Zohran Mamdani, Luigi Mangione, and the gentle parenting of violence.
After an extremist organization called Al-Awda gathered outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue explicitly to intimidate Jews interested in moving to Israel—“We need to make them scared,” one demonstrator repeatedly yelled, while others called their targets “Jewish pricks”—New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said exactly what he was supposed to. “Every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation,” he said through a spokeswoman. That’s the law at the federal and state level.
But then the spokeswoman continued. “These sacred spaces,” she said, “should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” The synagogue was hosting an event with an organization that helps Jews make aliyah, or move to Israel, something many Jews consider one of the Torah’s 613 Commandments. That might sound uncomplicated, but the organization in question includes the contested West Bank in its definition of Israel, and it’s ostensibly this inclusion that drew the protesters—and Mamdani’s addendum.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Dispatch (paywall)
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Tal Fortgang is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was a 2023 Sapir Fellow
Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images