What an Uber ride in New York City revealed about antisemitism today and what we can learn from Israel

Two weeks ago, I spent the week in New York City, my hometown and the place that still calls itself the global capital of tolerance and progress. Yet during a simple Uber ride, I heard something that shocked me as an American and as a Jew.

My driver calmly explained that the devil has taken over the world, that only a caliphate can restore order and that women invite rape by the way they dress. He delivered these views with total confidence, as if they were now part of mainstream conversation. This was not whispered extremism. This was Midtown Manhattan on a weekday morning.

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This climate did not appear out of nowhere. Political figures like Zohran Mamdani, the incoming mayor, normalized antisemitism and excused extremist rhetoric that undermines Jewish safety. When elected officials erase the moral boundaries that once protected minority communities, ordinary people take it as permission to go even further. New York is beginning to tolerate ideas that contradict American values and place Jews in real danger.

Then I arrived in Jerusalem for the Sabbath.

Within hours, my children were playing freely with Arab children in Liberty Bell Park. At the skate park, Israeli teens and Arab teens were sharing bikes and boards without hesitation. A young Arab boy named Ayub ran up to me with his arms raised, and his mother smiled in approval. There was no tension. No division. Only families living their lives.

Later that weekend in Tel Aviv, I met a gay Arab-Israeli (yes, read that again) who was relaxing on the beach, having a drink and enjoying a level of personal freedom that would be impossible in much of the region. He spoke openly and comfortably. It was a simple moment, yet a powerful one. Israel, despite its challenges, is a place where people of different identities and backgrounds can live freely and authentically.

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This is reality on the ground, not the curated narrative, the lived truth.

Meanwhile, in New York, the city that prides itself on moral clarity, my driver was outlining a theocratic worldview and hinting that violence is justified when society does not follow his religious rules. When political leaders legitimize antisemitism or minimize extremist ideas, people who hold those ideas no longer feel constrained. They feel validated. They feel emboldened. And Jewish communities feel more vulnerable.

Israel continues to uphold values of coexistence, diversity and personal freedom that New York is drifting away from. American Jews feel this shift. We see antisemitism creeping into political speech and spilling into public behavior. It emboldens those who target or intimidate Jews. It weakens the foundations of safety that once defined New York.

Mayor-elect Mamdani’s antisemitism is not harmless rhetoric. It shapes the tone of the city. It creates an environment where a Manhattan driver feels comfortable describing a world ruled by Sharia and implying that an Oct. 7 style attack could be justified because society does not conform to his religious standards. That is not normal. That is not acceptable. And that is not the New York that generations before us worked so hard to build.

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I refuse to stay silent. I will stand up for my children. I will stand up for their friends. I will stand up for every generation that fought for freedom and against persecution. That is why I work with NCSY and its Jewish Student Union program as they confront antisemitism in America’s schools. It is why I work with the Yad Vashem USA Foundation to preserve memory and truth at a time when both are under attack.

Two weeks. Two cities. Two starkly different realities. Only one is protecting the values the world claims to cherish.

New York must decide whether it will continue down a path shaped by extremism and antisemitism or whether it will reclaim the principles that once made it a beacon of freedom.

Lady Liberty, I am worried about you.