Jews who voted for NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani are "idiot[s]" for embracing a candidate who runs "contrary to their own identity," Jewish Harvard law professor and attorney Alan Dershowitz said on Wednesday during an appearance on former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's show.
“That's your city! That's your city, Mayor,” Dershowitz said to Giuliani. “The same city electing Rudy Giuliani and Mamdani to the same office. It is absurd. I mean, Mamdani should be the mayor of Tehran,” said Dershowitz.
Dershowitz continued, saying, “My people, the idiot Jews, in New York, who live on the Upper West Side, who live in Park Slope, who voted for Mamdani- remind me of the 7,000 Jews who voted for Hitler.”
“Seven thousand Jews formed a party in 1932 and voted for Hitler, thinking he would be good for the economy.” Dershowitz concluded, “Thank God, we have Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, and other Americans who have a lot more sense than many Jewish Americans do.”
Giuliani interjected briefly, saying, “There are a lot of very strong Jews on this issue.”
Conversation comes after US Supreme Court ruling against Trump
The two agreed that “nothing woke them up in 1932,” referring to Jews who continued to back Nazi-figures as the war began.
“You’d think they'd learn their lesson,” Dershowitz said, “but no, they vote for Brad Lander.”
Brad Lander, an anti-Israel Jewish-American candidate, is the Mamdani-endorsed nominee for New York's 10th congressional district, having defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman in last month's primary.
Dershowitz and Giuliani further discussed a wide range of issues, including birthright citizenship, transgender athletes in sports, and campaign finance limits.
The conversation comes shortly after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s Birthright Citizenship executive order, which attempted to end “birthright citizenship,” instead opting to reaffirm “one of the country’s most enduring constitutional principles: that nearly everyone born on US soil is a US citizen.”
Who are Giuliani, Dershowitz?
Giuliani, a member of the Republican Party who described himself as the tough-on-crime mayor who reshaped New York and led the city's response to 9/11, has since been permanently disbarred from practicing law for his role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election on Trump's behalf.
Dershowitz's own reputation has similarly faced scrutiny in recent years over his professional ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.
Dershowitz joined Epstein's legal team and helped negotiate the 2008 non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to serve a reduced sentence. He was later named in a since-withdrawn defamation claim by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who alleged in 2015 that Dershowitz had also abused her; Giuffre dropped those allegations against him in 2022, saying she "may have made a mistake."
Dershowitz has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged in connection with the case.