Heights

Mayor Zohran Mamdani rolled into Crown Heights surrounded by black SUVs and a security detail.

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But for some in the neighborhood, this wasn’t the welcome of an honored guest.

“You’re an antisemite,” a protester shouted, reflecting the deep anger and distrust Mamdani faces among parts of New York’s Jewish community over his rhetoric and positions on Israel.

And the setting carried extraordinary historical irony.

Mamdani visited the sukkah of Devorah Halberstam, one of New York’s best-known advocates against antisemitism and terrorism and the mother of Ari Halberstam.

Ari was just 16 years old when, on March 1, 1994, Rashid Baz opened fire on a van carrying Hasidic Jewish students across the Brooklyn Bridge. Ari died from his wounds days later. Baz later admitted that he targeted the students because they were Jewish, and the FBI ultimately classified the attack as terrorism.

Devorah turned the murder of her son into a decades-long fight against terrorism and antisemitism. She helped establish the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights in Ari’s memory and has repeatedly warned about the consequences of allowing hatred of Jews to spread unchecked.

That history makes Mamdani’s appearance there especially striking.

Some Jewish leaders have accused Mamdani’s rhetoric surrounding Israel of going beyond legitimate policy criticism and contributing to an atmosphere in which Jewish New Yorkers feel increasingly unsafe. Mamdani disputes that characterization and has said Jewish New Yorkers should feel “cherished and celebrated,” while announcing new measures aimed at combating antisemitism.

The image is difficult to ignore: a mayor facing accusations that his rhetoric has helped worsen the climate for Jews standing in the sukkah of a mother whose 16-year-old son was murdered in an antisemitic terrorist attack.

For Devorah Halberstam, the consequences of antisemitic hatred have never been theoretical.