Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, has backed Republican Saritha Komatireddy for New York attorney general, saying Letitia James has failed to prosecute surging antisemitism.
The New York Post reported that Wiesel posted a photo of himself standing with Komatireddy on his social media accounts Wednesday and declared his support for her bid to unseat the incumbent Democrat.
“The only way to stamp down on antisemitism in NYC is to prosecute it,” Wiesel wrote. “I stand with @sarithaforny as she campaigns for the critical post of NY Attorney General!”
Wiesel chairs the Eli Wiesel Foundation. His late father, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, survived the Holocaust and wrote the memoir “Night.” The endorsement lands as Jewish New Yorkers face a sharp rise in hate crimes and as Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, makes prosecution the center of her challenge.
Komatireddy thanked Wiesel and tied the race directly to street-level attacks. The day before the endorsement, she issued a press release answering Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s strategy to combat antisemitism.
“Jewish New Yorkers are being attacked on the street, outside their synagogues and at school,” Komatireddy said. “The Attorney General has the legal authority to stop it. Letitia James hasn’t used it. I will.”
She gave Mamdani limited credit for recognizing the problem while insisting funding alone is not enough. “I’ll give the Mayor this much: the plan acknowledges that antisemitism is real and growing in this city,” she said. “Funding for security and for NYPD hate-crime work is needed, but someone has to make sure that we take that case into a courtroom and win it.”
Komatireddy also claimed hate crimes in New York have doubled under Attorney General Letitia James and that antisemitic incidents have tripled. “Her record is indefensible,” she said. Jewish New Yorkers make up roughly 12 percent of New York City’s population yet account for 57 percent of hate crimes recorded this year, according to figures cited in the coverage. Confirmed hate crimes against Jews are up in the city this year.
The challenger previously served as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn’s Eastern District of New York. There she handled cases involving international terrorism, cybercrime, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and public corruption. That background is now the pitch she is making to voters who want courtroom results, not statements.
A James campaign spokesperson pushed back hard. “New York Attorney General Letitia James has stood shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish community at every step of her career,” the spokesperson said.
“From fighting housing discrimination against Jewish families in Chester, holding price gougers looking to scam Jewish communities to account, to condemning antisemitism in all its forms, Attorney General James has been a steadfast ally to Jewish New Yorkers and she will never stop fighting to keep them safe from hate.”
James, a Democrat and former New York City public advocate and Brooklyn councilwoman, is heavily favored to win a third term in the deeply blue Empire State. Her office has spent years on high-profile targets far from synagogue security.
She prosecuted and secured a conviction against President Trump and his company for fraudulent practices. She has filed numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration, including one last week alleging that energy companies received $1.4 billion in funds to cancel four critical offshore wind projects. She also commissioned the sexual misconduct probe of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo that triggered his 2021 resignation; Cuomo denied wrongdoing.
Those same priorities have drawn national attention in other fights, including a federal judge’s dismissal of a VDARE suit aimed at her office on jurisdictional grounds.
James has likewise staked out aggressive ground on election administration. She has argued that the Postal Service and the president lack authority over elections, a stance tracked in coverage of how New York’s attorney general frames voting power.
Komatireddy’s candidacy already carries a high-profile boost. Trump has endorsed the former federal prosecutor in her bid to unseat James, framing the race as a test of whether New York will keep an attorney general focused on political targets or one focused on street crime and hate cases.
Wiesel’s endorsement sharpens that contrast. The son of the world’s most famous Holocaust witness is not asking for more task forces or more press releases. He is asking for prosecutions. Komatireddy is answering that she will use the legal authority James has left on the shelf.
Election-law battles continue to swirl around mail ballots and federal rules, from a Boston judge blocking a Postal Service mail-in rule to the Supreme Court clearing a path for Trump’s mail-in voting order. James has been a vocal player in that larger fight. Wiesel’s message points somewhere simpler: Jewish New Yorkers under attack want cases taken to court and won.
In a state where Democrats dominate, a prominent Jewish activist choosing the Republican challenger over the sitting attorney general is a clear signal that record and results now matter more than party label.