Voters in New York head to the polls Tuesday for the city’s mayoral and council primaries, with a tight race emerging between former gov. Andrew Cuomo and State Council member Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani, a progressive lawmaker, has surged in recent polls, prompting growing concern within the city’s Jewish and pro-Israel communities. In a conversation with Ynet, Cuomo warned of the potential consequences of a Mamdani victory. “Zohran Mamdani is a silver spoon socialist who’s embraced a far-left, anti-Israel and defund-the-police agenda that has fallen out of favor with the majority of New Yorkers,” he said. According to Cuomo, President Donald Trump would “cut through Mamdani like a hot knife through butter” and would treat the city as his own if Mamdani were elected mayor. “New York City is in crisis, and it needs a leader with a proven track record of delivering real results. New Yorkers aren’t stupid — they know I’m the only candidate in this race who has served as federal housing secretary, attorney general and governor. I have the experience it takes to save this city and make it safer and more affordable,” he said. “Every credible poll in this election — including two released last week — has shown me with a double-digit lead. And that’s exactly where this election will end tomorrow. Until then, we’re going to keep fighting for every single vote — just like I’ll fight for every New Yorker as mayor.” Cuomo, who was forced to resign in 2021 following sexual harassment allegations that he flatly denies, has managed to return to the political spotlight by securing the backing of senior Democratic Party figures, including former president Bill Clinton and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mamdani, by contrast, is positioning himself as Cuomo’s opposite: a representative of the next generation, a passionate socialist and a digital-age activist with a past as a protest rapper and a viral TikTok presence. He has received endorsements from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and is seen by many as her male counterpart. He surpassed Jewish candidate Brad Lander, once considered the leading progressive in the race, and has benefited from favorable coverage by The New York Times, even though the paper has not formally endorsed any candidate. The latest Emerson College poll shows Cuomo leading with 35% of the vote, closely followed by Mamdani at 32%—a sharp drop from earlier this month, when Cuomo held a 12-point lead. The poll also found that roughly 11% of voters remain undecided, a group likely to determine the outcome. Under New York’s complex ranked-choice voting system—where voters rank candidates by preference and votes for eliminated contenders are redistributed—Mamdani pulls ahead of Cuomo in the eighth and final round, with 51.8% to Cuomo’s 48.2%. Despite concerns among Jewish voters about Mamdani’s positions, a recent poll found that about 20% of Jewish voters support him—a notable figure that reflects a shift in traditional voting patterns and the growing strength of the city’s progressive bloc. If Cuomo represents the political establishment—with institutional backing, a gubernatorial record and an image as the “responsible adult”—Mamdani is the insurgent voice of a younger generation: a candidate with roots in minority communities and a more radical approach to government. If elected, the 67-year-old Cuomo would become the oldest mayor in New York history. Mamdani, 33, would not only be the youngest, but also the city’s first Muslim mayor. Early voter turnout this week has been lower than expected, and the Cuomo campaign has expressed concern about a possible late surge of younger voters aligned with Mamdani, particularly amid heightened attention to the war in Gaza. In recent days, Cuomo has stepped up efforts in neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx, home to black and immigrant communities that have not traditionally been his base of support. Meanwhile, Mamdani’s campaign is reporting momentum on the ground, with a surge in volunteers, hundreds of street-level campaign events and a sense of mission among young activists, many of whom are participating in politics for the first time. The war between Israel and Iran, along with the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, deepened the divide between the two candidates—yet also united them against a common adversary: Donald Trump. Mamdani sharply condemned the military action, accusing the Trump administration of prioritizing war over welfare. “While Donald Trump bears immediate responsibility for this illegal escalation, these actions are the result of a political establishment that would rather spend trillions of dollars on weapons than lift millions out of poverty, launch endless wars while silencing calls for peace and fearmonger about outsiders while billionaires hollow out our democracy from within,” he said. Cuomo, by contrast, expressed support for the operation’s objectives, arguing that a nuclear-armed Iran poses a threat not only to Israel but also to the United States and the world. Still, he cautioned about the potential security implications for New York City and criticized the way the strikes were carried out, without congressional authorization. “I believe this is more of the same: This is Trump saying I don’t have to follow the rules,” Cuomo said. He also used the moment to take a swipe at his younger rival. “Who do you want in charge in that situation?” he asked. “Who’s handled situations like Hurricane Sandy and COVID and terrorist threats? This is not a job for on-the-job training.” Concerned by Mamdani’s surge in the polls, Jewish and Israeli rabbis, business leaders and community activists have launched a get-out-the-vote campaign in support of Cuomo. The effort includes street posters, dedicated WhatsApp groups and synagogue sermons. “This is a state of emergency for our community,” said Leah, a mother of four from the Upper West Side who hosted a virtual voting seminar in support of Cuomo. “That bastard is a danger to our values and to our sense of security. This isn’t just politics—it’s about survival.” One participant in the seminar, Yehuda from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said, “This isn’t only about foreign policy. Someone who can’t condemn attacks on Jews abroad won’t protect them here either.” Many expressed a growing sense of alienation from the Democratic Party. “The party we grew up with is changing before our eyes,” Yehuda said. Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv Regardless of the outcome, Mamdani has become a symbolic figure of generational and ideological shift in the city: a younger, more critical voice on Israel, wary of political institutions and active in grassroots local politics. The winner of the primary will face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November. Adams is now running as an independent, having severed ties with the Democratic Party. Once popular among the city’s Jewish voters, Adams has seen his support dwindle amid corruption investigations and his closeness to Donald Trump, including a presidential pardon he received. In the latest Emerson poll, he garnered just 15% of the vote. Meanwhile, voters are also casting ballots on Tuesday in City Council races. One of the most contentious is unfolding in a key Brooklyn district—home to approximately 200,000 residents, including Senator Chuck Schumer. The incumbent, Muslim councilwoman Shahana Hanif, has faced criticism from Jewish constituents over her participation in campus protests and her muted responses to antisemitism in the city. Challenging her is 33-year-old Maya Kornberg, daughter of a family of Nobel laureates, a former resident of Kibbutz Shoval in Israel and now a Brooklyn mother married to an Israeli husband and raising their 8-month-old son Liam. Kornberg has drawn support from both moderate and progressive voters, along with enthusiastic backing from the city’s conservative media, most notably the New York Post, which has regularly promoted her campaign. The race between the two women underscores the political rift in Park Slope—a neighborhood once considered a bastion of progressive politics, now one of the city’s flashpoints in the debate over Israel and Gaza. “Too many people in District 39 do not feel heard or represented,” Kornberg told Ynet. “From not taking seriously the concerns about rising antisemitism to not answering basic constituent service requests, District 39 deserves better, and people are hungry for change.” Follow Ynetnews on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Telegram