Hundreds of rabbis demand apology for calling pro-Israel AIPAC ‘monsters’
More than 700 U.S. rabbis demanded New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani apologize for calling AIPAC "monsters," warning such dehumanizing language against Jewish-linked groups fuels rising antisemitic violence.
The letter, organized by the pro-Zionism group The Jewish Majority, warns that employing the term “monsters” against political adversaries constitutes an act of dehumanization. When such language targets groups overwhelmingly linked to the Jewish community, the consequences become particularly hazardous, the rabbis stated.
Prominent 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, and Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun.
The rabbis emphasized that Mayor Mamdani does not speak merely for himself. He represents a growing political movement whose rhetoric and policy priorities are increasingly being replicated nationwide, they wrote.
The letter highlighted that when public figures treat Zionists as a uniquely suspect category of people, they are effectively speaking about the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community. Demonizing Zionists is not perceived by most Jews as criticism of a foreign government but rather as an assault on a fundamental component of Jewish identity and peoplehood.
The rabbis pointed to a rise in antisemitic attacks, including last year’s murder of two employees at Israel’s embassy in Washington and violent plots targeting an AIPAC office and AIPAC-supported politicians, as evidence of the mounting danger facing the Jewish community.
By characterizing pro-Israel civic participation as monstrous, conspiratorial, and anti-democratic, Mamdani has placed a target on the backs of American Jews and their allies, the rabbis argued. They called on the mayor to apologize, retract his remarks, and clearly affirm that Jews and pro-Israel Americans are full participants in American democracy.
The rabbis drew a distinction between legitimate policy criticism and antisemitism, stating that criticizing Israeli policy is not antisemitic, but treating millions of Zionist Jews as morally suspect, politically illegitimate, or less deserving of equal participation in public life is.
Jonathan Schulman, executive director of The Jewish Majority, told New York Post that the campaign is over and the votes are counted. The mayor now needs to lower the temperature before someone gets hurt, he warned.
During a 30-minute address at a campaign rally last week, Mamdani declared that the current era belongs to monsters. These monsters take many forms, he said, including those who fund bad-faith attacks and those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be required to pay in taxes.
He specifically named AIPAC, claiming that for the organization, the only thing more frightening than allowing democracy to run its course is an end to genocide and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s wars.
In an attempt to defend his remarks, Mamdani later claimed he was quoting Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who said the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born, characterizing the present as the time of monsters. Mamdani asserted he used the term to describe all those preventing the birth of a new world, not solely AIPAC but super PACs at large spending millions on deceptive and misleading advertisements.
The 34-year-old mayor supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against the Jewish state. He has repeatedly accused Israel’s military of waging genocidal war in Gaza and even vowed last year to arrest Netanyahu for alleged war crimes if the Israeli leader ever sets foot in the five boroughs.
With information from New York Post
