Israel's Technion reaffirms ties with Cornell Tech after NYC Mayor-Elect Mamdani threatens joint campus

Israel’s leading tech institute, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, responded to Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s mayoral election by affirming that it intends to continue its collaboration with Cornell University at the Cornell Tech campus.

"We at the Technion expect to continue working together with our colleagues at Cornell University and at the Cornell Tech campus in fruitful collaboration with the institutions of the New York City government, as we have up to now," the Technion said in an official statement.

Mamdani, who is a vocal opponent of Israel, threatened to reassess the joint Cornell University-Technion campus in New York City.

The Technion was founded in Haifa in 1924 and ranks as one of the world’s leading tech-focused academic institutions. It has often been compared to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Technion stressed that the joint tech campus stands as a clear testament to the thriving, mutually beneficial partnership between the American and Israeli academic institutions.

"Since it was established in 2012, the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute has become a flourishing and successful institute that encourages global entrepreneurship and drives the development of the city’s economy and the technology sector that works in it. The entrepreneurship program in the institute, the Runway Postdoc Startup Program, has so far yielded some 130 knowledge-intensive startup companies, the vast majority of which (84%) are based in New York, create jobs, and contribute to the city’s technology ecosystem,” the Technion stated.

"The partnership between the Technion and Cornell was born out of a vision of establishing an applied science and engineering research campus in the City of New York and creating a fruitful and powerful bridge between academia and industry. The partnership has contributed a great deal to the development of the city,” the Israeli tech institute continued.

"The collaboration between the two universities and the New York city government has proved that excellent universities can not only lead to academic achievements, but can also serve as powerful economic engines."

Mamdani, a progressive politician and New York’s first Muslim mayor-elect, has accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and has said he would seek to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York during his tenure. His statements have raised concern among many Jews in New York, Israel, and abroad about the potential implications of his election for efforts to combat antisemitism.

Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), lamented Mamdani’s victory in New York.

“One of the largest Jewish communities in the world deserves a mayor who fights anti-Semitism, not one who incites it,” Roytman asserted. “We will continue to stand with New York’s Jewish community, fight anti-Semitism on a daily basis, and closely monitor the new municipal government to ensure that city authorities fulfill their duty to protect all New Yorkers.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also expressed concern about Mamdani’s election victory.

“The fact that he is Muslim is not the event; the event is that this is a mayor who spoke out very strongly against Israel, against the IDF, and did not back down throughout the entire campaign. We are certainly concerned about his choice, about the personal safety of the large Jewish community that lives here in New York,” Danon said.

Danon vowed that Israel and the Jews worldwide would not be deterred by Mamdani’s inflammatory remarks.

“Mamdani’s inflammatory remarks will not deter us. The Jewish community in New York and across the United States deserves safety and respect. We will continue to strengthen our ties with Jewish community leaders to ensure their security and well-being,” Danon wrote on 𝕏.