A downtown cultural tradition becomes a political touchstone as the mayor walks a fine line with Jewish communities
A Passover Seder, a Mayor, and a Community Watching Closely
Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the annual Downtown Seder at City Winery in Manhattan on Monday evening, stepping into a decades-old cultural tradition that carries significant symbolic weight given the delicate state of his relationship with parts of New York City’s large and diverse Jewish community.
The Event and Its History
The Downtown Seder was founded by nightlife entrepreneur Michael Dorf, who launched City Winery in 2008 and has described the gathering as a supplement to traditional seders. The event originated at the East Village’s Knitting Factory and has moved through various venues over the years, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage. It blends art, activism and religious tradition, drawing artists and public figures for a contemporary retelling of the Exodus story. This year’s featured guests included former CNN anchor Don Lemon, Israeli musician David Broza and comedian Modi Rosenfeld. City Council Speaker Julie Menin also attended. All net proceeds from the event went to Seeds of Peace, a New York-based nonprofit founded in 1993 that works with young people from conflict regions to develop leadership skills and promote dialogue. Former Mayor Eric Adams was the featured guest at the Downtown Seder in 2023.
Why This Seder Carries Political Weight for Mamdani
Mamdani’s relationship with Jewish organizations has been complicated from the start. He is a vocal critic of Israeli government policy, supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and has declined to recognize Israel specifically as a Jewish state. On his first day in office, he revoked executive orders tied to antisemitism and campus protests. More recently, he declined to support legislation aimed at creating buffer zones around protests outside synagogues and schools. Those positions have drawn sharp criticism from Zionist Jewish organizations. At the same time, the mayor has made consistent gestures of outreach. The week before the seder, he helped load Passover food for Orthodox families at a Chasdei Lev distribution event in Brooklyn and met with an Orthodox businessman who showed him a Civil War-era Haggadah. A City Hall spokesperson confirmed he also hosted a private Passover dinner for city workers. Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, a rabbi and human rights activist, appeared at the seder via video from Israel.
The Larger Moment: Passover in a Year of Rising Antisemitism
The Downtown Seder took place against a backdrop of rising antisemitism in New York City and across the country. The Department of Homeland Security funding shutdown has stalled federal grants for nonprofit security, leaving many Jewish institutions dependent on city and state resources. Council Speaker Menin co-hosted a separate interfaith seder with the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the City Council passed two bills directing the NYPD to craft a plan for managing protests around houses of worship and schools, a measure that some observers interpreted as a partial counterweight to Mamdani’s refusal to support similar standalone legislation. Other political figures marked Passover in visible ways. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker hosted a seder with Jewish leaders. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro held a family seder and marked the first anniversary of the arson attack on his official residence. Gov. Kathy Hochul joined children at a model seder in Brooklyn.
The Forward and the Tradition of Jewish Public Life
The Forward, a Jewish American publication founded in 1897 and now a nonprofit newsroom, has covered Mamdani’s relationship with Jewish communities with depth and nuance. Its reporting makes clear that the Jewish community in New York is not monolithic: progressive Jewish organizations like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice have embraced Mamdani, while Zionist organizations have sharply criticized him. The seder Mamdani attended is, at its heart, an event organized by and for the kind of Jewish New Yorkers who see the Exodus story as a call to justice rather than as a basis for political alignment with any particular government. In his own words, Mamdani has framed Passover as a reminder to resist “Pharaohs” including Trump, ICE and the rise of antisemitism. Whether that framing satisfies, offends or simply provokes thought in Jewish New York depends entirely on who is reading it. The Seeds of Peace organization, which benefited from the seder proceeds, works with young people from regions including the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa. More information on antisemitism trends in New York City is available through the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council.
