Hundreds of rabbis demand Mamdani apology for calling pro-Israel AIPAC monsters

More than 700 rabbis from across the US have signed an open letter demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani apologize for calling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee “monsters” who move “millions in dark money” to preserve their power.“Using the language of ‘monsters’ against political opponents is an act of dehumanization, and when the targets of that dehumanization are overwhelmingly associated with the Jewish community the consequences become especially dangerous,” read the letter organized by the pro-Zionism group The Jewish Majority.The signatories include Rabbi David Ingber, founder of the Romemu congregation and senior director of Jewish life at 92NY; Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side; Rabbi Neil Zuckerman of the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side and Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of neighboring Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun.“When Mayor Mamdani speaks, he is not speaking only for himself.He serves as a model for a growing political movement whose rhetoric and priorities are increasingly being emulated nationwide,” the rabbis continued.“When public figures treat ‘Zionists’ as a uniquely suspect category of people, they are speaking about the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community.

Demonizing Zionists is not perceived by most Jews as criticism of a foreign government; it is experienced as an attack on a core component of Jewish identity and peoplehood.”The letter cited a rise in antisemitic attacks, including last year’s murder of two employees of Israel’s embassy in Washington and plots of violence against an AIPAC office and AIPAC-supported politicians, as evidence of increasing danger facing the Jewish community.“By casting pro-Israel civic participation as monstrous, conspiratorial and anti-democratic, Mr.Mamdani has put a target on the backs of American Jews and their allies,” the rabbis said before calling on Hizzoner to say he’s sorry, “retract his re...