Prominent rabbi accuses Mamdani of inciting violence against Jews after mayor branded AIPAC monsters

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been blasted for fueling antisemitism and “inciting violence” against Jews after the socialist branded the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its pro-Israel supporters “monsters” at a campaign rally.Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, said he was stunned by the mayor’s flagrantly incendiary comments during a June 18 campaign rally with Vermont Sen.Bernie Sanders and a slate of Democratic Socialists of America and progressive candidates ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections.

“Mamdani is accusing AIPAC of being a monster that subverts democracy, supports genocide and wants to divide Americans.This is pure incitement,” Steinmetz raged on social media.The rabbi said comments like the mayor’s inspire Jew haters like Elias Rodriguez — the man charged with killing two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, DC, in May 2025 — to “take violent action against AIPAC and its supporters.”“Well, I’m an AIPAC supporter.

And Mamdani is inciting hatred against people like me,” he said.In a fiery 30-minute tirade at the rally, Mamdani accused AIPAC of being “monsters” for spending “millions in dark money” to ensure pro-Israel candidates win seats in the November midterms.“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,” Mamdani said during the event at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.“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,” the mayor continued.“They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another.”However, Steinmetz says it is Mamdani who is “turning New Yorkers against each other...