Rabbi to establish Jewish school outside NYC after Mamdani elected mayor

Rabbi Schneier said the initiative was already in motion in response to what he described as growing anxiety among New York Jews following the election.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

On the news that anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election, Rabbi Marc Schneier announced plans to establish what he called “the first Jewish day school in the Hamptons.”

In a statement posted on X, Schneier wrote that the new school would serve “the thousands of Jewish families that will flock to the Hamptons and greater Suffolk County to escape the antisemitic climate of Mamdani’s New York City.”

Schneier, the founding rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, said the initiative was already in motion in response to what he described as growing anxiety among New York Jews following the election.

The ADL’s national director and CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, released his own statement shortly after the race was called.

“In light of Mayor-elect Mamdani’s long, disturbing record on issues of deep concern to the Jewish community, we will approach the next four years with resolve,” he said. “We will neither compromise nor relent in our pursuit of our core purpose — to protect the Jewish people.”

Throughout the campaign, Greenblatt and Mamdani clashed repeatedly over the candidate’s statements on Israel, antisemitism, and protest rhetoric.

The ADL accused Mamdani of minimizing antisemitic incidents during demonstrations, while his campaign dismissed the organization’s criticism as politically motivated.

Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and state assemblyman from Queens, defeated former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

The ADL has pledged to “be relentless and unyielding” in pressing the new administration to take a firm stance against antisemitism and to safeguard Jewish life in the city.

Meanwhile, Schneier’s planned school in the Hamptons has already become a symbol of how deeply Mamdani’s victory has unsettled parts of New York’s Jewish community.