New York has a New Mayor

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered a $10 million donation following the 9/11 attacks on a visit to Ground Zero with New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, on October 11, 2001. Alongside the donation, the prince issued a statement calling on the U.S. to reassess its Middle East policies and adopt a more balanced approach to the Palestinian issue. Giuliani publicly refused the donation and strongly denounced the prince's comments. He stated that equating the attackers with U.S. policy was "highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous.” ​ In 2014, while Israel fought Hamas in Gaza, the FAA, in a politicized decision from the Obama administration, canceled all flights to and from Israel with US carriers. (Hamas later referred to the FAA decision as a strategic victory.) Only El Al was flying, and many were understandably worried about traveling to Israel. One person who was not worried was another NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg. He traveled on El Al to Israel during the war. Bloomberg said, “his goal was to demonstrate that it was safe to fly in and out of Israel and to protest the US flight ban, which he called a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory". ​ Bloomberg, Guilani, and current Mayor Eric Adams are from a long line of great friends to the Jewish Community and Israel. Given that over 1.3 million Jews live in the Greater NYC area, it makes sense that the Mayor would seek to align with the Jewish Community's priorities. That is why it is so disconcerting to see this once great city about to elect someone who is sympathetic to terrorists who seek to destroy Israel. Oh, and he also doesn’t believe Israel should be a Jewish State. ​ There is much to unpack here, but this unwelcome development has caused much unease and anxiety across the Jewish Community well beyond NYC. One perspective from some people is that it’s time to move out of NYC, as it’s now unwelcome to Jews, and seek a safer place like Florida. It was not too long ago that people saw NYC as a safe and ideal place for Jews to live and thrive. If NYC is not living up to that ideal, then it’s just the latest example of places that Jews, after a while of climbing to the highest echelon of society, are confronted with the unwelcome reality. Simply saying, "let’s move to another state," does not appreciate the historical pattern. Yes, we are very grateful to our Governor and all the elected officials in Florida for being such great friends and allies, but the political winds are always subject to blowing in another direction. ​ We read about our Patriarch Avraham, and he famously referred to himself as a גר ותושב. The basic translation is a “stranger and a resident.” Avraham was teaching us that we must embrace tension as we live as both strangers and residents. It was just about 100 years ago, in the 1922 parliamentary elections in Poland, that Jewish politicians won 34 seats in the Sejm (the lower house of parliament) and 22 in the Senate. While not to draw a clear parallel, to the Jewish story in the USA, it behooves us to always live with our eyes wide open. In this week's parsha, we once again read that G-d told Avraham,”to your descendants, I will give this land.” The parcel of land is not in NYC, Florida, or anywhere else in the diaspora. The current mayoral candidate in NYC, is just the latest figure in the Jewish story of at least 3,000 years of our rich and tortured history to remind us of this uncomfortable truth. ​ Have a Peaceful Shabbos, ​ Rabbi Yaakov Fisch