Last week’s interview with Rabbi Moishe Indig and his endorsement of Zohran Mamdani generated an outpouring of responses
With Mamdani’s victory, we find ourselves in both a difficult and unfamiliar position. On the one hand, we need to work constructively with the city, advocate for our community, and show respect for the office of the mayor. On the other hand, we must investigate where is the boundary between advocating for our community and inadvertently legitimizing behavior or language that endangers it. And when do the needs and the safety of our Jewish communities, and indeed of all New Yorkers, outweigh our need for access?
This situation is complex, and there are no simple answers. As a longtime askan, I have never experienced a moment like this.
There is an instructive precedent in a well-known letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, to Alan Dershowitz regarding Senator Jesse Helms. Dershowitz had been upset that Chabad honored Helms. The Rebbe explained that Helms had merely attended the Education Day USA reception together with many members of Congress. He emphasized that branding elected officials with labels such as “anti-Semite” is often counterproductive, and wrote:
“My experience with such people has convinced me that politicians are generally motivated more by expediency than by conviction. In other words, their public pronouncements on various issues do not stem from categorical principles or religious imperatives. Hence, most of them, if not all, are subject to change in their positions, depending on time, place, and other factors.”
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