'Stay, fight,' Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch plans to tell Jewish New Yorkers on Yom Kippur

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, plans to deliver a Yom Kippur sermon urging Jewish New Yorkers to "Stay and fight" amid rising antisemitism. Hirsch noted that congregants have inquired about leaving New York City or the U.S., a sentiment he described as "unprecedented talk" in his 40-plus years in the city. He emphasized the essential role Jews have played in New York's history, stating, "New York as we know it would not be New York as we know it without the Jews." Hirsch also criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani's strained relationship with the mainstream Jewish community, citing Mamdani's accusations of "genocide" against Israel and calls for the Israeli prime minister's arrest. Hirsch, who is president of the New York Board of Rabbis, will advise Jews to demand that political parties earn their vote and warns that "unhinged and obsessive loathing of Israel is corrupting American values."