The Democratic primary in Queens on Tuesday didn’t just unseat an incumbent. It put a Jewish anti-Zionist in a seat of state power for the first time in memory. David Orkin, a 38-year-old attorney who represents immigrant workers and organizes unions, took 58.8 percent of the vote in State Assembly District 38.
Jenifer Rajkumar, who held the seat since 2021, got 40.9 percent. That’s a 17-point gap.
Not close. The district runs through Ridgewood, Glendale, Ozone Park, Woodhaven, and Richmond Hill. People there describe it as diverse.
It is. But the vote sent a signal that cuts across the usual ethnic and religious lines that define New York politics.
Orkin is Jewish. He ran as an anti-Zionist. He said it plainly: “It’s so incredibly meaningful to me to be running this race as an anti-Zionist Jew, to be one of the few anti-Zionist Jewish voices that is in an elected seat in the state government.” He didn’t hedge.
His campaign centered on Palestinian freedom. He argued that criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza — calling it genocide, demanding an end to the occupation, opposing U.S. funding for the war — is not antisemitism. That position won him the support of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which celebrated his victory on Instagram Tuesday night with the line “Pro-Palestine candidates are sweeping in NYC tonight.” The group added: “Palestine was on the ballot and won.” This is the stakes part.
A state assembly seat in Albany is a small office. It controls little on its own.
But the vote puts an anti-Zionist Jewish legislator inside New York’s government, where he will have a floor vote, a microphone, and a district to answer to. That changes the conversation. It makes a position that was marginal in Democratic politics a concrete fact of legislative life.
Orkin ran as a democratic socialist. He was one of several such candidates who had a strong night across the city.
The broader leftward shift in New York’s primaries has been building for years. This primary was its sharpest expression yet on the issue of Israel and Palestine. Rajkumar had the advantages of incumbency.
She had endorsements from establishment figures. She had name recognition. None of it held.
Orkin’s campaign was built on door-knocking, union support, and a message that resonated with a district that includes large South Asian, Latino, and immigrant communities. He is an immigrant workers’ rights attorney himself.
That mattered. What happens next is concrete. Orkin will go to Albany.
He will be one of the few anti-Zionist Jewish voices in any state legislature in the country. He said he wants to be a champion for Palestinian freedom there.
The primary win gives him the platform to try. The district did not just elect a candidate. It elected a position.
A Jewish anti-Zionist won in a Democratic primary in Queens. That is the fact. The consequences are not hypothetical.
They start in January, when the new session begins.
{“@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “NewsArticle”, “headline”: “Anti-Zionist Jewish attorney defeats Queens incumbent in Democratic primary”, “description”: “The Democratic primary in Queens on Tuesday didn’t just unseat an incumbent. It put a Jewish anti-Zionist in a seat of state power for the…”, “datePublished”: “2026-06-24T16:41:00+00:00T09:30:00+00:00”, “author”: {“@type”: “Person”, “name”: “Ava Anderson”}, “publisher”: {“@type”: “Organization”, “name”: “InfoPulse Today”, “url”: “https://newsfeed.infopulsetoday.com/”}}
