Zohran Mamdani’s win isn’t just New York’s loss

On Zohran Mamdani’s anointment as New York City mayor, we gather in sorrow to mark the passing of a once-great metropolis.

This temple of the American Dream and home to the largest Jewish community in the United States has exhaled its last breath.

To understand the magnitude of this loss, one must first understand New York City is inexorably tied to the history of Jews in America.

The first 23 Jewish refugees landed in New Amsterdam in 1654. By the early 1900s, the pushcarts on Orchard and Rivington streets birthed the garment industry, Yiddish theaters created vaudeville and the ingenuity of the scrappy Jewish kids from the tenements transformed America into a financial superpower.

From this crucible of ambition rose Jewish New Yorkers who forged America’s greatness.

Irving Berlin wr