New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani branded AIPAC and its pro-Israel supporters "monsters" during a campaign rally in Brooklyn, drawing swift condemnation from prominent Jewish leaders and organizations who say the mayor's language amounts to antisemitic incitement in a city already gripped by a surge in hate crimes.
The remarks came during a roughly 30-minute speech at Kings Theatre on June 18, where Mamdani appeared alongside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and a slate of progressive and Democratic Socialists of America candidates ahead of Tuesday primary elections.
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, the senior rabbi of Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side, fired back in a Facebook post, calling Mamdani's words "pure incitement" and warning the mayor that he would bear responsibility for whatever violence follows.
From the Kings Theatre stage, Mamdani cast AIPAC as a dark force in American politics. He told the crowd:
"Now is the time of monsters. These monsters take many forms today. In those who fund... bad-faith attacks... those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be made to pay in taxes."
He went further, singling out the pro-Israel lobby by name:
"In AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu's wars."
Mamdani then accused AIPAC of moving "millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another."
The language hit several notes that Jewish advocacy groups have long flagged as antisemitic tropes, shadowy money, hidden manipulation, a powerful lobby subverting democracy from behind the scenes. Whether Mamdani intended the echo or not, the reaction was immediate and fierce.
Steinmetz, who identified himself as an AIPAC supporter, laid out his case plainly on Facebook. He wrote:
"Mamdani is accusing AIPAC of being a monster that subverts democracy, supports genocide and wants to divide Americans. This is pure incitement."
He added: "Well, I'm an AIPAC supporter. And Mamdani is inciting hatred against people like me."
The rabbi drew a direct line between rhetoric like Mamdani's and real-world violence, referencing Elias Rodriguez, the man charged with killing two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., in May 2025. Steinmetz said comments like the mayor's inspire individuals like Rodriguez to "take violent action against AIPAC and its supporters."
His warning to Mamdani was blunt:
"New York already has an antisemitism problem. Right now, you are pouring fuel on the fire."
And then: "I shudder to think what happens next. But you will be responsible for it."
That is not the language of a political opponent looking for a cable-news moment. It reads like a man who believes his congregation is less safe because of what the mayor of New York City chose to say from a stage in Brooklyn.
The Anti-Defamation League's New York-New Jersey chapter demanded an apology in a post on X, stating:
"@NYCMayor Mamdani must apologize. Referring to members of the Jewish community who advocate for causes they care about as 'monsters' wielding 'dark money' is shockingly offensive and unacceptable for a mayor who claims to represent all New Yorkers."
The regional ADL chapter continued: "This is not about political disagreement, it is about crossing a dangerous line by invoking dehumanizing and conspiratorial rhetoric with a long and troubling history in antisemitic tropes. We cannot allow fearmongering, conspiracy theories, or the demonization of Jews to become normalized in our public debate."
ADL National CEO Jonathan Greenblatt went even harder. He compared Mamdani's rhetoric to the kind of language normally associated with fringe extremists:
"This is the kind of bigoted conspiracy mongering that you expect from unhinged streamers or white supremacists. It's not the language that we should expect from the mayor whose jurisdiction suffers from the highest levels of antisemitism of any city in America."
Greenblatt called it "prejudice pure and simple" and said it was "deliberate, dangerous and disgraceful."
Those are not words the ADL deploys casually. The organization has been criticized from the right for pulling its punches on left-wing antisemitism. That it came out this forcefully against a sitting Democratic mayor tells you something about how far over the line Mamdani's remarks landed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, weighed in through CEO Jim Berk, who placed Mamdani's language in a historical frame that should make anyone uncomfortable. Berk stated:
"Soviet anti-Zionist campaigns and earlier antisemitic movements similarly portrayed Jewish organizations as pursuing power not to achieve political goals, but because Jews themselves were said to crave influence and control."
He added: "The suggestion that Jewish political participation is inherently suspect, illegitimate, or secretly manipulative is abhorrent. This is the same old story, retold in a new language."
Berk drew a clear distinction between legitimate policy debate and something darker: "But when Jewish organizations alone are portrayed as uniquely divisive or corrosive, we cross into territory where old prejudices take root."
Mamdani's Kings Theatre speech did not emerge from nowhere. The mayor has positioned himself as an ardent opponent of Israel since before he took office. He supports the BDS movement against Israel. He has characterized Israel's military actions in Gaza as a "genocidal war." And he vowed last year to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes, a theatrical gesture with no legal basis but plenty of political signaling value.
His administration's posture toward Israel and its supporters has generated friction well beyond this rally. The mayor's own wife reportedly refused to engage with Miss Israel after learning her identity, a small episode that nonetheless reflected the administration's broader orientation.
And Mamdani's political alliances tell a consistent story. He has backed a socialist challenger with an incendiary record, drawing fire from members of his own party who worry about the company the mayor keeps and the direction he is pulling New York's Democratic establishment.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. New York City has seen hate crimes rise sharply, with antisemitic attacks spiking in particular. Greenblatt's description of New York as the city with "the highest levels of antisemitism of any city in America" is not rhetorical decoration. It is the backdrop against which the mayor chose to call a Jewish political organization "monsters" wielding "dark money."
The New York Post reported that it reached out to Mamdani for comment. No response was included in their reporting. The mayor's silence, at least so far, is itself a choice, and one that Jewish leaders are unlikely to overlook.
When the ADL, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and a prominent Manhattan rabbi all publicly accuse the mayor of the nation's largest city of inciting hatred against Jews, the expectation of a response is not optional. It is the bare minimum of the job.
But Mamdani's record suggests accountability is not his strong suit. His first 100 days in office were marked by broken promises on housing, policing, and libraries. His budget decisions have contradicted his own stated principles, quietly adding 580 NYPD officers after vowing to hold the line on police hiring. A pattern of saying one thing and doing another does not inspire confidence that the mayor will take responsibility for the consequences of his rhetoric now.
There is a legitimate debate to be had about the role of money in American politics, about lobbying, about foreign policy. Nobody disputes that. But there is a difference between criticizing a lobbying group's positions and calling its supporters "monsters" who wield "dark money" to "turn us against one another." The first is politics. The second borrows from a playbook that has gotten people hurt, and worse, for centuries.
Jim Berk put it precisely: "This is the same old story, retold in a new language." Soviet propagandists said Jewish organizations craved influence and control. Medieval antisemites said Jews manipulated money from the shadows. Mamdani said AIPAC moves "millions in dark money" to "preserve their power." The vocabulary updates. The structure does not.
Rabbi Steinmetz referenced Elias Rodriguez for a reason. When a man charged with killing two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington is still in the headlines, and the mayor of New York stands on a stage calling AIPAC a "monster," the distance between rhetoric and violence shrinks. Steinmetz is not speculating about that connection. He is watching it happen in real time.
Mamdani may believe he is simply attacking a political lobby. But the leaders of every major Jewish civil rights organization in the country are telling him otherwise. The ADL is telling him. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is telling him. A senior rabbi whose congregants walk the streets of Manhattan is telling him.
The question is whether a mayor who has shown so little interest in accountability on any other front will listen now, or whether the Jewish residents of New York City will simply have to live with the consequences of a leader who treats their political participation as monstrous.
A city's mayor is supposed to protect all of its people. When he stands on a stage and calls some of them monsters, he has already failed at the job.
