Jewish Bubba: Zohran Mamdani; Who Is This 33 Year Old Kid?

Friday, June 27, 2025

Zohran Mamdani; Who Is This 33 Year Old Kid?

Nadene Goldfoot

Zohran Mamdani, wants to be the mayor of New York City.

This anticipated upset winner of the June 24 primary, will face embattled Mayor Eric Adams, a fellow Democrat who dropped out of the race for his party's nomination to run as an independent. And even Mamdani's main rival in the primary, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is still mulling an independent bid.

So the intra-party battle continues between progressive backers of Mamdani, a 33-year-old state Assembly member and democratic socialist, and centrists such as Adams and Cuomo.

Mayor Eric Adams, b:September 1, 1960, at age 65 Mayor Eric Adams has served the people of New York City as an NYPD officer, State Senator, Brooklyn Borough President, and now as the 110th Mayor of the City of New York. He gave voice to a diverse coalition of working families in all five boroughs and is leading the fight to bring back New York City’s economy, reduce inequality, improve public safety, and build a stronger, healthier city that delivers for all New Yorkers.

He has signed an order as a sign of supporting Israel which requires city agencies to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s description of antisemitism, at a synagogue in Manhattan on Sunday. Adams described antisemitism as “a vile disease that’s been spreading across our nation and our city”.

Adams, a deeply unpopular first-term mayor whose time in office has been blighted by accusations of accepting bribes, has positioned himself as a staunch defender of Israel as he seeks to win election. He referenced the recent murder of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington and the attack on a crowd of people in Colorado who were raising awareness for Israeli hostages in Gaza before signing the order.

“Since Hamas’ terror attacks on October 7 2023, we have seen this hateful rhetoric become normalized on our campuses, in our communities, and online as antisemitic propaganda far too often masquerades as ‘activism’. When Jewish New Yorkers make up 11% of the population but more than half of all hate crimes, we know this moment demands bold, decisive action to crack down on anti-Jewish hatred,” Adams said.

Now, what's a democatic socialist and how does it differ from communism? Socialism and communism, while often mentioned together, have key distinctions. Socialism generally involves social ownership of the means of production, aiming for a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources, often through state or collective control. Communism, as a theoretical endpoint of socialism, envisions a stateless, classless society with common ownership of all property and resources, eliminating the need for a government.

Socialism can exist under various political systems, from democratic to authoritarian, and is not inherently tied to a specific form of government. Socialism aims to reduce inequality and promote social welfare through redistribution of wealth and resources, ensuring basic necessities like healthcare, education, and housing are accessible to all. Many modern social democracies, like those in Scandinavia, implement socialist policies like strong social safety nets, public healthcare, and progressive taxation while maintaining a capitalist economy.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born on October 18, 1991, in Kampala, Uganda. His father is Mahmood Mamdani, an Indian-Ugandan and postcolonial studies professor at Columbia University, of Gujarati Shia Muslim descent, His mother is Mira Nair, an Indian-American filmmaker of Punjabi Hindu descent. His father gave him the middle name Kwame, in honor of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana.

In 2024, Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in the 2025 mayoral election. His campaign platform includes support for free city buses, public child care, city-owned grocery stores, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units, and building affordable social housing units.

He is a critic of the Israeli government. During the Democratic primary campaign, He must be friends with Bernie Sanders and the Squad to get their endorsements. These would not be my friends at all. Mamdani's criticisms are primarily directed at Israeli government policies and actions, such as the occupation and military response in Gaza, which he has called a "genocide". He has not expressed issues with American Jews who support Israel. He defended the phrase "globalize the intifada" not as a call to violence, but as reflecting a "desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights". He has expressed the need to distinguish between the concept of a "Jewish homeland" and the "Jewish state".

Like most, this last statement really shows me he has no understanding of our vast history.

The Jewish population of New York City is approximately 960,000 or 12% of NY City are Jewish. This makes New York City home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Within the larger New York metropolitan area, which includes the city and surrounding counties, the Jewish population is over 1.9 million, according to Wikipedia.

Mamdani received several endorsements from prominent progressive politicians, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez one of the leaders of THE Squad. If the squad's leader is for him, all of them no doubt are for him.

Rashida Tlaib, Palestinian - she is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress and one of the first two Muslim women elected (along with Ilhan Omar) to Congress .

She is sharply critical of Israel, viewing it as an apartheid state. Tlaib has called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel; she supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. On November 7, 2023, Tlaib was censured by the House of Representatives in response to her public statements following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

Some criticized Tlaib's statements, feeling that she did not adequately condemn the Hamas attack. Other Democrats, such as Ilhan Omar, explicitly condemned Hamas, while Tlaib focused on the broader context of the conflict and underlying issues.

Following her comments, Tlaib faced a censure resolution in the House of Representatives. She declined to apologize, asserting that her criticism was directed at the Israeli government, not the Israeli people. Tlaib defended her position, stating, "I will not be silenced, and I will not let you distort my words". She also highlighted that she was advocating for human rights and peaceful coexistence.