Andrew Cuomo apologized Wednesday for having “caused pain in the Jewish community” during his term as governor, citing decisions he made regarding COVID-era public health restrictions.
The apology came on the eve of Yom Kippur and in the form of a video shared with Orthodox rabbis who soured on Cuomo when he was governor and now may be considering endorsing him in his mayoral run.
“We could have done better, and for that, I am truly sorry,” Cuomo said in the video. “My intentions don’t change the impact, and I sincerely ask for your understanding. On this holy Day of Atonement, I am committed to learning these lessons.”
Cuomo’s relationship with Orthodox Jews had dimmed when he sought to enforce pandemic restrictions on gatherings in neighborhoods like Borough Park and Midwood — singling out haredi Orthodox communities, critics said. That October, the haredi umbrella body Agudath Israel of America sued him for discrimination.
In the video, which was shared with Orthodox rabbis, Cuomo said he’d “made decisions with the best of intentions to protect health and save lives.” But he said he understood why they had not always landed well.
“I recognize that some of those decisions caused pain in the Jewish community because we did not always fully consider the sensitivities and traditions that are so deeply important,” Cuomo said.
The video marked Cuomo’s first public apology for his handling of COVID-19 restrictions in Orthodox neighborhoods, where Cuomo imposed heavier restrictions due to high positivity rates that limited synagogue attendance seen as essential to religious and cultural practices. He has reportedly done so previously in meetings with Orthodox leaders and also said in an interview with VIN News before the primary that he “absolutely could have done more to meet with and talk to community leaders and rabbis” to ensure “their concerns were addressed.”
The apology comes days after Eric Adams, whose support from Orthodox Jews helped him win the 2021 mayoral election, ended his campaign for reelection. Cuomo has nabbed endorsements from an array of Orthodox organizations and community activists in the days since Adams dropped out, though many others have yet to endorse a candidate.
Cuomo is now in a three-man race against democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who is polling third.
Sliwa and his supporters have pointed to Cuomo’s COVID controversy — including on social media on Tuesday — in hopes of steering Orthodox voters away from Cuomo. (Sliwa also called attention to Cuomo’s pandemic executive order requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, seen as a contributor to high death rates in the facilities.) Both men are positioning themselves as the right challenger to take on Mamdani, the frontrunner and Democratic nominee.
“Cuomo’s team must’ve forgot Cuomo labeled the Jewish community as Dirty Disease Spreaders and barred them from religious gatherings, while going on the news each day and lighting fires of Antisemitism,” wrote one Sliwa supporter, who is a retired NYPD lieutenant, Wednesday morning before Cuomo’s video was shared publicly.
“Cuomo targeted Jewish communities during COVID and his deadly executive order led to the deaths of 15,000 seniors,” Sliwa wrote Tuesday, adding that “New York is moving forward.”
Some Orthodox Jews have responded positively to the apology.
“Finally Andrew Cuomo is saying what we were waiting for,” one user wrote. “A real apology. Thank you.”
For others, like X user Eli Steinberg, the video was too little too late:
“Cuomo’s ‘apology’ would perhaps mean more if he didn’t wait until his political career was about to end and he wasn’t reciting it straight off a script,” Steinberg wrote.
Keep Jewish Stories in Focus.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
