Josh Shapiro criticizes Zohran Mamdani for not condemning ‘some blatantly antisemitic things’

Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the country, criticized New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani for not doing more to combat antisemitism on the campaign trail — contributing to an attack line against the progressive candidate.

Shapiro said Mamdani “seemed to run a campaign that excited New Yorkers,” but he also seemed to run one “where he left open far too much space for extremists to either use his words or for him to not condemn the words of extremists that said some blatantly antisemitic things,” when asked about the candidate by Jewish Insider after an event in Lewistown, Pa., on Wednesday.

Mamdani, a New York Assembly member who identifies as a democratic socialist and would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor, focused his campaign on affordability issues. But he has also faced ongoing questioning over his critical views of Israel in the city with the largest Jewish population in the country.

In a transcript of Shapiro’s comments obtained by The Inquirer, the Pennsylvania governor also said he doesn’t “really follow New York politics that much” and “didn’t know who Mamdani was until probably a few days before that election.”

“I’ll say this about Mamdani or any other leader,” Shapiro also said. “Leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity. … I don’t care if you’re a Republican or Democratic leader or a democratic socialist leader.”

Shapiro added that “when supporters of yours say things are blatantly antisemitic, you can’t leave room for that to just sit there. You’ve got to condemn that. And I think that is true regardless of what office you’re running for, regardless of what your party is.”

Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The Democratic nominee will face off in November against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, both mounting independent bids after serving as Democrats, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Shapiro is one of several prominent Democrats nationally who have been reluctant to embrace Mamdani as the party’s nominee to lead the nation’s biggest city.

» READ MORE: Why N.J. governor candidates are fighting about Zohran Mamdani

Mamdani has faced particular pushback for not condemning the phrase “globalize the intifada” when repeatedly asked by interviewers last month.

Intifada, which translates to “shaking off” or “uprising” in Arabic, has been used to express support for Palestinians, but it has also been interpreted as a call for violence against Jews or Israelis.

Part of why the term is viewed as a call for violence is because of periods of Palestinian uprising against Israel’s military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank referred to as the “intifadas,” including in the early 2000s when Palestinian attackers conducted deadly suicide bombings in public places in Israel, like buses, restaurants, and hotels, eliciting a fierce and deadly military response from Israel.

When asked again about the phrase on NY1 last week, Mamdani said he has thought about it a lot and realizes that for some New Yorkers, it is used to refer to “civil disobedience and protest, a call to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,” but that for “many Jewish New Yorkers” it is heard “very differently,” as a “reference to bus bombings in Haifa, restaurant attacks in Jerusalem, and engenders a fear” of similar attacks in New York.

“That distance between what some intend and what others hear is a bridge that is too far and it is why I have not used the phrase and it is why I discourage its use,” he added. “And my focus is on building a movement for justice and equality.”

Mamdani also told business leaders this month he will not use the phrase and will discourage others from doing so.

His promise to discourage using the term is a shift from his remarks in June, when he repeatedly said he understands the term means something very different to different people and he doesn’t want to police other people’s language, comparing the practice to the actions of President Donald Trump.

In June, Mamdani said on The Bulwark podcast that he hears “a desperate desire for equality” for Palestinians in the controversial slogan. He said that translating Arabic words can be tricky and that intifada was used in a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum translation of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis. The museum called the comparison “outrageous” and "offensive."

He also said on the podcast that tackling antisemitism should be a focus of the next mayoral administration. He has committed to funding hate crime prevention more broadly.

“It’s not language that I use,” Mamdani told NBC in June. ”It’s language I understand there are concerns about, and what I will do is showcase my vision for the city through my words and my action."

Shapiro has been a critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership while also supporting the country’s existence as a Jewish state, and has argued the two should not be mutually exclusive. He favors a two-state solution.

“There are policies of the Netanyahu government that I don’t support. I’ve been very vocal about that,” Shapiro told Jewish Insider. “But there’s a difference between not supporting the policies of whoever’s in charge at a particular time, and the underlying notion of a Jewish state of Israel.”

Shapiro said that while Washington — not Pennsylvania — is tasked with the majority of foreign policy work, he is concerned about decreased support for Israel in the United States and finds it important “to strengthen people’s understanding of Israel and the relationship America should have with Israel and to strengthen that bond.” He noted that support for Israel has transcended party politics in the past.

“I think just in general, across the board, I want to see more support for Israel, for a Jewish state,” he added. “That doesn’t mean that one can’t be critical of Israeli policy.”

Shapiro survived an arson attack while staying in the governor’s mansion with family to celebrate Passover earlier this year. The perpetrator allegedly made comments about Shapiro’s support for Israel. The governor has not labeled the attack as an antisemitic act, leaving it to police to determine the motive. But others have viewed it as another attack on a growing list of Jews targeted over their support for Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who cross-endorsed Mamdani in the Democratic primary, said in a statement published in Politico that Mamdani “won the votes of a large majority of NYC Democrats, including thousands of proud Jews like me, inspired by his vision of a city everyone can afford and confident about his commitment to combating antisemitism and hate.”

“Josh Shapiro won’t help keep Jews safe in NYC or Pennsylvania by feeding Trump’s narrative about our Democratic nominee for mayor,” Lander added.