Make New York Post a Preferred Source LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman speaking at the 2026 Jewish Los Angeles Mayoral Forum at the Skirball Cultural Center on Sept. 29, 2026. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post How far will the socialist antisemite wave roll in America? The Los Angeles mayoral race will be a key test.
Surging candidate Nithya Raman just proved she’s at least as bad as New York’s Zohran Mamdani at a Q&A in front of a largely Jewish audience at the Skirball Cultural Center.
The forum covered issues of interest to the city in general, but also to a Jewish community that has endured a wave of antisemitic attacks; Mayor Karen Bass, appearing separately, was terrible too — but Raman took the cake.
Asked if she regrets doing a podcast hosted by Hasan Piker, an antisemite who said America deserved 9/11, Raman demurred, claiming she has a duty “to speak on different platforms” to reach voters.
Would she do a podcast whose host had made “incredibly hateful” remarks about other groups? Yes, said Raman, as gasps went through the room.
She proceeded to say she believes Israel committed “genocide” in Gaza, citing unnamed “experts” who claim (falsely) that the IDF deliberately targeted hospitals and children.
Yet she then said she wants Jews to feel free to worship and express their faith in LA — refusing to admit that the “genocide” lie is precisely why Jews feel unsafe, since it’s the excuse for anti-Israel protests that target Jewish schools and synagogues.
After anti-Israel protesters blocked access to an LA synagogue in 2024, President Joe Biden condemned the outrage; the Justice Department launched a civil-rights investigation under President Donald Trump.
But Raman’s supporters in the Democratic Socialists of America want to defund the Jewish nonprofit that provides security to synagogues and schools — it’s the only such group the DSA singles out in its manifesto.
Raman is fueling the hate, not fighting it, just like fellow socialist Mamdani, whose new plan for fighting antisemitism also ignores “anti-Zionist” violence.
In an election that also features Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate run in Michigan, hate is very much on the ballot this November; isn’t it time it started losing?
