Episode Overview

Podcast: Call Me Back - with Dan Senor
Episode: PART 2: The Jewish-Mamdani Vote – with Donniel Hartman & Yossi Klein Halevi
Date: November 13, 2025

This episode explores the complexities facing New York City's Jewish community following the election of Zorin Mamdani, a candidate perceived by many as hostile to mainstream Jewish interests, and analyzes the dilemmas of American Jews who supported him. Dan Senor, Donniel Hartman, and Yossi Klein Halevi—well-known voices on Jewish thought and Israel-Diaspora relations—discuss what this moment reveals about evolving Jewish identity, the meaning of “troubled commitment” to Israel, and the sociopolitical rift between Jewish values and Israeli politics.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Troubled Committed” Jewish Voter

• Donniel Hartman introduces the category of Jews deeply invested in Israel but feeling alienated by its politics:
  • They are “committed and troubled at the same time” ([00:08]).
  • Recent right-wing Israeli policies and figures like Ben Gvir and Smotrich push them to question “what future does my relationship with Israel have?”
  • For these voters, support for Mamdani is "not an expression of an anti-Israel" stance; rather, “they're just tired. They don't want an Israel-centric relationship and they'll therefore vote for somebody because he reflects other liberal values” ([00:08]; [05:26]).

2. Overreaction and Data on the Jewish Mamdani Vote

• Dan Senor addresses a tendency to panic about growing anti-Israel sentiment among young Jews, pushing back on overreliance on flawed exit polls:
  • Points to a CNN poll claiming 30% of New York Jewish voters supported Mamdani, but calls such early polling unreliable—“It usually takes a few weeks for the very thorough exit polling to come out” ([04:25]).
  • Suspects the actual number of Jewish voters who supported Mamdani is “significantly lower,” but even 20% would be surprising ([04:46]).

3. Distinguishing Between Anti-Zionists and the Disaffected

• Hartman draws a line between small numbers of anti-Zionist Jews and the much larger group feeling alienated:
  • “It is absolutely clear that the percentage of Jews who are... Jews for Justice in Palestine and those other groups is minuscule. I'm not worried about this anti-Zionist phenomena... maybe 5%” ([05:26]).
  • More urgent is “when Jews become untroubled, uncommitted. It's just too different from my Judaism. It's too different from my values” ([06:20]).

4. Jewish American Support: Conditional and Complicated

• Senor and Hartman explore the evolution of American Jewish support for Israel across key dates:
  • Senor: On October 8th, even troubled Jews were “unequivocally with Israel. Not even a peep. Nothing completely” ([07:49]).
  • Hartman: By “February 15th... those who condemned Israel were anti-Semitic,” but many began grappling with Israel’s conduct during the war and adding “humanitarian aid” prayers in shul ([08:05]).

5. Discomfort with War—And Changing Social Media Dynamics

• Senor: Attributes discomfort with Israel partly to “discomfort with war. War is ugly.” The omnipresence of social media exacerbates this—“could you imagine, say, the Vietnam War with TikTok?” ([08:47]).
• Hartman: Counters that war’s “messiness” is not new to Israelis, but that “Israel also has to grow up,” reflecting on the importance of maintaining moral aspirations even in conflict ([10:21]).

6. The Core Debate: Security vs. Morality

• Hartman: “Security and liberal principles have been presented as opposing and they’re not. Israel is strongest when we advocate for both... Now for some reason, I have to choose between the two” ([14:47]).
  • Argues Israeli narrative and government messaging sometimes failed to express clear moral aspirations, which troubles liberal Diaspora Jews.

