Jewish voters outrage as Pro-Mamdani campaign texts invoke Oct 7 attacks: 'Weaponising Our Pain"

As Democratic Party candidate Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic Mayoral Primary, a text message has surfaced on social media claiming that Jewish voters across New York City received it in his campaign. The sender of the text message claims that they are registered Jewish Democrat voters supporting Mamdani, who is a vocal critic of Israel and the war in Gaza.

It was framed as a message from “Orthodox Jews who lost loved ones on Oct. 7,” and urged them to vote for Mamdani in the New York mayoral election. The message claimed that his progressive stance on global justice coincides with the “Jewish values of compassion and resistance.”

“I want to go a bit off script for a second because I’m Jewish, wear a kippah every day, and I support Zohran,” read the text.

“My friend Idan was murdered on October 7 at the Re’im music festival. The war is personal to me, as it is to many in our community. Idan believed in peace, just like Zohran does,” the message continued.

“I couldn’t believe what I was reading,” said Miriam Greenblatt, a Brooklyn resident who lost her cousin in the October 7 attacks. “To have our pain exploited to push a political message and for someone who won’t even say Israel has a right to exist? It’s grotesque.”

Mamdani is a vocal supporter of the Boycott Divestment and Sanction movement and has always refused to acknowledge the Israeli state, with past slogans like “globalise the intifada”, which he claimed is an advocacy of Palestinian human rights, and is condemned by many, like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“This isn’t just poor taste — it’s emotional blackmail,” said Rabbi Ari Goldstein of Manhattan’s Congregation Ner Tamid. “To cite Oct. 7 as a reason to vote for someone who consistently undermines the Jewish state is beyond manipulative. It’s offensive.”

The origin of the text remains unclear, but Socialist candidate Mamdani has delivered an earthquake by winning the Democratic Mayoral Primary. “I will fight for a city that works for you, that is affordable for you, that is safe for you," said Mamdani in his victory speech. In cities like New York, where Democratic voters greatly outnumber Republicans, winning the mayoral primary is tantamount to winning the mayoralty.