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By Max Rivlin-Nadler
Running for mayor is often an exercise in showing up at different rallies, events, and forums around the city for the better part of a year, and then showing up again, and again, and again, until your ubiquity hopefully translates into momentum and vaults you into City Hall. That's what worked for Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, who used the gauntlet to finally become the frontrunners in the final weeks of their respective races. Andrew Cuomo, however, is going by a different route—trying to win on name recognition and pure money power alone. He has rarely spoken to the media, hasn't shown up to any forums where he needs to interact with other candidates, and when he does in fact, speak to the media, he seems to put his foot squarely in his mouth. That's what happened yesterday when he criticized AOC on a C-tier podcast for actually trying to organize people against the Trump administration, and that's what happened a few weeks ago when he intoned that Comptroller Brad Lander, an extremely Jewish citywide officeholder, was in fact aiding antisemites, because his support for the state of Israel was insufficient and his concern for the wellbeing of the people of Palestine was disqualifying.
Lander, in turn, cursed out Cuomo in Yiddish.
At a rally in Columbus Circle on Thursday, Lander wasn't finished.
"When people weaponize antisemitism as Andrew Cuomo has been doing, I'm going to curse him in Yiddish every single day," Lander said, in a speech that vacillated between English, Hebrew, and Yiddish (if Lander doesn't speak actually speak the latter two fluently, at least his pronunciation and delivery are pretty, pretty good).
Lander and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, the two candidates who right now have the best shot at beating Cuomo, were both in Columbus Circle for a "Seder in the Streets" hosted by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, whose electoral arm, the Jewish Vote, have endorsed both of them for mayor.
Standing in front of signs that said things like "Cuomo is Chametz" (which means, effectively, not kosher for passover), and "No Fascists, No Pharaohs," Lander, Mamdani, and a string of progressive Jewish speakers emphasized the liberatory message of the holiday, likening Trump and Cuomo to pharaohs whose exercise of power, and weaponization of claims of anti-semitism, have been used to fascistic ends—including the kidnapping of non-citizen students like Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.
"This is the emergency we were told to watch out for, when people were being deported to prison camps, without due process, and that makes this not just a symbolic passover. We are being called out into the streets to stand up and fight for this city and democracy and a vision of Judaism that stands up and defends everyone," Lander said.
Mamdani, the most prominent Muslim candidate to ever make a run for citywide office, has himself been targeted with smears of antisemitism as he continues to rise in the polls.
At the seder, he invoked the protesting families of Israeli hostages who have called for the end of the bombardment and destruction of Gaza.
"[The Trump administration] is seeking to erase many of us in this crowd from the fabric of this country. Not just its history books, but its present day as well," Mamdani said. "At the core of this vision is an idea of politics as division, as safety as coming from the oppression of others, as safety that can only be achieved in our own homes if others are in cages. I think in this moment of the words of the hostage families, who reminded us 'everyone for everyone.' Our safety is intertwined."
Lander and Mamdani aren't mincing words about the stakes of this very moment. Meanwhile, Cuomo, fairly pharoah-like, is content to sit on his well-funded throne and lob insults from behind tower walls.