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Mandy Patinkin’s Cheap One-Night-Only Performance

10 0
25.12.2025
There are many ways to support a public figure. One can argue for their positions, defend their record, or contest critics directly. One can explain why accusations are misplaced, why objections are unfair, or why a candidate’s strengths outweigh their flaws. All of that requires effort: intellectual labor, moral risk, the willingness to engage disagreement. What is cheaper is laundering someone’s moral standing through someone else’s identity. That is what happened when Mandy Patinkin chose to turn a private religious moment—Chanukah—into a public video featuring Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor-elect, whose statements on Israel have drawn sharp criticism from mainstream Jewish organizations. The video was circulated not to explain Mamdani’s views, but to reassure an audience unsettled by them. It did not make an argument. It made a claim of legitimacy. But the performance did not stop at visual symbolism. Patinkin went further. On camera, he recited the shehecheyanu blessing—a Jewish prayer thanking God for new beginnings—and consecrated Mamdani’s mayoral tenure—in his words, “your mayoral tenure… has now been........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)