The head of a leading antisemitism watchdog has described the Anti-Defamation League's response to Zohran Mamdani's New York mayoral win as "hyperbolic and aggressive", saying it creates further divisions within America's Jewish community.
Jonathan Jacoby, the director of the Nexus Project, also called for a rethink of the ADL's 'Mamdani monitor', which some US Jewish groups have set up to track the record of the New York mayor.
Mamdani won the New York mayoral elections earlier this month on a left-wing and pro-Palestine platform, which has been perceived as a threat to the political establishment in the US, both the Republicans and Democrats, with the AFL being particularly vocal in their criticism of the fledgling progressive politician.
"The instrumentalizers of antisemitism are cheering on the divisions being created in New York City, because that’s their goal: divide people, divide Jews from each other," Jacoby of the antisemitism watchdog Nexus Project told The Guardian.
Earlier this week, Nexus Project published an open letter to Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, calling his group's response to Mamdani's election win "confrontational", particularly due to his anti-Israel rhetoric.
"You’re deeply concerned about the new mayor’s positions on Israel, and you may also question how much sway some of those who helped him win - people you rightly see as hostile to core elements of your beliefs - will have on his decisions," he wrote.
"But this approach won’t change his positions or reduce the influence of those around him. It won’t change the dynamics that made his victory possible or convince millions to think more positively about Zionism or Israel. More likely, it will cause them to dig in further - and it risks alienating potential allies who share our concerns about antisemitism but recoil from the tone and tactics being used."
Right-wing Israeli politicians were particularly scathing of Mamdani's win, while the ADL claimed the elected mayor has a "long, disturbing record on issues of deep concern to the Jewish community" when it announced its monitor.
Despite this, large numbers of Jewish New Yorkers supported Mamdani during his campaign, while one-third of the city's Jewish population backed him in the vote.
During a speech following his election win, Mamdani spoke of the need to unite the city and heal divisions.