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Mamdani ad promoting Rent Guidelines Board features city employee wearing a keffiyeh

JL;DR SUMMARY In a video promoting Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Rent Guidelines Board initiative, an appearance by Queens deputy borough director Mohamed Alharbi, wearing a keffiyeh, has reignited tensions between Mamdani and Jewish leaders in New York City. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

New York CityJewish LeadersProtestsFree SpeechPalestinian AdvocacyZohran MamdaniKeffiyehRent Guidelines Board

Places mentioned

New York, United States
"A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Weeks daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and whats new with Jews in the city."
Queens, New York, United States
"director Tascha Van Aucken and Queens deputy borough director Mohamed Alharbi, knocking on the mayors door to promote his push for tenant and property owner hearings."
Yemen
"Alharbi, whose family comes from Yemen and who worked on Mamdanis mayoral campaign doing outreach to Muslim and South Asian voters, wears a keffiyeh throughout the video."
Palestinian Territories
"Keffiyehs are traditional Palestinian headscarves that have become symbols of pro-Palestinian advocacy."
Israel
"symbols of pro-Palestinian advocacy. Some Jews say they have come to see the garment as an unmistakable sign of the wearers antipathy toward Israel and anyone with an attachment to it."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 81250
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2026-05-01 05:31:34 UTC
Curated 2026-05-01 08:31:05 UTC