New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sat in the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens on February 20, 2026, during Friday prayers on the first day of Ramadan. The imam led a supplication in Arabic invoking the Mahdi with words translated by MEMRI: “Through your hands comes the relief for the believers and the killing of the infidels by your sword.” Mamdani remained in the room for the full prayer. The center draws funding through the Alavi Foundation, which U.S. federal courts and the Department of Justice identified in 2009, 2013, and 2017 rulings as a front for the Iranian government channeling money to Bank Melli under sanctions. The complete 1:54 MEMRI clip with subtitles and transcript is posted at https://www.memri.org/tv/nyc-mamdani-al-khoei-iran-alavi-mahdi-prayer.
Mamdani addressed the congregation before the prayer. He stated, “Last Ramadan, I was with many of you here at the procession of the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali. It is a privilege to be here with you once again.” That places him at the center in March 2025, long before his January 1, 2026, inauguration. He called this his first Friday prayer as mayor, yet the phrase “once again” confirms habitual attendance. Iman Dakmak-Rakka, principal of Al-Iman School and Al-Khoei Foundation representative, thanked him openly: “You work for all of humanity and all of the residents of New York City.”
Mamdani’s stance on Israel is unmistakable. He joined the Democratic Socialists of America in 2017 for its pro-Palestine positions. He co-sponsored the 2023 “Not On Our Dime” bill to revoke tax-exempt status from charities supporting Israeli settlements. In October 2024 he posted on X, “Israel is committing a genocide.” In a 2025 debate he rejected Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, saying only, “I support Israel’s right to exist as a state with equal rights.” Shortly after taking office he revoked executive orders adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and pledged to divest city funds from Israel. He promised to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York, citing International Criminal Court warrants.
Jewish voters in New York City still gave him substantial backing. A July 2025 poll recorded 43 percent of Jewish residents supporting Mamdani, with 67 percent of those under 44 on his side. November 2025 exit polls showed him taking 31 to 33 percent of the Jewish vote overall. Wealthy progressive Jewish donors bankrolled his campaign. In poorer Jewish neighborhoods dependent on government aid, organizers from synagogues and advocacy groups pushed votes his way with assurances of rent control and increased benefits. Voters told canvassers Israel rarely surfaced unprompted; when it did, many voiced concern over Gaza but focused on domestic survival issues like housing costs.
How does a Jewish community deliver power to a mayor who keeps returning to a center where prayers demand the killing of infidels by sword?
The Bible answers with unsparing clarity on complacency and dependence in exile. Deuteronomy confronts the prosperous: “Beware lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14). The Hebrew ram levavkha captures a heart swollen with pride from wealth, erasing covenant memory and driving alliances that safeguard status.
The poor fall into the same snare through servitude. Deuteronomy 28 states: “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of everything; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48). The Hebrew ta’avod et-oyvekha demands active service to enemies, locked in by deprivation. Exodus shows the tool: sarei missim, taskmasters who afflicted the Israelites with burdens; anah means to humiliate and crush the will, producing mental compliance.
The result unites both. Leviticus declares: “I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out My sword after you; your land will become desolate and your cities will become ruins. But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies” (Leviticus 26:33, 38-39). The Hebrew artzam shel oyveykhem to’khal etkhem states the enemies’ land consumes the people completely, devouring every illusion of safety.
New York Jews voted for a mayor whose repeated visits to Al-Khoei end with silence amid calls for infidels to die by sword. Wealthy leaders steered the votes to hold power. Poorer communities obeyed, chasing handouts. They installed a figure who revokes antisemitism protections, divests from Israel, threatens Netanyahu’s arrest, and aligns with Iranian-linked hostility. Hosea records the harvest: “For they sow wind and they harvest a storm” (Hosea 8:7). The Hebrew zar’u ruach ve’yiktsru sufah proves empty choices bring violent return.
The land of Israel belongs to the Jews alone. Diaspora security built on such blindness collapses. The consumption foretold in Leviticus advances while the community clings to promises that mask threats. The so-called wise who guided this vote now face the embarrassment of their own ignorance. Covenant return offers the only exit before the yoke crushes what remains.
