“Antisemitic lies” are spreading throughout the City Council race in Park Slope through ­Kensington. Or at least that is what challenger Maya Kornberg claimed in early March. 

Kornberg, who is Jewish, is trying to unseat Shahana Hanif, a pioneering Muslim officeholder. The falsehood Kornberg denounced is that she is AIPAC’s preferred candidate in the race.

While it is true that AIPAC has not backed Kornberg, the group focuses on congressional races. In 2024, an entity called Solidarity PAC formed to support pro-Israel elected officials in local New York races. Kornberg is one of seven 2025 candidates currently endorsed by Solidarity PAC.

According to city campaign finance records, Kornberg has received four-figure contributions from some of ­Solidarity PAC’s leading funders, including Adeena Rosen and Alice Tisch. High-profile Israel backers including billionaires ­Leonard Blavatnik and Daniel Loeb have similarly helped fill Kornberg’s campaign coffers.  

Blavatnik and Loeb reportedly pressured the Adams administration to send in the NYPD to clear out the Gaza solidarity encampment at ­Columbia ­University last spring. Fabien Levy, an Adams deputy mayor, denounced The ­Washington Post’s story about that effort as “antisemitic.” 

As The New York Times reported in 2022, Loeb was a key player in the creation of the New York Solidarity ­Network, which was intended to “act something like a local” version of AIPAC. Solidarity PAC is an outgrowth of the Solidarity Network. The PAC’s website does not offer any specific reasons why Hanif has not served the district well since taking office in 2022. 

Jewish voters in Park Slope are far from a monolithic bloc. Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a leading source of pro-Gaza protests, has a significant number of members in the district. The Jewish Vote, the group’s endorsement arm, announced its backing for Hanif in late February. 

Meanwhile, as of her March filing, Kornberg’s campaign records showed a total of two dozen four-figure donations (most have been for the $1,050 maximum allowed in council races). Only one came from a Brooklyn resident.  

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In her statement blasting the “smear campaign” linking her to AIPAC, Kornberg stressed that her rationale for running “is and has always been … focused [on] local issues” including affordability, education, healthcare and equality. Almost all of the “priorities” listed on Kornberg’s campaign website match those found on Hanif’s site. 

Kornberg makes a passing criticism of Hanif’s previous support for the “defund the police” movement. “Defund,” of course, never happened — nor did the diversion of some NYPD resources to mental health interventions ever materialize. It seems unlikely that Kornberg’s reactionary ­anti-defund stance will get much traction in a very liberal district. 

Kornberg grew up in northern California. Her father, Roger Kornberg, is a distinguished professor of chemistry at Stanford, which Maya attended as an undergrad. Hanif was born and raised in Kensington by Bangladeshi immigrants. 

During her first term, Hanif spearheaded passage of landmark city legislation known as a “Bill of Rights for Immigrant Workers.” It provides workers with information about their workplace protections regardless of immigration status. As of March 10, Kornberg’s website pays minimal attention to immigrant concerns.

Kornberg, who works for the Brennan Center at NYU, has the support of two longstanding local political clubs, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) and the ­Independent Neighborhood Democrats. In 2023, Kornberg was a member of the CBID executive committee. Her most vocal champion, District Leader Doug Schneider, has been an influential member of the CBID.  

In the 2021 primary race to succeed Brad Lander for the greater Park Slope council seat, Schneider finished a distant fourth, tallying 14% on the first ballot. Backed by Lander, in whose office she worked, Hanif took home 32%. 

Schneider’s feed on X is a relentless stream of attacks on Hanif. His wife, lawyer Joni Kletter, is the founder of “Park Slope’s Jewish Affinity Group,” a Facebook forum with over 1,260 members. The invite-only group is not exactly full of Hanif enthusiasts. 

In addition to Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the New York Working Families Party, the Brooklyn Young Democrats and the New Kings Democrats have announced their support for Hanif’s reelection bid.

There’s an adage in New York City politics: “Hell hath no fury like a scorned district leader.” Okay, maybe that’s not an old saying. But in this campaign, it surely applies. 

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