It should be beyond debate that the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 were real, horrific, and included documented acts of unimaginable sexual violence against Israeli women. Dear friends of mine witnessed those attacks. They still live with the memories every single day. Denying those crimes is not political discourse. It is cruelty toward the victims, their families, and every Jew who has internalized what happened that day and continues to carry that pain alongside those who directly suffered.
That evidence is not in question. The United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict found "clear and convincing information" that sexual violence occurred during the October 7 attacks. The UN Commission of Inquiry confirmed acts of rape and gang rape at the Nova music festival, along Route 232, and across multiple kibbutzim. This is not a matter of interpretation. It is a matter of record.
That’s why the recent controversy surrounding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the social media activity of his wife, Rama Duwaji, demands a far more serious response than we have gotten so far. Duwaji liked more than 70 Instagram posts endorsing extreme anti-Israel positions in the immediate aftermath of October 7. One post framed the massacre as "resistance," showing images of Hamas fighters on a captured IDF vehicle with the words "Resisting apartheid since 1948." Another post she engaged with called The New York Times' investigation into Hamas sexual violence a fabrication — a "mass rape hoax." She also liked posts from organizations that led rallies in Times Square the day after the attack, events that celebrated the breach of Israel's border as an act of liberation.
Mayor Mamdani’s response has been to call his wife "a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall." Full stop.
I’m not suggesting spouses are responsible for one another’s views. Lord knows I disagree with my husband plenty. But there is a difference between a private disagreement and a public record of liking posts that celebrate a terrorist massacre and call documented sexual violence a hoax. That difference matters. And in a city this size, with a Jewish community this large, a mayor's silence on that record sends its own message.
I work with mayors and local leaders across North America who are on the front lines of responding to rising antisemitism, they understand how conspiracy theories, denialism, and inflammatory rhetoric can translate into real fear in neighborhoods, schools, and houses of worship. They know that words have weight. They know that silence from a leader is itself a statement. So, why doesn’t Mayor Mamdani?
The numbers in New York City make this urgency impossible to ignore. Anti-Jewish hate crimes increased 182% in January 2026 compared to January 2025, according to the NYPD. The ADL tracked a record-breaking 976 antisemitic incidents in New York City in 2024, the highest count in any U.S. city since the ADL began tracking such incidents. From swastikas in Boro Park playgrounds to a car ramming at Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Jewish New Yorkers are not living in the abstract. They are living with this.
No serious leader should ever tolerate someone mocking or denying reports of sexual violence. When reports emerged of Russian sexual violence in Ukraine, people responded with horror and demands for accountability, not sneering denial. The standard of moral outrage cannot shift based on the identity of the victim. If it does, it is not a standard at all.
At its essence, this is about more than antisemitism. It’s about whether we are willing to stand against the normalization of hate and the denial of violence. Denialism is not a neutral act. It is an active choice to erase the suffering of real people. And when that denialism is amplified by someone adjacent to a position of public trust, it tells every Jewish New Yorker exactly how much their pain matters to the people who govern them.
Mayor Mamdani has said publicly that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that October 7 was a horrific war crime. Those words are on the record. But words spoken at a press conference carry a different weight when the person closest to you is, at the same time, on record liking posts that call those same events a hoax. New Yorkers can see the gap between what a leader says and what a leader tolerates. That gap matters in the synagogues of Crown Heights, in the schools of Borough Park, in the community centers of the Upper West Side.
True leadership requires saying clearly and without caveat that denying the suffering of victims is wrong. Not redirecting to privacy. Not managing the optics. Saying it plainly. And if that means a difficult conversation at home, so be it. The NYC Council is already moving. Speaker Julie Menin has advanced a five-point legislative plan to combat antisemitism, including new security resources for houses of worship and a dedicated hate crime hotline. The Council is acting. The question is whether the mayor will lead alongside them or continue to step around the issue while the community absorbs the cost. October 7 was real. The victims were real. The trauma is real. The sexual violence was real and documented by the United Nations, by independent researchers, by first responders, and by survivors themselves. Denying that reality, or failing to confront those who do, only deepens the wounds and further divides our city.
Leadership is not measured by how deftly one avoids discomfort, but by whether one is willing to speak the truth when it matters most. This is one of those moments. New Yorkers deserve nothing less.
Lisa Katz serves as chief government affairs officer at the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and previously held elected office as town supervisor in New Castle, N.Y.