Do Jews Have a Place in New York Magazine’s ‘Habibi City’?

A new issue in New York Magazine, the first under the press scion James Murdoch, puts in sharp relief the increasingly precarious place of Jews at Mayor Mamdani’s New York City. The multi-part feature, headlined “Habibi City,” hails the rise of a new “cultural ecosystem” centered on members of “SWANA” groups. The acronym stands for Southwest Asia and North Africa, but also includes “countries from Palestine to Iran to Sudan.”The animating factor of what New York calls the “current scene” — and of the magazine chronicling it — appears to be seething resentment toward the Jewish state, which is very much not welcome at Habibi City. One article, “When Eating Out Is Political,” describes a “cheerful tourist-style map in which the land mass currently called Israel is titled ‘Discover Palestine.’” Israel is a country “so richly funded and supported by our own.”The author of that piece, Madeline Leung Coleman, laments that Israeli chefs “gave themselves permission to be expensive” while SWANA chefs were condemned to be “quick, cheap, outer-borough.” New York reckons that while the rise of Habibi City has been “beautiful to witness, none of this means SWANA New Yorkers don’t still face xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Zionism” — equating Jewish self-determination with prejudice.The magazine reckons that “While Israel is geographically part of the region, the question of whether Israelis can claim a connection to it, particularly given the political framework of terms like SWANA, is complicated.” Not complicated is that while “Mr. Mamdani is not technically from the SWANA region” — he hails from Uganda — “he is deeply embedded in its culture.” He and his wife make it “look fun to be Swana adjacent.”Ms. Leung Coleman reports that one friend was so “horrified by Israel’s genocide, she and her other Jewish friends started consulting restaurants’ social-media posts to discern the owners’ political views before agreeing to eat there.” One Jewish Israeli chef, Loren Abramovitch, tells her that “Deep, deep in my mind, I think I have all the authority in the world to make falafel, but at the same time, I understand that it’s going to be a mess.” Hold the hummus.The issue is replete with references to October 7, but entirely silent on what happened that day. Instead, non-negotiable to the “SWANA community” is that “what happened in Gaza in the aftermath of October 7 constitutes a genocide.” Other key beliefs are that “social justice and social welfare override capitalist concerns. That to care is nonnegotiable.” It’s all a “decolonial framework and a way of moving through the world.”New York Magazine, which once published the likes of Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic,” has since October 7 been obsessively anti-Israel. Not that New York isn’t changing demographically. The Sun noted in September that the “number of Muslim New Yorkers could now exceed the city’s Jewish population. That amounts to a demographic shift, and a largely under-reported one, with significant implications for the future of the city.”New York City has always been a welcoming place where people from all over thrive — and where difference is enriching. The metropolis imagined in the pages of New York Magazine this week is one where there is no place for Jews or Israelis. Its governing spirit appears to be not plurality but a purge of those New Yorkers who already face surging antisemitism. In seeking to name a new fad, the magazine lends a microphone to the oldest hate.

Do Jews Have a Place in New York Magazine’s ‘Habibi City’?

Do Jews Have a Place in New York Magazine’s ‘Habibi City’?

More from the New York Sun

The Fight Ahead Over the Pied-à-Terre Tax

A Working-Class Party Without Workers

Gaza’s Missing Famine

Brooklyn Family Wins Pied-à-Terre Relief After Speaking to The New York Sun

Lamborghini Built the Wrong Urus

El-Sayed Under Fire for Deleted Videos Claiming Southern Border Not Important Issue, Calling for Replacement of Second Amendment

Florida Investigates New York Times’ ‘Documented Failures’ in Israel Coverage, Claiming Errors Could Harm Millions of Retirees

Clothing Brand Aimed at Protecting Women’s Sports Enjoys Record Sales

More from the New York Sun

The Fight Ahead Over the Pied-à-Terre Tax

A Working-Class Party Without Workers

Gaza’s Missing Famine

Brooklyn Family Wins Pied-à-Terre Relief After Speaking to The New York Sun

Lamborghini Built the Wrong Urus

El-Sayed Under Fire for Deleted Videos Claiming Southern Border Not Important Issue, Calling for Replacement of Second Amendment

Florida Investigates New York Times’ ‘Documented Failures’ in Israel Coverage, Claiming Errors Could Harm Millions of Retirees

Clothing Brand Aimed at Protecting Women’s Sports Enjoys Record Sales