Dan Goldman is a pos. one of the worst in Congress.

A Jewish Democrat’s Support of Israel May Cost Him His N.Y.C. House Seat

Representative Dan Goldman is being challenged over his stance on the war in Gaza as he faces Brad Lander in a contentious race in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

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A crowd of people, some carrying Israeli and American flags, march in a parade.

The Israel Day parade provided an example of the divide over Israel between the candidates in a closely watched House race: Representative Dan Goldman attended, while his opponent, Brad Lander, did not.Credit...Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Liam Stack

By Liam Stack

June 17, 2026

Updated 8:21 a.m. ET

On a recent sunny Sunday on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Representative Dan Goldman was marching in the Israel Day parade alongside other elected Democrats and a delegation of Israeli officials.

At the same time, his primary challenger, Brad Lander, was canvassing voters in the East Village with volunteers from a group that has backed claims by human rights groups and a United Nations commission that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

That split-screen image underscored how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become an inescapable issue in the 10th District, one of the most progressive and most Jewish districts in America, at a time when New York’s Jewish community has become increasingly divided along political and generational lines.

Both candidates are Jewish and describe themselves as liberal Zionists. But Mr. Lander has marshaled shifting public attitudes to turn Mr. Goldman’s defense of Israel — which aligns with the longtime status quo in American politics — into a potent line of attack. And he seems to have found an audience: Mr. Lander appears to hold a significant lead, though polling on primary races in New York is scant.

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Gili Getz, an Israeli American filmmaker in the East Village, said the race was “very personal” for many Jewish New Yorkers.

“It’s not just between Lander and Goldman — it’s between us and ourselves,” he said. “I think that voters will have to decide in this district what type of politics we prefer going forward in these very scary and horrifying times for Jews, Muslims, Palestinians and all New Yorkers.”

Two Different Visions

Mr. Lander, the former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, said he was inspired to enter the race largely because of Mr. Goldman’s support for Israel. Mr. Lander has argued that that viewpoint represents the ways in which the incumbent is out of touch with the district, which includes neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn.

Polls show a majority of Americans now hold a critical view of Israel; that includes 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, according to the Pew Research Center.

“There’s no doubt that the landscape has moved dramatically away from sympathy for Israel as Israel has acted in utterly unsympathetic ways,” Mr. Lander said.

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Mr. Lander, 56, has spent decades immersed in the world of progressive Jewish politics, including issues related to the Middle East. On the day of the parade, he was canvassing with volunteers from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a left-leaning group that has backed Mayor Zohran Mamdani. While serving in the City Council — representing neighborhoods with large Jewish populations, including Park Slope and Borough Park — he worked with both conservative-leaning ultra-Orthodox groups and left-wing Jewish activists. As comptroller, he chose not to repurchase State of Israel bonds that had matured.

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Brad Lander speaks into a microphone at a rally in front of a sign that reads “Trump: Jews Say No More.”

Mr. Lander’s stance as a progressive Jewish candidate who objects to Israel’s conduct in Gaza has brought him both support and criticism.Credit...Scott Heins for The New York Times

Mr. Lander has said Israel committed genocide during its military campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and has described its treatment of Palestinians as apartheid. He has urged the United States to halt aid to the country, pledged not to take money from pro-Israel lobbying groups and refused to participate in events like the Israel Day parade.

His stance has drawn both support and criticism. In the East Village, Mr. Lander was stopped on the street several times by well-wishers and admirers. But he also occasionally encountered posters opposing his campaign, including one with a message that used his own self-description as an insult — “Brad Lander is a proud Zionist!” — which made him both chuckle and sigh.

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“It’s a complicated world, and you try to move through it with your values intact,” he said. “I believe in the vision of a Jewish and democratic Israel, but what’s there now is not living up to Jewish or democratic values.”

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His opponent, Mr. Goldman, a Levi Strauss heir, was elected to Congress in 2022 after working as a federal prosecutor and lead counsel on the 2019 impeachment inquiry into President Trump. He is estimated to be one of the wealthiest members of Congress and pledged in April to match every donation to his campaign, underscoring the seriousness of Mr. Lander’s challenge.

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Dan Goldman, wearing a dark suit, walks outside next to a woman at night.

Mr. Goldman has faced attacks over his friendliness toward the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a hard-line pro-Israel lobbying group.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Mr. Goldman, 50, said in an interview that he was raised to treasure Israel as a safe haven for the world’s Jews. He backs a two-state solution and says he does not support the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he has voted for no new U.S. military aid to Israel since 2024. But he has opposed banning such aid, saying it gives the United States leverage in the bilateral relationship.

Mr. Goldman also said he has seen no evidence that Israel has committed genocide. He objects to the use of the word “occupation” to describe its 59-year military presence in Palestinian territories, though he declined to say what term he would use.

And he has made a point of attending events like the Israel Day parade. This year, he was one of many New York Democrats forced to distance themselves from Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotritch, who represented the Israeli government at the event.

