Mamdani calls for a permanent end to NYC investments in Israel Bonds

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Sept. 6. Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh September 7, 2025

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Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, said in an interview on Sunday that if elected, he would support permanently divesting from Israel Bonds. Brad Lander, the outgoing city comptroller and a Mamdani ally, ended the city’s half-century practice of investing millions in Israeli government debt securities in 2023.

“I think that we should not have a fund that is invested in the violation of international law,” Mamdani said in an interview with CBS New York’s The Point with Marcia Kramer.

When Lander took office in January 2022, the city’s pension funds held $39 million in Israel Bonds, with a roughly 5% return. As chief fiscal officer overseeing pension fund investments, Lander, who is Jewish, decided not to purchase new bonds in January 2023 when the holdings matured. He maintained that he was following the city’s policy of avoiding foreign sovereign debt, treating Israel the same as other countries rather than giving it special treatment in the pension portfolio.

Jewish groups and communal leaders criticized the decision.

Mamdani, a supporter of the boycott Israel movement who pledged during the primary that he would end economic ties with the Israeli government, said he supports Lander’s move as a political statement.

“I think the current comptroller’s approach, as he has taken it with Israel Bonds, is the right approach,” Mamdani said.

However, he stopped short of endorsing the boycott movement’s broader call to divest from all Israeli companies. As of May, city pension funds held more than $315 million in Israel-based assets, including nearly $300 million in common stock and over $1 million in Israeli real estate investment trusts. “The most important thing is to figure out where we are directly implicated,” Mamdani said. “And in the city pension fund, purchasing Israel Bonds, that, to me, is something that is a clear indication of our values — and we know that our values are actually with international law.”

Mamdani’s position would likely cause friction with the presumptive next city comptroller. Mark Levine, the Democratic nominee who is Jewish and endorsed Mamdani after the primary, pledged to repurchase the bonds as part of the city’s portfolio. “This has been a rock-solid investment for decades,” he said. “Israel has never missed a bond payment, and a good, balanced portfolio should have global diversity.”

Reached Sunday, a spokesperson for Levine’s campaign, Annabel Lassally, said Levine “has been clear on his position on Israel Bonds” and stands by it. “As comptroller, he will work closely with the other pension fund trustees to prioritize investments which have proven stability and strong returns for pensioners,” she said.

Dani Naveh, the Israel Bonds chief executive, said in a statement, “While we don’t comment on the statements made by candidates, what I can say is this: Israel Bonds is proud of the unprecedented outpouring of support — more than $5.5 billion in investments since Oct. 7 — including major commitments from local governments around the country, including the state of New York.”

Will Jewish voters care? 

Many Jewish voters view the bonds as a bulwark against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS. Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the BDS movement, has stated that the goal is to apply economic pressure on Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and to abolish Israel as a Jewish state.

Lander’s decision to end investments in Israel Bonds was a flashpoint in the Democratic primary for mayor, with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams attacking Lander as anti-Israel.

Mamdani, who co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Maine’s Bowdoin College, which he attended from 2010 to 2014, said in 2020 that he joined the Democratic Socialists of America because of their stance on Israel and said mayoral candidates should pledge to boycott Israel.

However, during the primary, he evaded the issue as he made an effort to reach out to the more than 700,000 Jewish voters in New York City, the largest concentration of Jews in the United States. He went only as far as to say that he would dissolve a council Adams created in May aimed at strengthening the U.S.-Israel economic ties. Since his victory, Mamdani sought to distance himself from some of the DSA’s positions.

His comments on Sunday will likely reignite the debate over his stance on Israel as several high-ranking Democratic officials — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — still refuse to endorse his candidacy. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told The New York Times that he encouraged Mamdani to do more to placate his Democratic colleagues who are concerned by his outspoken criticism of Israel.

Mamdani’s call to divest from Israel Bonds may not harm his chances in November, as he faces a splintered opposition of Adams, Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. At a Friday news conference, Adams vowed to stay in the race despite business leaders urging him to step aside to give Cuomo a head-to-head shot at Mamdani.

A post-primary poll by a progressive research group suggested Mamdani’s criticism of Israel resonated with many Democratic voters, energizing first-time and younger supporters. A recent survey showed Mamdani leading among Jewish voters at 37%, while about 60% are split among the remaining candidates. The Democratic nominee is backed by several Jewish elected officials, including Rep. Jerry Nadler, co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus and Ruth Messinger, the trailblazing Jewish political leader who in 1997 became the first and only woman to win the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 83-year-old independent Jewish senator from Vermont, spent the weekend in New York rallying support for Mamdani. At a town hall in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sanders called Mamdani “the future of the Democratic Party” and praised his grassroots campaign.

Mamdani’s Jewish opposition 

Mamdani said after his primary win that he would reach out to the Jewish community and seek to engage with his critics. But skepticism remains.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, sharply criticized Mamdani for his refusal to outright condemn the “globalize the intifada” slogan. The ADL released a list of questions for Mamdani to answer, and Greenblatt said he’d only meet with Mamdani “under clear circumstances,” including it being a public meeting. “I won’t be used by Mamdani,” he said. “And it’s amazing that there are other Jewish leaders who are willing to do that.”

A survey by the New York Solidarity Group, a pro-Israel political organization, found that 58% of Jewish voters believe Mamdani’s leadership would make the city less safe for Jews. The group’s executive director, Sara Forman, said she hopes a potential Mayor Mamdani will take seriously the concerns of Jewish New Yorkers.

Kalman Yeger, a member of the New York State Assembly representing parts of Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn, delivered a blistering attack on Mamdani in a speech to Jewish leaders Sunday morning.

“We’re at the precipice in New York of having a mayor who thinks it’s OK to kill Jews, not because he himself is going to do it,” Yeger said in remarks at the grand opening of a new Jewish community center in Boro Park. “I think it’s fair to say that not everybody who supports him is an antisemite, but every antisemite supports him. And you have got to ask yourself why.”

Yeger also warned that New York City could become dangerous for Jews, likening the situation to the 1930s under the Nazi regime. “We’re not going to see gas chambers on the streets of New York City,” he said. “We will see pogroms. We will, absolutely.” He also slammed Lander’s decision on Israel Bonds as anti-Jewish.