New York City mayor-elect and LGBTQ+ ally Zohran Mamdani recently appointed a trans woman to his transition team. The woman, Abby Stein, is also a rabbi and she supported Zohran through his candidacy as a member of the “Jews for Zohran” campaign which rallied Jewish voters for Mamdani.
Mamdani will be the first Muslim mayor of New York city, the second Democratic Socialist mayor in the city’s history, and the youngest since 1892. Throughout his campaign, Mamdani focused on decreasing the costs of living for New Yorkers, bettering public transport, and supporting marginalized people, including the LGBTQ+ community.
Last week, the mayor-elect announced he had appointed over 400 people onto 17 different committees to help him build his new vision of New York City’s government. In a statement on the appointments, Mamdani said “a love for hard-work, a deep belief in the promise of New York City, and a commitment to the affordability agenda that New Yorkers are demanding unite the more than 400 experts we have appointed to our Transition Committees today.”
He went on to say: “By helping us recruit top talent and develop smart policy, these Committees will be instrumental to ensuring we hit the ground running on January 1st — and that our results align with the promises we’ve made.”
Stein, who is an ex-Orthodox Jew, is currently an activist and rabbi at Brooklyn’s progressive Kolot Chayein synagogue, according to Pink News. Stein has said she’s known she was trans since the age of four despite growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn.
“We know Zohran will fight to make our city affordable and safe for our families,” Stein said.
Pink News reports right-wingers expressed outrage at Stein’s appointment, with some labeling her a “transgender, an anti-Zionist, and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace/Gaza.” Another Jewish activist Matt Bernstein responded writing “so in other words an absolute queen.”