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‘Not the Most Important Issue’

Mr. Goldman has sometimes struggled to contain his irritation when asked about Israel during the campaign. He has called the debate a distraction from the issues affecting voters, including affordability and Mr. Trump’s agenda, and has derided Mr. Lander as a cynical “career politician.”

“I am disappointed that my opponent is trying to use this issue as a campaign platform because, as he well knows, it’s very complicated,” Mr. Goldman said in the interview.

He accused Mr. Lander of deploying ideologically charged language when speaking about the war in Gaza, arguing that focusing on the “terminology” of the conflict undermined the ultimate goal of ending it, and that words like genocide “are losing their meaning because they’re being used as political footballs.”

He said the news media had become overly focused on “opinions that are not based on any historical knowledge or understanding of the region.”

During a televised debate in early June, the moderators and Mr. Lander repeatedly brought up Israel, and it dominated much of the evening.

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“Israel is not the most important issue in this district,” Mr. Goldman said tersely on the debate stage. “What is most important, that I hear from the voters, is Donald Trump in the White House tearing our immigrant neighbors away, destroying our democracy, corrupting everything from the White House and taking away health care, food benefits.”

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Mr. Goldman speaks to a masked agent wearing a vest that says “FBI” while another masked agent stands in the background and a camera films.

Mr. Goldman has been critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.Credit...Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press

Despite his efforts to redirect the conversation, Mr. Goldman has also drawn fire from the left, including from Mr. Lander, over his friendliness toward the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a hard-line pro-Israel lobbying group.

Mr. Goldman has accepted the endorsements of both AIPAC and J Street, a more liberal pro-Israel group, in the primary. His spokeswoman said he has not accepted donations from AIPAC during this electoral cycle, but that he does accept contributions from individuals who donate through the group’s website. He has accepted its donations in past campaigns and even met his wife, Corinne Levy Goldman, at an AIPAC event a decade before he held office.

Supporters of Mr. Goldman echo his concerns about the way the war in Gaza has shaped the race. Andres Spokoiny, the chief executive of a Jewish philanthropy network, accused Mr. Lander of “injecting Israel into the race at every opportunity.”

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He pointed to a recent moment of tension in the district — the Park Slope Food Co-op’s vote to boycott Israeli goods, a move that both candidates said they opposed — as an example of a larger trend that has made some Jews feel unsafe.

“The context is a big part of the issue,” said Mr. Spokoiny, who lives in Park Slope. “This is a context in which mainstream Zionist Jews in Brooklyn feel unwelcome, uncomfortable and pushed away.”

‘Which Side Are You On?’

The prospect of a Lander victory has alarmed some pro-Israel Jewish leaders who reject the way Mr. Lander talks about Israel and say they are unsettled by his relationship with Mr. Mamdani, whom he cross-endorsed in last year’s Democratic mayoral primary and backed in the general election.

Mr. Goldman declined to endorse Mr. Mamdani in either the primary or in the general election, citing concerns about his response to antisemitism. He has also criticized other elected officials who have spoken about Israel in ways similar to the mayor, and voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib for her comments about Israel.

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Mr. Mamdani won in much of the 10th District and endorsed Mr. Lander for the seat one month later, giving a lift to Mr. Lander’s candidacy.

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Mr. Lander leans toward Mayor Zohran Mamdani who holds a candle.

Mr. Lander and Mayor Zohran Mamdani have been allied since the Democratic mayoral primary last year.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Mr. Lander’s critics have also expressed dismay at his association with two other progressive primary challengers whom Mr. Mamdani has endorsed: Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, who are both democratic socialists and strong critics of Israel. All three candidates appeared with the mayor in a recent ad promoting their campaigns.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the president of the New York Board of Rabbis and senior rabbi at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform temple on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, said it was “quite astonishing” that New York City’s congressional delegation could soon include Mr. Lander, Ms. Avila Chevalier and Ms. Valdez.

Rabbi Hirsch said he found Mr. Lander’s campaign to be “disturbing,” taking issue in particular with his use of the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions, which he said generates hatred toward Jews. He called that accusation “a modern-day blood libel” and an example of a new litmus test that pushes Democrats to embrace positions that alarm many pro-Israel Jews.

But supporters of Mr. Lander view his stance on Israel as a sign of his moral clarity.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, the rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Chelsea, said that “arguing over specific words, I think, is not the point.” She said people should focus on the human suffering at a time of war and “the values that are violated by certain behaviors” of the Israeli government.

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Rabbi Kleinbaum said she has known and liked both candidates for years but backs Mr. Lander because he is “a real mensch” who had taken “very serious and complicated positions” on difficult issues.

“He’s in a tough position,” she said. “The world wants things to be like a simplistic game between sports teams, and one side is going to win and one side is going to lose, and which side are you on?”

Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5874902&forum_id=2E#49943904)