NEW YORK -- Even before the results were tallied on Tuesday night, the election party for New York Rep. Dan Goldman featured the forced smiles of a campaign heading for certain defeat.

But soon after the polls closed at 9 p.m. the expressions at the brightly lighted lower Manhattan event turned to surprise and, for many Jews in the room, worry.

What unsettled them was the scale of victory by a trio of left-wing candidates who were endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and had made criticism of Israel the emotional core of their campaigns.

One, Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, attended a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square a day after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Fellow Democrats denounced the rally as condoning Hamas's massacre.

Yet Avila Chevalier still managed to overtake incumbent Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th Congressional District, which includes Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx.

Watching the results on a television at the Goldman party, Rachel Lavine, a member of the Village Independent Democrats political club, was astonished.

"This is about hating Jews," said Lavine. "I feel like we have a problem within the Jewish community of not understanding how serious this is. At this point, Israel is a beard for antisemitism."

New York City boasts the largest Jewish community outside Israel and stands as a metropolis where generations of Jews have thrived while leaving an indelible cultural mark. Yet Tuesday's results -- after campaigns that dwelled on Israel and, in the view of some, deployed antisemitic tropes -- have scrambled their relationship to the city while exposing fractures within their own community.

"We survived intermarriage, but I don't think we're going to survive this," Lisa Silverstein Nelson, an ordained rabbi from Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood, said of the divisions over Israel that were tearing New York Jews apart. "I hope I'm wrong -- but I don't think I am."

The results also reverberated in Washington, D.C., among high-ranking Democrats battling over the party's future.

"Nobody would have expected that this would be the dividing line in a race for Congress," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), a progressive Jewish lawmaker who saw the outcome as further evidence of a generational and ideological shift under way in the party. "The progressive part of the Democratic Party is very much on the move."

'Not happy with the status quo'

At the center of the anguish is Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller who easily defeated Goldman, a two-term incumbent and fellow Jew, in a district that stretches from lower Manhattan into brownstone Brooklyn. Lander did so in part by leaning in to growing frustration on the left with the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza. In the process, he managed to bring along many New York Jews who were heartened by Tuesday's results.

"One of the things this election is showing us is that young people are really not happy with the status quo," said Jody Drezner Alperin, a theater-company owner who lives in Brooklyn's Windsor Terrace neighborhood. She praised Lander for wrestling with such a vexing issue, saying: "If you grew up Jewish in America, it's very natural to have an unexamined view of Israel."

Amichai Lau-Lavie, a progressive rabbi, celebrated Lander's victory by posting on social media a picture of the two of them standing together at a recent peace protest.

"What we saw last night was a direct response to the narratives and action we're seeing from a radicalized Israel," Lau-Lavie said. "Radicalism breeds radicalism." Still, he wouldn't vouch for the other winning candidates, and accused Mamdani of "fanning the flames" after the mayor last week likened Aipac, the pro-Israel lobbying group, to "monsters" who "move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal -- to preserve their power." Mamdani later said the comment referred to super PACs at large, not solely Aipac.

But that language struck many Jews as a revival of ancient stereotypes. Mark Botnick, a former aide to Michael Bloomberg said the Democratic Socialists of America's success showed that "outright antisemitism does not seem to be a limiting factor to being elected to office."

Supporting Israel -- if not its government -- has long been a bedrock commitment for many American Jews. Yet the war in Gaza has strained that relationship, particularly for younger generations and those on the left.

Polls from New York's recent mayoral election show that Jews in progressive Brooklyn neighborhoods supported Mamdani -- a staunch Israel critic -- at roughly the same rates as their non-Jewish neighbors.

'A very different city'

While Tuesday night's New York City results felt seismic -- not least as an expression of Mamdani's growing power -- some analysts questioned their breadth. Pro-Israel moderates also prevailed, including Micah Lasher, who won a hotly contested race to succeed Jerry Nadler in Manhattan's 12th District.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Jewish Democrat from California who has long been a leading pro-Israel voice in Congress, said the results reflected the particular politics of a few New York districts -- not the country.

"Every Jew I know will criticize the Israeli government within 30 minutes," Sherman said. "But general support for the idea that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself remains the majority opinion of the Democratic Party."

Along with Lander and Avila Chevalier, the other Mamdani-backed winner on Tuesday night was Claire Valdez, who beat Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso for an empty seat that includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

Mitchell Moss, a New York University professor of urban policy, pointed to the city's changing demographics. In the 1950s, it had about two million Jews, or a quarter of its population. Today that figure is roughly half that, while Asian and South Asian communities have swelled, helping to make Mamdani the city's first Muslim mayor. "This is a very different city," Moss said.

The victory by Avila Chevalier, who participated in the pro-Palestinian encampments at Columbia University, ranked as the evening's biggest upset. In Espaillat, she toppled a five-term incumbent with pledges to fight to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and provide housing and Medicare for all.

Yet the bitter Lander-Goldman contest was more wrenching for many Jewish voters.

Not long ago, Goldman was a hero of the resistance, a former federal prosecutor who led the first impeachment case against President Trump. Both he and Lander boast strong progressive records and describe themselves as liberal Zionists.

During the race, Goldman tried to steer the conversation away from the Middle East, saying he heard far more about issues like affordable housing in conversations with voters.

Lander kept a focus on Israel, accusing his opponent of being beholden to Aipac and enabling a "genocide" in Gaza -- claims Goldman rejected.

Just ahead of the election, a Brooklyn coffee shop Goldman had visited publicly informed him on Instagram he wasn't welcome. "Do you see how it doesn't taste like genocide juice?" the post stated. It also noted the shop had refunded Goldman's money, adding, "it probably came from Aipac, anyway," according to screenshots that circulated on social media.

While Lander's campaign approach paid off at the ballot box, some Jewish Democrats were disappointed. "Brad Lander chose to use Israel to divide Democratic voters in this primary," said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which backed Goldman.

During his victory speech on Tuesday night, Lander said the U.S. needed to re-evaluate its positions on Israel and couldn't continue to fund its military actions. "Democratic voters are saying this loud and clear," he said.

Meanwhile, Goldman reminded supporters of Jews' contributions in America's fight for civil rights. "As history has taught us," he said, "antisemitic tropes and stereotyping -- some of which I heard, personally, on this campaign -- will ultimately be the undoing of our democracy if we all don't lean in and speak out. Even if it's not politically expedient."

Write to Joshua Chaffin at joshua.chaffin@wsj.com and Anvee Bhutani at anvee.bhutani@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2026 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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