The count in Queens’ Assembly District 38: 58.8 percent for David Orkin, 40.9 percent for incumbent Jenifer Rajkumar. A gap of nearly 18 points, in a Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Orkin is an immigrant workers’ rights attorney, a union organizer and a democratic socialist. He is also a self-described anti-Zionist Jew, and he said so on the campaign trail. “It’s so incredibly meaningful to me to be running this race as an anti-Zionist Jew,” he said in an Instagram reel posted earlier this month by Jewish Voice for Peace Action, “to be one of the few anti-Zionist Jewish voices that is in an elected seat in the state government.”
The district covers parts of Ridgewood, Glendale, Ozone Park, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill. Rajkumar had held it since 2021. She was the first South Asian woman elected to office in New York state.
The money and the endorsements
Campaign finance was close. Orkin took in more than $290,000 for the cycle, over $156,000 of it from the state comptroller’s office. Rajkumar brought in more than $270,000, including $9,000 from health care executive Daniel Lowy.
Orkin’s backers included Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, JVP Action and NYC Democratic Socialists for America. Rajkumar had ActJew, a new nonprofit focused on combating antisemitism, the Queens Jewish Alliance, and Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Kalman Yeger and Chuck Lavine.
Israel in a local race
Orkin’s platform centered on affordability and immigration. Israel was not on it. Even so, he voiced support for a “free Palestine” throughout the race and went after his opponent directly. “In the past several years, my opponent AM Rajkumar has walked in the Israel day parade but has said NOTHING against the war in Gaza,” he wrote on X in May.
Rajkumar, a close ally of former Mayor Eric Adams, had pledged in her platform to combat antisemitism.
Orkin said that once in Albany he could tell the legislature that “criticizing Israel for genocide, demanding an end to the occupation, demanding an end to funding war abroad is not antisemitic.” He set up a Jewish Voice for Peace chapter in Tucson, Arizona, in 2014. Last month he told Democratic Left: “I’ve been involved in the Jewish Palestine Solidarity Movement for 12, 13 years.”
JVP Action celebrated on Instagram that night. “Pro-Palestine candidates are sweeping in NYC tonight,” it wrote. “Palestine was on the ballot and won. David will be a champion for Palestinian freedom in Albany.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not endorse Orkin. His picks, Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, won congressional primaries the same night. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency noted that those endorsements signaled a pro-Palestinian lurch for the party in a city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel.
In a statement reported by QNS, Orkin said: “I have dedicated my life fighting for immigrants and workers, I am proud to have earned their support in this election.”
Sources
- Jewish anti-Zionist David Orkin defeats incumbent in NY Assembly primary | The Jerusalem Post
- Jewish anti-Zionist David Orkin defeats incumbent in NY Assembly primary – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
