We rode the No. 1 train from Columbia down to Times Square, where I’d grab the A to Bed-Stuy, and she’d take the bus to Jersey. I stare into the crowd while she insists there’s no rise in antisemitism; it’s a media creation. I know her well enough not to argue her perception, so I tell her my experience.
As a Black woman at an Ivy League institution, she won’t question my reality. Still, she insists it’s a few bad actors, dismisses concerns about an incoming mayor who refuses to denounce the intifada, and repeats a version of a familiar refrain that more or less means “the Jews have it coming.”
Of course, she doesn’t say that. She blames antisemitism on the war, insists it’s merely anti-Zionism. I nod, permitting myself a break from my Jewishness. I’m one of those sleeper Jews; if I don’t declare it, you’d never know.
Then Bondi happened. I didn’t wait for the global outrage. I didn’t wait for thoughts and prayers. I knew they weren’t coming. It’s been more than a year since I wrote about Israel, or Palestine, or anything related to Judaism. I had nothing useful to say and certainly no authority to say it. But, as a liberal Jew who grew up buying knish on the wired-off section of Main Street in Flushing during the Sabbath, silence wouldn’t do.
On that trip, riding the No. 1 train, my friend asked what I thought of Zohran Mamdani. “If he does 20% of what he promised, it’d be amazing,” I said. I’m grown enough to know that class, not religion nor race, is the greatest divider. Still, as I read headlines, watch social media trends, and listen to my liberal friends, I pause. Can New York afford a mayor who plays semantics with calls to “Globalize the Intifada?”
Mamdani has denounced the Chanukah attack at Bondi Beach. He’s made several promises to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe. But we don’t feel safe. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “A recent UJA-Federation of New York survey found that nearly half of Jewish adults in the New York area fear for their safety as Jews when attending specific places or events at least some of the time.”
Incidents of antisemitism in New York have sharply risen. But just as my well-meaning friend on the No. 1 train, blame replaces action.
I can cuddle into the gap between the far right and the far left — too ethnic for the former, and too I don’t know what for the latter. “But you don’t look Jewish!” they say, as if I’ve pulled a Trojan horse by my small features and blond hair. My ancestors were booted out of Poland, Russia, and Ukraine; how should I look?
We could avoid gatherings, and I can keep my Jewish identity to myself. Except I can’t. Before the Bondi shooting, Jewish groups repeatedly called on Australia’s government to denounce and combat antisemitism. Last year, after the firebombing of a synagogue, the government created a Joint Counter‑Terrorism Team.
Incidents continued, including vandalism of more synagogues, death threats, verbal assaults on Jewish children, and another act of arson on another synagogue. By July 2025, Australia’s government had implemented zero recommendations by the country’s antisemitism envoy.
The Bondi shooting was an atrocity; it was not a surprise. If a similar attack happens in New York, it also won’t be a surprise, which is why so many Jewish New Yorkers walk the line on Mamdani. We’ve learned (again and again) the consequences of silence. But today, we’re fighting more than silence. We’re fighting noise: media goop, whether it be mainstream, social, or independent.
For a brief moment, when I saw coverage of Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Syrian-born father of two, who disarmed one of the Bondi gunmen, I thought the world would understand.
If you’re Jewish, you likely know Muslims don’t hate you and vice versa. We have roughly the same dietary guidelines and more in common than most realize. During my time in Israel last year, I visited Muslims who worked next to Jews who worked next to Christians. There is more hatred being flung at Jews from self-proclaimed social justice warriors than exists between competing hummus stalls in Jerusalem’s Old City. Insisting Muslims and Jews hate each other sells news and endangers lives. Taking a vague stance on antisemitism does the same.
What does New York’s new mayor believe globalizing the intifada means? And what matters more, his interpretation or that of the next antisemite with a loaded gun?
Lutz is a freelance writer focusing on international affairs, travel, climate change, development, and health.
