NY Republican warns Hasidic leaders: "They'll burn yeshivos"

The race for governor of New York State is reaching boiling point: Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman, attempting to close the polling gap with incumbent Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, is using unusually sharp rhetoric in his effort to mobilise the Hasidic vote.

Recordings obtained by the New York Times from a closed meeting held this past Sunday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, reveal unprecedented warnings of violent antisemitic outbreaks.

Blakeman, the Nassau County executive and an observant Jew, is heard on the recording warning Hasidic leaders: "If there are riots here, if they burn your yeshivos and shuls, burn your homes and seriously harm women, do you think Zohran Mamdani will stop them?" He added that Governor Hochul "doesn't have the backbone", and warned the situation could deteriorate into events far worse than the Crown Heights riots of 1991.

Storm in the community: "Political fearmongering" versus "justified concern"

The remarks sparked major controversy in New York's Jewish community. Rabbi Moishe Indig, a leader in the Satmar chassidus which backs Hochul, attacked Blakeman and told the New York Times this was cheap fearmongering, while praising the police response and Mayor Mamdani's handling of antisemitic incidents in the city.

By contrast, Rabbi David Katz, CEO of the Heritage Foundation who attended the meeting, defended Blakeman and argued that Mamdani's positions on the IDF and Israel do indeed undermine Jews' sense of security.

Blakeman himself did not deny the recordings and stated that Mamdani refuses to condemn terrorists' battle cries. Mayor Mamdani declined to comment, but his associate Asad Dandia accused Blakeman of stoking hatred and Islamophobia.

Mamdani was recently attacked at a 7 October memorial rally by radical pro-Palestinian protesters waving Hezbollah flags and pictures of Sinwar, after he published an inflammatory post accusing Israel of "genocide" and "apartheid".