For me, Zohran Mamdani’s win on June 24 is great cause for celebration, celebration as a longtime resident of The Bronx who, on a daily basis, sees the devastation wrought by the corporate-first policies Mamdani seeks to overturn.

 

It is also a celebration by a life-long supporter of human rights who in these last 20+ horrific months have found myself standing on the front lines of New York City’s streets (and getting arrested while sitting on the floor of Grand Central). At each event, I was just one raising my voice with thousands more, including Zohran Mamdani, to scream truth: that genocide is a moral atrocity. We cannot be silent about what’s happening to Gaza in our activism or our votes.

 

Those thousands include so many of my Jewish brothers and sisters. So, I also celebrate Mamdani’s win as a Jewish woman. Words cannot fully convey how proud I am of how our community has banded together to demand: Never Again for EVERYONE. It’s exactly that bravery, moral clarity, and integrity which I see in Zohran and that’s why I so eagerly voted for him for New York City Mayor (ranked first, of course!)

 

New York City has so much promise. I fell in love with it as a child, mesmerized by both its cultural diversity and its vast scope of activities and opportunities. I put down roots here over 30 years ago, a life choice I have never regretted. But in those three decades, I’ve seen the promise of New York City choked and those opportunities narrowed by corporate control, so-called “representatives” who care nothing for the public good, and ever less survivable rising costs.

 

When I moved to New York City, my rent was $400. It was so easy to find a job, and my salary of $30,000 left me plenty of extra pocket change when I clocked out and wanted to explore. Millennials and Generation Z probably find those numbers unbelievable because now, thanks to corporate and real estate interests, they are.

 

One of the reasons Zohran’s primary win has the status quo squirming is his call to freeze rent. He also wants to build more affordable housing. Both are common sense, sorely needed policies. Having a roof over one’s head is a basis for survival, not a discretionary good people can take or leave. Fail to provide an adequate housing supply or let real estate interests jack up prices to fund their own greed, and the result is homelessness.

 

As of July 2025, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, each night in New York City, over 100,000 people sleep in shelters or in unsheltered settings such as on the streets. That’s a clear systemic failure. Any politician unwilling to challenge such a “Shanda” [Yiddish work for shame or disgrace] can and MUST be replaced.

 

The very purpose of legitimate government is to protect the vulnerable and provide for modern human needs that simply cannot, and should not, be exploited for profit. Zohran’s got policies to help the working class with other needs too like transportation (free buses), family-related expenses (no cost childcare), and food (city-owned grocery stores). None of these platforms are “radical.” They’re a commonsense expression of morality and community or to use the Hebrew term, “Kehilla.”

 

Two more Jewish terms/concepts come to mind: “Tzedek” (justice) and “Rachamim” (compassion). Two of the traits that surely gave Zohran the win on Primary Election Day were his sincerity and his empathy. Policy is vital, but it’s got to be genuine. Otherwise, all a politician offers is sound bites, promises to be broken, and empty words. Zohran Mamdani feels REAL. In New York City, and anywhere else, that’s what counts.

 

It’s such a breath of fresh air over much of the current, calculated, corrupt New York machine. As a Bronx resident, I know that all too well. My borough is a mini-mirror to New York’s corporate-fueled and donor-fueled neglect. In my ‘hood, infrastructure crumbles with repairs ignored, and people struggle to pay ever-increasing bills, living lives of despair, feeling trapped.

 

Yet what’s our “Representative” Ritchie Torres’ priority? Doing pressers in Riverdale, and tweeting about his solidarity to a foreign power, Israel. About those empty words I mentioned: New York politicians like Torres specialize in exactly that. Despite his constant claims to care about antisemitism, Torres turns a blind eye to hate groups like Betar and refuses to even meet with Jewish groups like JFREJ [Jews for Racial and Economic Justice] and JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace].

 

[Editor’s Note: Betar is described on its website as not an organization but a movement of “loud, proud Zionist activists and Jews who “stand strong, fight back, lead proud” and “fight antisemitism.”]

 

He doesn’t speak for Jews – he erases and exploits us, using us as his (and AIPAC’s) human shields, and don’t get me raging about Torres’ full-throated support of Israel’s acts of genocide. That’s not “Tzedek” or “Rachamim.” That sort of “value system” is exactly what New York City needs to reject and throw to the curb.

 

[Editor’s Note: When contacted for comment, Torres refuted the allegation that he has turned a blind eye to hate groups like Betar, saying this is factually incorrect. Norwood News was provided with a copy of an “X” thread dated in or around April 9, 2025, in which the congressman replies to Betar USA and others in reference to a Times of Israel article dated Sept. 10, 2023, entitled “Pro-Israel Democrat Torres: Ben Gvir a ‘despicable disgusting dangerous demagogue’.”

 

The article in question refers to a separate X thread discussion between Torres and U.S. political commentator and CUNY professor Peter Beinart in which comparisons are drawn between the actions of Hamas and the actions of Itamar Ben Gvir, an Israeli far-right politician who currently serves as the minister of national security in the Israeli Netanyahu [right-wing] administration.

 

In the thread, at one point, Torres describes Ben Gvir as a “despicable, disgusting, dangerous demagogue.” In several X posts, Betar condemns Torres for his criticism of some members of the Netanyahu administration, including Ben Gvir.

 

One of Torres’ replies to @Betar_USA, @VoteRandyFine, and @AIPAC reads, “There is no universe in which I would ever grant an audience to an extremist like Ben Gvir or any organization like yours that embraces his extremism. If you had done your homework, you would [know] that I have nothing but contempt for Gvir.” Norwood News was informed that Betar has since deleted its original X post in the thread.]

 

NYC’s potential may have been struggling under a corporate chokehold these last few decades, but it’s far from gone. Because a city is its people – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and more – the whole melting pot I fell in love with as a child (underneath those bright city lights). As long as there are people, there is hope. We need a mayor who centers people over donors, which Zohran Mamdani clearly does. We deserve a mayor who has the moral spine to not “pragmatically” pander and compromise on core values, human lives and rights. NYC’s promise is much, much better than that… it always was.

 

NYC has also historically been a trail blazing city, a “we can do that, too” example to be held up to the nation in these dangerous, ever more fascist times. Enough with the corporate bad-faith smears. We need a “Mensch” [a Yiddish word which figuratively means “a person of integrity and honor”] like Zohran Mamdani. As Jews who care for “Kehilla,” Mamdani is the best choice.

 

Let’s drive his win home this November, for all the people of New York City. Then, I guarantee, both myself and thousands of my Jewish brothers and sisters will celebrate that as well.

 

A longtime resident of Norwood, Janet Clarke is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and focuses her attention on issues of human rights and well-being, both here in New York City and abroad.