A 92-year-old Holocaust survivor in The Bronx recently voted for the first time ever, casting a ballot for mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo in an effort to stop front-runner Zohran Mamdani.

“I’ve never voted before. I’m voting because I believe that Mamdani is an antisemite with dangerous fiscal policies,” Galina Guterman told The Post, speaking through a Russian interpreter after voting at the Riverdale YMCA. “We don’t trust him,” she added of Democratic Socialist Mamdani. “He has not proven to be the person that cares about everyone and cares about me.”

As a child, Guterman fled to Siberia after the Nazis invaded Russia. She remained in Russia after the war and later became a pathologist. She said heavy-handed socialist policies prompted her and her family to flee the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. A summer home she owned just outside of Moscow was torched by an arsonist in what her family describes as a case of antisemitism.

“When I listen to what [Mamdani] says about ‘globalize the intifada,’ that is not kind-hearted,” Guterman said.

Mamdani supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and has called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal. He has maintained that he is not an antisemite for promoting Palestinian rights and opposing what he describes as “genocide” in Gaza.

The Democratic front-runner has since discouraged the use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a rallying cry many interpret as a call for violence against Jews.

Despite this, Guterman believes Mamdani poses too great a risk. “Cuomo is just what the city needs,” she said. “Cuomo is trustworthy, real and honest. Cuomo is someone I trust. He is a good person, and he’s honest.”
https://nypost.com/2025/11/02/us-news/92-year-old-holocaust-survivor-votes-for-first-time-ever-to-back-cuomo-to-stop-mamdani/