Jewish leaders and New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman blasted Mayor Zohran Mamdani for fueling antisemitism and creating a climate that led a madman to stab a Jewish New Yorker and another victim during a rally in Manhattan Sunday.
The “United Against Hate” rally took place around the corner from where madman Raul Morales screamed “Allahu Akbar” while allegedly stabbing a 50-year-old Jewish man, Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus, outside his synagogue at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street on Thursday.
Morales also stabbed Chok Sung, a 57-year-old Asian man — in a separate attack near West 84th Street and Central Park West the same day.
The shocking attacks come as Mamdani’s rhetoric against Israel — particularly his bashing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — is inciting antisemitism across the city, according to Blakeman, who is Jewish.
“There is no question that Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitic rhetoric has fueled all of the antisemitism and the violence we now see in the city,” the GOP gubernatorial candidate said at the rally.
“An Asian man and a Jewish man were stabbed in broad daylight just blocks apart in Manhattan while their attacker allegedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar,’” he added.
“Let’s stop beating around the bush: this is what happens when the sitting Mayor of New York City actively demonizes Jewish residents and normalizes antisemitism while Kathy Hochul’s disaster of a bail law ensures that hate-mongers walk free before the police report is even typed up.”
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, also proposed tougher criminal sentences for those convicted of hate crimes, slamming Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mamdani for being too soft on crime.
“You cannot attack the Jewish community with radical rhetoric, close jails and then act surprised when innocent New Yorkers are stabbed on a Thursday afternoon,” the governor hopeful said. “New York’s laws need to change to protect the victims, not the criminals.”
Hizzoner, over the past week, mulled over whether he could have Netanyahu arrested as a war criminal when the Israeli leader steps into New York City to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly in September. When Mamdani concluded he couldn’t arrest the prime minister, he urged pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli activists to protest Netanyahu when he comes to the city that month.
But on Sunday, the mayor found himself at the center of protests where attendees demanded his arrest and removal from office.
Rally-goers chanted “Remove Mamdani” and “Arrest Mamdani” and also, “Zohran, Zohran, you can hide, we charge you with hate and crime.”
A poster promoting the rally showed an image of Mamdani with blood on his hands.
Jewish leaders also spoke out against the mayor at the rally, blaming him for inflaming divides.
“Jews are under attack. We are a minority in this city, and we are the number one group that’s being targeted, and he’s [Madami] inflaming the situation,” said Linda Lichtbraun, community leader of the Zionist group HERUT New York City.
She noted that one of Mamdani’s first actions as mayor was scrapping the executive order approved by former Mayor Eric Adams using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of what constitutes antisemitism.
“The only way for the city to get back on the right track is the removal of Mayor Mamdani. He’s not gonna change his ways,” Lichtbraun said.
Moshe Spern, president of the United Jewish Teachers, said, “I spoke at the rally to make it clear that Mayor Mamdani’s ‘war criminal’ video didn’t just libel the Jewish people, it helped create the climate of hate that led to a Jewish man and an Asian man being stabbed on the Upper West Side.”
He pointed out that Mamdani called an American-Israeli lobby group “monsters.”
“Words from the mayor’s office have consequences. This is the mayor of New York,” he said.
To combat the hate, Blakeman proposed creating mandatory consecutive sentences for those convicted of multiple counts of hate crime charges.
“If you go on a bias-motivated attack spree, your sentences will run back-to-back. No package deals, no concurrent sentences, no slaps on the wrist,” he said. “You will rot in prison for every single life you attempt to destroy.”
He also proposed a new felony charge for Aggravated Patterns of Bias.
“A rapid-fire spree targeting multiple individuals or religious institutions isn’t simple assault — it is domestic terrorism. The law needs to treat it as such, carrying mandatory minimums that keep these monsters off our streets forever,” Blakeman said.
Other Republican candidates and elected officials showed up at the rally, including Saritha Komatireddy, the GOP candidate for state attorney general and Brooklyn Assemblyman Michael Novakhov.
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