German-Jewish scholar's memoir reflects Mamdani's New York

Since the war against Hamas began in October 2023, I’ve had to get used to the fact that back in my hometown of New York, crowds have been chanting for my death and the deaths of my children.

This pro-Hamas chanting in New York City has been going on since October 8, 2023, and most recently, outside a synagogue in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, where protesters called out, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here.” It was hailed as a great sign of moderation that New York’s recently elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the slogan praising this terror group, which calls for killing Jews worldwide and eradicating Israel, more than a day later.

Which shows just how low the bar has gotten in America in this worldwide war on the Jews.

I have lived in Israel for decades, but I grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, being told by my parents, “There isn’t really any antisemitism in America anymore.” There had been once, they told me. My grandparents had to deal with discrimination, but that was a long time ago.

As a child, I would see elderly people on the subway reading Yiddish newspapers, with no fear of harassment. A number of families in the building where I grew up were ultra-Orthodox, and there were several German-Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors who lived there. My grandparents lived a block from the headquarters of the Lubavitcher movement, 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where crowds swarmed every Friday and Saturday, trying to get a glimpse of the rebbe.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces the appointment of Christine Clarke as chair and commissioner for the New York City Commission on Human Rights at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City, New York (credit: Jason Alpert-Wisnia / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)

In the world of culture, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Barbra Streisand, Itzhak Perlman, Woody Allen, and dozens of other Jews were major figures. A little later, there was an influx of Israelis opening businesses all over the neighborhood. More and more, Hebrew was spoken on the streets, and all these different kinds of Jews felt comfortable.

But when I took a trip from Jerusalem to New York last year, my family in Israel begged me not to go out with the yellow-ribbon pin calling for the return of the hostages, which I wore every day.

They had read the warnings of the Israeli government, th