Hassaan Chaudhary, a key figure in the transition team of New York City's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D.
), has been found to have used the term "Jew" as a derogatory remark, lauded the notoriously anti-Semitic former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his statement that Israel is a "cancer which will be eliminated very soon," and referred to Israel as a "bloody country," as per social media posts discovered on Sunday.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Chaudhary, who identified himself on LinkedIn as the political director for Mamdani's transition and inaugural committee and the director of Muslim engagement for the Mamdani campaign, penned most of these posts approximately a decade ago. The New York Post reported on Sunday that Chaudhary has since removed his LinkedIn and X accounts.
In a post from November 2012, Chaudhary wrote, "There is a barbaric nation who's killing indigents and innocent Palestinians called ISRAEL. TALK about it. #stupid media." He also referred to Israel as a 'bloody country' for suggesting that a pro-Palestinian resolution was undermining peace rather than fostering it.
Chaudhary even went to the extent of applauding Ahmadinejad as "fearless" for having "declared Israel as cancer which will be eliminated very soon." In another 2012 post, he used the anti-Semitic Urdu phrase "Jew hoga tera baap," which translates to "Jew will be your father."
As recently as December of last year, Chaudhary was found to have shared anti-Semitic content, when he retweeted a post aimed at Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.), who is Jewish and pro-Israel. The post read, "If Luigi [Mangione] had shot a Gazan toddler instead, Josh Shapiro would have given him a medal." Mangione is the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Jewish activists have expressed their disgust at these posts. Dov Hikind, a former Brooklyn assemblyman and the founder of the group Americans Against Antisemitism, told the Post, "This is Adolf Hitler language. It's antisemitic. It's a horror show." He added, "Mamdani sets the tone. It's a hate-filled administration."
Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic strategist, echoed Hikind's sentiments. "This advisor to the mayor is clearly by his own words a Jew-hater," he said. "The only issue: it always begins with the Jews but never ends with the Jews. Whos next on the list?"
The victory of Mamdani in the mayoral election has left many Jewish New Yorkers feeling apprehensive. During his campaign, Mamdani expressed support for "the idea" of the anti-Semitic phrase "globalize the intifada," which advocates violence against Jews and the State of Israel.
The U.S. Holocaust Museum in June criticized Mamdani for defending this phrase, stating, "Since 1987 Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history."
Despite the Holocaust Museum's condemnation, Mamdani campaigned with a radical imam who once called for a "jihad" in New York City. He has also pledged to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should the Israeli leader visit New York.
Chaudhary has since apologized for his comments in a statement to the Post, saying, "I apologize for my tweets, as they do not reflect my current views, or represent who I am today. Those comments from over a decade ago are not in line with how I see the world, and I look back at that rhetoric and mindset with deep regret."
However, a campaign spokeswoman contradicted Chaudhary's description of his role for Mamdani, stating he is only the mayor-elect's Muslim outreach director and not the transition team's political director. While she acknowledged that the comments "are reprehensible and in no way reflect the views of the Mayor-elect or this transition," she did not clarify whether Chaudhary would be dismissed from the transition team.
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