(RNS) — At the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem this week, Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson was one of some 2,500 Jewish activists, organization leaders and government officials from around the world who gathered to decide how to spend more than $1 billion in annual funding for Zionist institutions around the world.
But Hughes-Robinson plans to be back home in New York in time to cast her vote for mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim who does not believe Israel should exist as a state that privileges Jewish rights above all others.
“I’ve been active in city politics for quite a while, and I’m not afraid of being in coalition with people with whom I disagree on foreign policy points,” said Hughes-Robinson, an educator and translator of Jewish texts, in a phone interview. “Mamdani has talked quite a bit about his plan to reduce hate and violence in a city that’s seeing a spike in antisemitic violence and Islamophobia. I want a New York City that is safe for all of us. And I think Mamdani actually has a really good, effective plan.”
Hughes-Robinson will not be the only New York rabbi to cast her vote for Mamdani. Despite widespread opposition to his candidacy among many voters whose core concern is Israel, Jewish leaders are hardly monolithic in their views of Mamdani. More than a th …