Notable Quotes and Moments

• “What's most dangerous for us as Jews is not when Jews become anti-Zionists. It's just when they don't care anymore, when they become untroubled, uncommitted.”
  — Donniel Hartman ([06:20])
• “Any country fighting a war... is gonna lose a little bit of its innocence... This is the first war fought in the social media age.”
  — Dan Senor ([09:08])
• “I walk around with a gun because I refuse to be a victim. I don't fit into classic American distinctions and dichotomies and polarities. All of Israel is a country that understands that in order to live, sometimes we're going to have to kill.”
  — Donniel Hartman ([10:21])
• “We are in a struggle now for holding on to the mainstream loyalty for Israel... the work is not primarily with the anti-Zionist Jews. It’s who are those Jews who simply didn't care one way or the other and empowered the camp that declared war on the mainstream American Jewish community.”
  — Yossi Klein Halevi ([21:20])

7. Political Realities: Israeli and US Contexts

• Senor: Stresses Israel’s government is a coalition system, complicating policymaking, and likens US administration moves post-October 7th to political management of their own coalitions ([17:31]).
  • Recalls a story where Blinken and Gallant discuss American campus protests:
    • Gallant: “This is not a problem with what we’re doing. You have a problem with how your country is raising its children...” ([16:16]).

8. Yossi Klein Halevi’s Perspective on Community Indifference

• Halevi: Emphasizes the symbolic importance of New York to global Jewry and takes Jewish support for Mamdani as a “vote of indifference, not just to Israel, but to... the desperation that so many American Jews feel towards the rise of Mamdani... The fact that so many Jews turned their backs on the rest of the Jewish community, never mind Israel...” ([21:42]).
  • Calls this not a “blip” but “a major moment in the history of American Jewry” ([23:44]).
  • Concerns about the break-up of the two-flag (Jewish and democratic) ideal that united American and Israeli Jews.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Hartman:

  • “People are committed to Israel, but are troubled with many of the things that Israel is doing and they're trying to maintain a relationship. Being committed and troubled at the same time.” ([00:08])
  • “What's most dangerous for us as Jews is not when Jews become anti-Zionists. It's just when they don't care anymore, when they become untroubled, uncommitted.” ([06:20])
  • “Israel also has to grow up. And we have to ask ourselves, how did we not fight this war? How did we talk about this war? What are the things that we could have done that could have ensconced our commitment to our moral principles?” ([10:21])

• Senor:

  • “Any country fighting a war, especially the kind of war Israel had to fight after October 7th, is gonna lose a little bit of its innocence... And I think it makes a lot of people uncomfortable.” ([09:08])
  • “War is messy. Politics is messy. War and politics mixed together is messy.” ([17:31])

• Halevi:

  • “The most important work... is there's an Israeli mainstream that needs to be put back together, and there's an American Jewish mainstream that needs to be put back together.” ([18:35])
  • “What worries me... are several things. First of all, what's happening on the extremes in both communities... in Israel, the far right is tearing apart democracy... In American Jewry, a small but growing fringe has basically detached from Israel as a Jewish state...” ([19:37])
  • “What Daniil is really talking about is a very powerful shift within the mainstream. And holding that mainstream together involves reaffirming the moral integrity of the Israeli project.” ([20:20])
  • “...the work is not primarily with the anti-Zionist Jews. It's who are those Jews who simply didn't care one way or the other and empowered the camp that declared war on the mainstream American Jewish community.” ([21:20])
  • “This is not a blip. This is a major moment in the history of American Jewry.” ([23:44])

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:08 | Hartman outlines the “committed but troubled” Jewish voter | | 03:08 | Reference to For Heaven’s Sake podcast, Mamdani’s support | | 04:22–04:46 | Discussion of unreliable polling data and real numbers | | 05:26–07:44 | Hartman on anti-Zionists vs. the alienated Jewish mainstream | | 09:08–10:21 | Debate over discomfort with war, social media, and “growing up” | | 13:47–14:47 | Hartman on security vs. morality: “Israel is strongest when…” | | 16:16–17:31 | Senor on US/Israeli politics, Gallant/Blinken anecdote | | 18:35–23:44 | Halevi’s reflection on indifference, “two flags” ideology |

Conclusion

The conversation underscores a critical moment for American Jewry and Israel-Diaspora relations: the challenge is not widespread anti-Zionism but apathy and the drift of committed Jews who no longer prioritize Israel due to perceived value clashes. The panelists urge both honest self-critique within Israel about its moral direction and a reckoning among American Jews about the dangers of disengagement. The episode closes with Halevi’s admonition that this is “a major moment in the history of American Jewry.”

For more in-depth exploration, listen to the full episode and consult the “For Heaven’s Sake” podcast by Hartman and Halevi, referenced throughout.