Poll: Jewish NYC Voters Blame Mamdani’s Anti-Zionism for Rising Antisemitism

A new poll commissioned by The Jewish Majority finds that 82% of Jewish New York City voters — including two-thirds of those who actually voted for Mayor Mamdani — are concerned about rising antisemitism in the city, and a majority directly connect that rise to the normalization of anti-Zionism by Mamdani and his political allies. 40% rated Mamdani’s performance as mayor ‘poor’, and fewer than a third gave him a positive job rating. Among Mamdani voters, 84% supported a two-state solution — a direct contradiction of Mamdani’s anti-Zionist position. The Times of Israel and JTA are both reporting the same poll findings.

• 82% of Jewish NYC voters, including most Mamdani supporters, say rising antisemitism is a top concern.
• 40% of Jewish voters rate Mamdani’s performance ‘poor’; fewer than a third give him a positive rating.
• 84% of Jewish voters who supported Mamdani back a two-state solution — at odds with the mayor’s anti-Zionist position.
• Majority of Jewish voters link the surge in Jew-hatred directly to normalized anti-Zionism in city politics.
• Poll conducted by The Jewish Majority; data reported across JNS, JTA/NY Jewish Week, and Times of Israel.

The data destroys the myth that Jewish Mamdani voters endorsed his anti-Zionism — they voted for him in spite of it, and they're now alarmed by the predictable consequence. This creates a measurable political vulnerability: the Jewish electorate is alienated from a mayor whose base explicitly normalizes the ideology they identify as the driver of their persecution. Whether that vulnerability translates into electoral pressure in 2027 depends entirely on whether a credible challenger emerges who can articulate the connection as clearly as this poll does.

Three separate campus confrontations this weekend signal an intensifying coordinated pressure campaign targeting Jewish campus life. At Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, hundreds of acts of anti-Israel vandalism — ‘Intifada,’ ‘Divest,’ pro-Palestinian graffiti — were spray-painted across buildings, fences, and walkways. At The New School in New York, the student senate voted to designate Hillel as ‘not in good standing’ and suspend its funding over Hillel International’s Israel trips, demanding Hillel renounce its parent organization. At Cornell, President Michael Kotlikoff drove into students blocking his car after an Israel-Palestine debate, with protesters claiming they were struck and calling campus police.

• Swarthmore College saw hundreds of instances of anti-Israel vandalism overnight; university president Val Smith issued a statement; campus police investigating.
• The New School student senate voted to designate TNS Hillel ‘not in good standing’ and suspend funding over Hillel International’s Israel trips — administration rejected the decision, calling it without ‘authority.’
• Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff drove into students blocking his car after a campus Israel-Palestine debate; Kotlikoff called the behavior ‘harassment and intimidation.’

Three campuses in a single weekend is a pattern, not a coincidence. The coordinated targeting of Hillel — through formal student-government defunding mechanisms, mass vandalism, and physical confrontation with administrators — represents a tactical maturation of anti-Israel campus activism. Student governments are increasingly being used as institutional levers to strip Jewish organizations of funding and recognition; the Swarthmore and Cornell incidents provide the ambient intimidation environment that normalizes those votes.

At Day 64 of the US-Iran ceasefire, negotiations are deteriorating. Iran submitted a formal proposal offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before nuclear talks, but Trump declared he was ‘not satisfied’ and explicitly rejected the sequencing. An IRGC general responded that renewed hostilities are ‘likely’ given the impasse. Iran is simultaneously accelerating efforts to excavate missiles and munitions buried in strikes, and Khamenei has vowed to protect Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities regardless of any deal.

• Trump rejected Iran’s latest ceasefire proposal, saying he is ‘not satisfied’ with the terms, which required lifting the sea blockade before nuclear talks.
• IRGC general warns renewed war is ‘likely’ after Trump’s rejection of the proposal — framing the US military option as ‘impossible’ and any deal as ‘bad.’
• NBC News reports Iran is accelerating excavation of missiles and munitions destroyed in US-Israeli strikes, rebuilding its arsenal under the ceasefire.
• Khamenei has vowed to protect Iran’s nuclear and missile programs — signaling Tehran’s red lines have not moved.
• US naval blockade of Iranian ports may continue ‘for months’ according to diplomatic officials cited by Israel Hayom.

Iran is using the ceasefire to rearm while running out the clock on diplomatic options, and the IRGC's public war threat is designed to extract concessions before negotiations formally begin. Trump's rejection of the sequencing gambit keeps maximum pressure intact for now — but the 60-day legal AUMF deadline having passed without Congressional action creates a structural vulnerability that Tehran is watching closely.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) denied a request for county security grants for Jewish institutions, according to Jewish Insider, even as Jewish communities across the country are escalating physical security spending in response to rising antisemitic threats. The denial is politically significant: Pittman has 2026 statewide ambitions in Maryland, making the decision a potential flashpoint with the state’s Jewish community.

• Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) denied Jewish community security grant requests, per Jewish Insider.
• The refusal comes as Jewish institutions nationally are significantly increasing physical security spending in response to escalating threat levels.
• Pittman is a potential 2026 statewide candidate in Maryland — the security grant denial becomes a campaign-cycle political liability.

When a Democratic county executive refuses security funding for Jewish institutions at a moment of documented threat escalation, the decision is either a policy error or a political signal — and either interpretation has downstream consequences for Jewish Democratic alignment in Maryland. Pittman's statewide ambitions make this a story worth tracking through the 2026 cycle.