Andrew Cuomo attends a rally in Kew Gardens, Queens.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
A whole lot of Jewish New Yorkers and supporters rallied in Queens on Sunday for NYC mayoral candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the unbiased who has been vocal about standing with Israel and Jewish New Yorkers.
Cuomo addressed the group, led by the Bukharian Motion Council, on the Kew Gardens Hills Library on Vleigh Place on Oct. 26 to specific his help for defending Jewish values and Israel. Greater than 300 individuals attended the occasion.
“The Jewish community made New York, New York,” mentioned Cuomo, a borough native who graduated from Archbishop Molloy Excessive Faculty in close by Briarwood. “New York is not New York without the Jewish community.”
Cuomo went on to debate key points that New Yorkers of all backgrounds are involved about, together with housing, crime and transit, whereas making jabs at considered one of his adversaries within the race, frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
Cuomo attended a rally in Kew Gardens, Queens, in help of Israel and Jewish New Yorkers.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
“This is an important election,” the candidate mentioned. “First, the city itself. There is work that we need to do. There is an affordability crisis, and the real answer is to build more affordable housing, and I’m going to build 500,000 additional units. We need more public safety, and we have to hire 5,000 more police and put 1,500 in the subways. We have to send a different signal to business, and we have to say to the businesses, ‘We want you to stay here.’”
Cuomo mentioned Mamdani shouldn’t be geared up to guide the town, citing a scarcity of expertise in metropolis authorities — one thing he passionately reiterated through the second mayoral debate on Oct. 22.
“There is no on-the-job training for mayor,” Cuomo mentioned. “God forbid there’s a crisis, there’s a hurricane, there’s a flood, a terrorist attack. You need a mayor who knows and has the experience.”
Ruben Davidoff attended the occasion in help of Cuomo. A Bukharian Jew who escaped the Soviet Union 37 years in the past, he mentioned his vote might be for the previous governor, and never Mamdani, who’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Why did we come to this country? Why did we run away from the Soviet Union? The Soviet Union was a socialist country. It does not work,” he advised the group. “We had over 2 million people in the Soviet Union, most of them fled, fled from oppression, flee, whatever other things we’ve been oppressed. If we become a socialist country or socialist city, only a few people up top would be getting basically the best out of the best. Everybody else will suffer. Do not vote for Mamdani.”
The rally happened simply sooner or later after early voting started in NYC and in the midst of a heated mayoral race wherein frontrunner Mamdani has typically been criticized for his statements made about Israel and the conflict in Gaza.
The group passionately chanted numerous messages in help of Israel, together with, “We will not be erased” and “We will stand for our Jewish community.” 
NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo in Queens.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Paul Brody, M.D., who attended the rally, mentioned Cuomo will “do great” as mayor of NYC.
“I think he’s the most prepared person for the job,” the physician mentioned. “The fact that he was the governor for the state, so therefore, he knows about New York City, which is integral, the most integral part of the whole state, from certain aspects. Certainly, we don’t want to get any other parts of the state upset by that statement. He just has the experience, and he’s been around.”
Roman, who got here from Brooklyn to attend the occasion, mentioned Cuomo has a resume that makes him match to guide the town.
“He’s done everything from helping New York at the local level with homelessness. Andrew has been in D.C. with [Housing and Urban Development],” the Cuomo supporter mentioned. “So he’s done everything that it comes to from housing and affordability, and these days, quality-of-life really takes everything from affordability straight through quality-of-life. So I trust Andrew much more on crime than some of Mamdani’s policies.”
