CURTIS SLIWA IS THE RICHT CHOICE FOR MAYOR

It boils down to anyone but Mamdani

And that means New York City voters need to consider everyone but Mamdani. 

 

By Sara Lehmann 

 

JNS

Jul 24, 2025 

 

Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa

 

More than 300 people recently crowded into the Whitestone Republican Club in Queens, N.Y., to hear Republican politicians endorse Curtis Sliwa to be the next mayor of New York City. I was one of them, curious to learn more about the Republican candidate in the most consequential election in the city’s history.

On its website, the first stated mission of the Whitestone Club affirms America to be “the greatest country in the history of the world.” It is followed by a pledge to the “three pillars of our system: individual rights, free markets and the rule of law.”

The threat to these values is exactly what drew the mostly older blue-collar crowd. They were predominantly white, with a handful of blacks and Asians, and even fewer Orthodox Jews. With the feel of an indoor Trump rally, they cheered New York City councilwoman Vickie Paladino, New York Rep. Mike Lawler and former New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind, Republicans who enthusiastically endorse the founder of the Guardian Angels for mayor.

However, beyond the feeling of cheerful camaraderie was a pervading sense of fear. These hardworking homeowners, who make up a solid middle class, are alarmed by the threat that Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani poses to their lives and livelihoods.

“New York City is the financial capital of the world,” Lawler said. “Mamdani’s opposed to capitalism and wants to ban the billionaires. Guess what? You ban the billionaires and capitalism, no one is going to be here to pay for your free grocery stores or your free bus rides or freezing the rent.”

Hikind predicted a 25% drop in property values “the next day, if, God forbid, this guy wins.” But he was most impassioned when describing Mamdani’s blatant antisemitism and his support for the idea behind “Globalize the intifada.”

“When buses and pizza places in Israel were being blown up, and men, women and children were murdered; when a hotel in Netanya on Passover night was blown up and 30 people murdered, that was the intifada,” Hikind said.

The speakers agreed that the threat is even greater, considering one cannot deny the brilliance of Mamdani’s electoral campaign. Or the slavish devotion of the volunteers who used social media to get out the vote and attract masses of young people who were otherwise not politically engaged.

When the event was over, I turned to the black woman sitting next to me, who had energetically applauded the speakers. I told her how I admired her enthusiasm and commented on how frightening the situation is. “Especially for you Jews,” she replied. “I’m scared for you. We will pray for you. We will fight for you.”

Nothing that was said the entire night hit me in the gut like those words did. The crystallization of the fear, which Jews have been wrestling with since Mamdani’s victory, by an outsider augmented that fear a hundredfold, despite her kind commiseration. Indeed, her very commiseration only served to amplify my anxiety, making the necessity for it all the more palpable.

It also drove home the urgency to defeat the danger.

A new poll from HarrisX finds the New York City mayoral race tightening up, with Mamdani statistically tied with Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, and Curtis Sliwa in a four-way race. Mayor Eric Adams is a distant fourth.

While many of Cuomo’s supporters ditched him after his dismal primary loss and threw their support behind Adams, Cuomo announced that he is staying in the race as an independent. And he is asking Mamdani’s opponents to pledge to drop out of the race in mid-September if they are not leading.

Both Adams and Sliwa say nothing doing. Which leaves a fractured race still fractured and vulnerable New Yorkers even more vulnerable.

It boils down to anyone but Mamdani. And that means we need to consider everyone but Mamdani.

All components of NYC’s diverse Jewish community—Orthodox, Chassidic, Sephardic and others —need to join forces as soon as possible to strategize on how to most effectively unite behind one candidate to defeat their nemesis in the Democratic camp.

Anyone who remembers the 1991 Crown Heights riots remembers the inefficacy of Mayor David Dinkins in handling the situation. Imagine the damage that can be done by a mayor who may actually endorse such riots, especially a mayor who vows to defund the police.

This is not fear-mongering. It is facing reality.

The Jewish population in New York City numbers nearly 1 million. Even without the considerable number of unaffiliated Jews, many of whom are also unaffiliated with the concept of self-preservation, Jews make up a sizeable voting bloc. If they were to get out the vote with the same vigor that the Muslim candidate did, their ranks could be crucial and formidable. But their votes will only prevail if they’re cast for the same candidate.

Amid the alarming rise in crimes against Jews in the city, Adams decries Jew-hatred and recently signed a historic executive order to recognize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of it. But his polling numbers, as of now, are discouraging.

Sliwa, who has been a notable presence at every pro-Israel rally for decades, has repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism and anti-Zionism on air as a popular radio talk-show host. During the Crown Heights riots in the summer of 1991, Orthodox Jews under attack asked the Guardian Angels to help them when the ineffectual Dinkins reportedly told the New York City Police Department to stand down.

Is Sliwa the answer? Is one of the Independents the answer?

The only real answer is to unite behind one candidate with the best shot at winning. Jews cannot afford to play politics until mid-September when so much is at stake.