Most Jewish Mamdani voters support 2-state solution, fear rising antisemitism: poll |
NEW YORK — Most Jews in New York City link anti-Zionism to rising antisemitism, disapprove of other Jews who support anti-Israel movements, and believe that intifada protest chants are calls to violence, according to a poll released on Sunday.
The poll of 665 Jewish adults who voted in last year’s New York City mayoral election also found that, among those who voted for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a majority back a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are concerned about rising antisemitism.
The survey was carried out by the Jewish Majority, an organization founded last year that aims to catalog mainstream Jewish views and counter Jewish activist groups that espouse less popular positions on issues such as anti-Zionism.
Of the polling sample, 26 percent of respondents voted for Mamdani, 55% for the centrist, pro-Israel Andrew Cuomo, and 8% for Republican Curtis Sliwa.
The vast majority — 82% — said they were very or somewhat concerned about the rise of antisemitism in the city, and 17% said they were only slightly or not at all concerned.
Antisemitism has climbed in the city over the past decade, according to NYPD hate crimes data, although 2025 saw a minor decrease in antisemitic hate crimes compared to 2024. Jews are targeted in hate crimes in the city more than all other groups combined, around five times more than their share of the population.
Anti-Zionism was seen as a contributor to antisemitism, with 58% of respondents stating that the rise in antisemitism was “linked to the normalization of anti-Zionism,” while 25% disagreed.
Anti-Zionism’s literal definition is the rejection of Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state, although there is widespread disagreement and confusion about the term, which has been stigmatized on the American left. Anti-Zionists hold that the position is political and not anti-Jewish, while critics say the movement is correlated with, or creating, antisemitism.
Mamdani voiced a similar position in........