Brad Lander calls for ‘coalition of anti-Zionists and liberal Zionists’ in appearance with Zohran Mamdani

NYC comptroller Brad Lander speaks during the Jews For Racial And Economic Justice’s Mazals Gala on September 10, 2025 in New York City. Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images

(JTA) — BROOKLYN — Brad Lander called for “a coalition of anti-Zionists and liberal Zionists” in a speech at a left-wing Jewish event where he was being honored alongside New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.

Lander, the city’s comptroller, who cross-endorsed Mamdani in the primary, also said he believed he should have done more to criticize Israel over the war in Gaza. He was speaking at a gala for the progressive group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, which has expanded its pro-Palestinian advocacy during the nearly two-year war.

“While I have tried to find the courage required, while I called for a ceasefire with JFREJ on Hanukkah 2023, have stood many times with Israelis for Peace, I want to be clear — I know I have not done enough to speak out against Israel’s war crimes, against ethnic cleansing, against forced starvation of Palestinians,” Lander said, to loud cheers from the crowd of more than 1,000.

Lander’s comments were notable because of the dynamics around Israel at play among Jewish progressives ahead of the mayoral election. Mamdani is a longtime critic of Israel, while Lander has characterized himself as a liberal Zionist who has resisted articulating some of the harshest charges against Israel. The gap has been a rare area of sunlight between the two politicians, who share a progressive vision for the city’s future.

Lander said he believed the two camps could work together for the common good — though he acknowledged that doing so can be difficult.

“I believe we must build a coalition of anti-Zionists and liberal Zionists committed to ending the horrors in Gaza,” he said, noting that his synagogue, Brooklyn’s Kolot Chayeinu, has long been a meeting point for Jews aligned with the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace and the liberal Zionist group J Street. 

More recently, it has been among the many progressive Jewish spaces to be wracked by internal tensions during the war that began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I’ve often joked that Kolot is a place where JVP Jews and J Street Jews pray together with only minimal side-eye. Historically, JFREJ has been like that, too,” Lander said. “But since Oct. 7, that has been so much harder. As Ezra Klein observed recently, ‘It’s a tense time in the Jewish family group chats.’ But it has never been more important.”

Lander’s comments came as JFREJ was honoring him and Mamdani with a joint “Mazals” award for their “partnership and the hope and optimism they’ve inspired.” Though the group does not take an official stance on Zionism, anti-Israel (and anti-Trump) messages were displayed prominently in the Brooklyn venue, including “Jews say: No genocide, No deportations, No anti-trans hate,” and “Arms embargo now,” alongside broader messages like “New York is for everyone” and “Care not corruption.”

Unlike other speakers, including Mamdani and the Jewish comedian and “Broad City” co-creator Ilana Glazer, Lander did not describe Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a “genocide.” He has said he eschews the term, which Israel rejects as inaccurate, because “it closes ears rather than opens them.”

Mamdani, meanwhile, called his primary victory “a lesson that so many in this city are horrified by the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli military in Gaza, by the violence being inflicted using weapons paid for by our tax dollars as Americans.” (Polls show that voters were mostly motivated by other issues, but that 30% of voters said Mamdani’s stances on Israel made them more likely to vote for him.)

He lauded the JFREJ membership, saying, “Being here tonight truly feels like being with family.” 

“I’m so proud of the movement that we have built together, not because of how many of us there are, but because of the values that bind us,” Mamdani said. He then listed some of those values, mentioning compassion and a belief in affordability before concluding on a note about the issue he has described as central to his politics.

“And we hold a common belief in the shared dignity of every person on this planet, without exception, and a refusal to draw a line in the sand as it so often is done when it comes to Palestinian lives,” Mamdani said.

If Lander has been feeling the heat among progressives over his attitudes about Israel, attendees at the gala said they were not aware of it.

“I don’t think so,” said Marcia Belsky, a JFREJ member who hosted a Zoom portion of the event, when asked the question. “I think he’s an interesting person, where he identifies as a liberal Zionist, and yet he’s very actively outspoken against the genocide in Gaza and in aligning with people who are not willing to compromise with those talking points that the mainstream media always forces them into.”

Rabbi Andy Kahn, the executive director of the American Council for Judaism, a recently revived Reform anti-Zionist group, said he hadn’t heard anyone argue that Lander had been inadequately vocal about Israel or Gaza.

“I actually haven’t really heard that criticism of him, and I haven’t felt it myself either,” Kahn said.

“Like he said, he was out calling for a ceasefire in 2023,” he said, adding that Lander has been “doing this work for a really long time in really good faith.” 

Lander elaborated on his comments in an interview following the ceremony, pointing to a recent op-ed in which the Arab-Israeli Knesset member Ayman Odeh wrote that he had not done enough to stop the war.

“I mean, none of us have done enough. An atrocity is taking place in our name,” Lander said. “If there is hope for democracy in Israel, Ayman Odeh represents it. And if he could find a path to continue to support hostage families, see the pain Jewish families are feeling, be a fierce voice for his people and then say, ‘I have not done enough to call out and stop these atrocities’ — boy, the least I could do is say so.”

The JFREJ event took place as speculation mounts about Lander’s future after his term as comptroller ends in December. His staunch support for Mamdani, as well as his decades of experience in public office, have fueled an expectation that he could wind up in City Hall if Mamdani is elected.

But this week, a poll showed Lander handily beating Rep. Dan Goldman in a primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District. Goldman has so far declined to endorse Mamdani, saying he wants to see “concrete steps” to assuage Jewish New Yorkers’ fears. 

“I have no comment on my next steps,” Lander said. “I still have a few more months as comptroller, and I’m thinking about the ways I can most usefully contribute at this moment.”