This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 71 days to the election.
If you want to understand frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, you should know about one of his biggest influences: Marc Kagan. Mamdani often says that Kagan, who taught him social studies at Bronx Science, was “one of the best teachers” he ever had.
Kagan, whose parents were both children of Russian Jewish immigrants, worked as a mechanic and a union activist for the city’s transit system before he became a teacher. He is the older brother of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who pushed Lincoln Square Synagogue to allow her a bat mitzvah ceremony in 1973.
Kagan, who no longer teaches at Bronx Science, is mutually impressed by his former student, he said in an interview with Chalkbeat last week. He praised Mamdani’s campaign focus on slogans around affordability, saying he articulated issues “in a way that people grasp and could understand and identify with.”
He also defended Mamdani from other educators who have linked his critical views of Israel to antisemitism. After the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Mamdani, we spoke with Jewish teachers who decided to withhold their dues in protest.
Kagan is not in their camp. “There are people in New York City, in the UFT, that believe criticism of Israel is antisemitic,” he said. “They’re wrong.”
Mamdani has had critical words for another (unnamed) Jewish teacher he had at Bronx Science. In an oral history project published in 2016, Mamdani, who graduated in 2010, described a math teacher who “tailed my ass” after he forged hall passes allowing students to leave class, according to a recent Politico report. The teacher, Mamdani said, was “a graduate of the Israeli Defense Forces” who had “tailed brown guys for a long time.”
