A George Soros-backed nonprofit with just 250 members worldwide is working to discredit a petition signed by more than 62,000 people, many of them 9/11 families, who want New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani barred from the 25th-anniversary memorial at Ground Zero.
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a small organization founded in 2002 and funded by Soros's Open Society Foundation, issued a statement this week condemning the fast-growing petition as Islamophobic. The group called the effort "anti-American" and demanded Mamdani be welcomed at the ceremony honoring the 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001.
Giovanni Galante, who organized the Change.org petition, lost his 29-year-old wife Grace in the attacks. He says the nonprofit's accusation misrepresents what the petition is about, and that the real question is why a billionaire's money is being used to override the wishes of the people who buried their loved ones that day.
Galante told the New York Post that the nonprofit's Islamophobia charge is a deliberate distortion.
"This has nothing to do with Islam or Mamdani being Muslim. It has to do with who he associates with and who he represents."
Galante pointed to Mamdani's reported ties to two figures who have drawn sharp public criticism. One is Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the first terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. A prior Post report described Mamdani appearing "smiling arm-in-arm" with Wahhaj. The other is left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said "America deserved" 9/11, according to the Post's reporting.
Galante was blunt about who he believes is behind the opposition to his petition.
"We're not against Muslims; we're not against Jews; we're not against anyone. We're against people who are against America, who want us to suffer or be murdered. The people against the petition don't have a clear understanding."
The petition organizer said the response from fellow Americans has been overwhelming. "I've gotten so much support from people I don't even know," Galante said. "Emails, texts showing love and interest in keeping the mayor out of the ceremony."
Records cited by the Post show the Open Society Foundation has funneled $525,000 to September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows since 2016. The nonprofit is an affiliate of the Tides Center, a large left-wing advocacy organization. Despite presenting itself as a voice of 9/11 families, the group claims only about 250 members worldwide, a fraction of the thousands of relatives who lost someone that day.
Soros's financial footprint in New York City politics extends well beyond this one nonprofit. The Post has previously reported that Soros and the Open Society Foundation indirectly funneled a combined $37 million to the Working Families Party and at least nine other left-wing groups that backed Mamdani's mayoral primary campaign. Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary last year.
That pattern of Soros-aligned funding flowing to progressive political figures and the organizations that support them has drawn growing scrutiny from conservatives who see it as an effort to shift the Democratic Party sharply leftward.
Neither the Open Society Foundation nor a spokesperson for Soros returned messages from the Post seeking comment.
Charles G. Wolf, who lost his 40-year-old wife Katherine in the Twin Towers, signed the petition and dismissed the nonprofit's intervention outright.
"This is not the people speaking. This is George Soros and his billions of dollars trying to cause public strife in America. Don't let George Soros make a monkey out of us."
Wolf added that "anything that is backed by George Soros is illegitimate." His view captures the frustration shared by many petition signers: that a small, well-funded organization is attempting to speak over the families who actually lost husbands, wives, sons, and daughters on that September morning.
Mamdani himself has not publicly responded to the petition or to the nonprofit's statement defending him. His office's silence leaves the families without a direct answer about whether the mayor intends to attend the ceremony, or whether he takes seriously the concerns raised by tens of thousands of signers.
Mamdani's record in office has already generated controversy on multiple fronts. He backed away from a high-profile pledge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking federal authorities to do what he had promised voters he would handle himself.
New York City Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Republican who represents Belle Harbor and surrounding Queens neighborhoods that lost many residents on 9/11, weighed in forcefully against the Soros-funded effort.
"The voices of 9/11 families should not be drowned out by billionaire-backed activists and those engulfed by their propaganda campaign."
Ariola went further, calling directly for Mamdani to skip the memorial. "The mayor needs to stay home and sit this one out," she said.
Her district's connection to the attacks is personal and deep. Belle Harbor and the Rockaway Peninsula lost firefighters, police officers, and civilians in numbers that scarred the community permanently. For Ariola, the idea that an outside organization with 250 members and half a million dollars in Soros funding should override those families' wishes is a nonstarter.
Mamdani's broader political trajectory has also drawn pushback from business owners in the city. An immigrant business coalition voted to sue New York City over the mayor's taxpayer-funded grocery store program, adding to the list of constituencies at odds with his administration.
The numbers tell a clear story. As of Saturday morning, more than 62,000 people had signed Galante's petition on Change.org. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, the group trying to discredit that petition, claims roughly 250 members around the world.
The nonprofit was founded in 2002 by a small group of 9/11 relatives. Its mission has drifted far from simply honoring the dead. By framing the petition as Islamophobia, the group adopted the same rhetorical playbook that progressive organizations routinely use to shut down legitimate criticism, label the opposition as bigoted and hope the accusation sticks.
Galante's petition does not target Mamdani's faith. It targets his associations, specifically, his reported connections to an imam who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center attack and an influencer who publicly said America deserved the second one. Those are factual objections, not religious ones.
The broader question of Soros-aligned money flowing into progressive causes and campaigns is not unique to New York. Similar funding patterns have surfaced in races and political movements across the country, raising persistent questions about the influence of concentrated wealth on Democratic Party politics.
The 25th anniversary of September 11 should belong to the families who lived through it, not to a billionaire's nonprofit with a fraction of the public support and an accusation designed to end the conversation before it starts.