(Oct. 14, 2026 / JNS)
Bruce Blakeman, Nassau County executive and Republican nominee for New York governor, accused Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, of failing to protect Jewish New Yorkers and “campaigning around” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has drawn criticism frequently from New York Jewish and Israeli leaders.
“Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite,” Blakeman said during a gubernatorial debate on Tuesday night. “The first thing he did as mayor, with all the issues that faced New York City—the first thing he did was sign an executive order to water down the definition of antisemitism.”
“Shame on you, mayor,” he said, of Mamdani, before returning to his opponent in the race. “You are campaigning around this state with a guy, who doesn’t believe in American values.”
Mamdani “talks about collectivism,” which means that “you take personal property rights away. You take other people’s property rights,” Blakeman said.
Blakeman, who is Jewish, has made combating antisemitism a central issue in his campaign.
He told JNS in September that if elected, he would “take action” against Mamdani to stop him from making anti-Israel statements.
The debate, which ran for about an hour, was the only scheduled televised face-off between the candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 election. It aired live at 7 p.m on Spectrum News and was moderated by political anchors Errol Louis and Susan Arbetter. (Louis and Spectrum have yet to a respond to a week-old query from JNS about the reporter appearing to agree with Mamdani that Israel is guilty of “genocide.”)
During the debate, Hochul’s campaign sent out a more than 250-word statement about how the governor has “ stood up to antisemitism and protected Jewish New Yorkers.”
“As the governor representing the largest Jewish population outside Israel, Gov. Hochul considers keeping the Jewish community safe from rising antisemitic attacks a solemn responsibility and a critical priority,” the press release stated. “That’s why she’s done more than offer words of support.”
Among her achievements fighting Jew-hatred, according to the campaign, are signing a “historic” law creating 50-foot, protest-free “buffer” zones around synagogues and other houses of worship, investing a “record” $70 million in fighting hate crimes, delivering $90 million this fiscal year to protect nonpublic schools, launching a state hate and bias prevention unit and creating a state-wide plan to fight Jew-hatred.
The latter is “the first of its kind anywhere in the country,” her campaign said.
Hochul was also the first U.S. governor to visit Israel after Oct. 7 and “the first American official to visit the Gaza envelope after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas,” her campaign said.
On Tuesday night, Arbetter asked Blakeman about remarks he made at a gathering of Chassidic Jews, according to audio obtained by the New York Times.
“If there is rioting here, if they’re burning down yeshivas and your shuls and burning down your house and raping your women, you think Zohran Mamdani is gonna stop them?” Blakeman said at the gathering, per the Times.
Arbetter asked whom Blakeman meant by “they” and whether he stood by his remarks.
“First of all, ‘they’ are the professional protesters that took over Columbia University,” Blakeman said at the debate. “They blocked our bridges and our roadways with a lawlessness that took place while Kathy Hochul wouldn’t protect Jewish students at Columbia University, Jews who were being attacked all around our state.”
Blakeman also told Jewish leaders at the meeting that “people don’t like Kathy Hochul” and “they don’t like her association with Zohran Mamdani,” the Times reported.
At the debate, Blakeman accused the mayor of being anti-Christian, since Mamdani skipped the Feb. 6 installation of Archbishop Ronald Hicks at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a ceremony New York City mayors have traditionally attended.
“This is a guy that’s anti-Christian. Couldn’t find an hour out of his day to attend the installation of a new archbishop here in New York City, the biggest religion in the city of New York,” he said.
“Look, if you want to campaign with him, that’s fine, but I will tell you right now, I think Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite,” he told Hochul. “I believe he’s anti-Christian.”
Hochul accused Blakeman of suggesting that New York City Police Department officers, under the leadership of Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish, would fail to protect Jewish communities during violent unrest.
“I’m actually gonna answer your question,” she said. “Since you asked about the conversation he had at a secret meeting, where he basically said that NYPD, under the leadership of Jessica Tisch, would not respond to this neighborhood if there were women being raped and people being murdered and riots in the street.”
“I stand with the men and women in blue every day of the week,” Hochul said. “I know how hard they work. They put their lives on the line, and I support the leadership of Jessica Tisch.” (The Democratic Socialists of America recently urged Mamdani to fire Tisch.)
“But for you to say that they would stand down is just insulting all those men and women,” she added.
Blakeman rejected Hochul’s characterization and said that his concern was primarily political interference in law enforcement.
“First of all, let’s call it the way it is. I’m talking about political leaders getting involved in law enforcement when they shouldn’t be, like what happened under David Dinkins, when he waited three days before he stopped the rioting in Crown Heights,” he said.
Blakeman referred to the 1991 Crown Heights riots, which occurred during Dinkins’s tenure as city mayor.
The riots erupted after one of the cars in a three-car procession carrying the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—struck and killed Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child. During the riots, black residents attacked Orthodox Jews, damaged property and looted businesses.
Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Jewish student from Australia, was fatally stabbed.
A 1993 state investigation faulted Dinkins and senior police officials for their delayed response but found no evidence that the mayor had ordered police to stand down.
“I have a lot of confidence in Jessica Tisch,” Blakeman said. “As a matter of fact, if there’s a compliment I could give to Zohran Mamdani, it’s in keeping her as the police commissioner.”
The candidates also clashed over immigration enforcement, energy costs, artificial intelligence and Hochul’s decision to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in a case involving allegations that seven Cornell University fraternity members sexually assaulted a student in 2024.
As the moderator tried to move to the next topic, Blakeman cut in.
“Antisemitism is on the rise, and it’s occurred under your watch,” he told Hochul. “Zohran Mamdani is fueling it.”