How a Billionaire Living in China and Soros Gained Control of a Third of the Jewish Vote in NYC

By Gary Tilzer

The group “Jews for Zohran,” politically led by Congressman Nadler, is being promoted as grassroots Jewish support for the socialist mayoral candidate, crediting it with helping him capture nearly a third of New York’s Jewish vote in the Democratic Primary. But the truth is more complicated. Behind the carefully crafted image lies a web of interlocking radical organizations and billionaire funders whose ties stretch from Beijing to the Middle East, to George Soros’ nonprofit network, to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Beijing’s Fingerprints

This week, The New York Times published an investigation titled “How China Influences Elections in America’s Biggest City.” While the Times limits its focus to Asian candidates unwilling to fall in line with Beijing, the evidence suggests China’s political reach in New York is much broader.

Consider “Jews for Zohran.” Its political director, Alice Singham Goodwin, is the niece of Neville Roy Singham, a Marxist billionaire living in China whose vast fortune bankrolls pro-Beijing propaganda outlets and global pro-Palestinian activism. According to the Times, the Singham network operates through a maze of U.S.-based nonprofits that secretly funnel millions of dollars to nonprofits, media outlets, and activist groups that echo the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda and global strategy. Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer believes “Jew for Zohran” is funded by Roy Singham. 

At the center of his political machine is his wife, Jodie Evans, the longtime activist and co-founder of Code Pink. Once a vocal critic of Beijing, Evans became an outspoken defender of China after marrying Singham in 2017.

Washington’s Warning About Singham’s Influence in America

In December 2024, the Senate Judiciary Committee formally warned the Attorney General that Singham’s network had expanded to include “radical, antisemitic entities” and groups aligned with U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. By spring 2025, Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Cotton were pressing the Justice Department to investigate Code Pink and The People’s Forum for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The warnings are clear: Singham’s web of influence is not only political, but potentially unlawful. And now the web is enmeshed in New York’s elections.

The New York Machine

This same Singham network now stretches into New York City politics — giving Mamdani’s campaign the appearance of grassroots Jewish support when, in fact, interlocking international pro-Chinese propaganda and activist operation into NYC nonprofits targeting the city’s young liberal voters. In New York, the local arm of the Singham Chinese nonprofit network runs through Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), where Singham’s niece, Alice Singham Goodwin, serves as political director. Earlier this year, JFREJ formally launched Jews for Zohran to rally Jewish voters behind Mamdani.

Singham Goodwin’s mother, Shanti Singham — Roy Singham’s sister — also has strong ties to China. She serves as a department chair at the state-controlled East China Normal University in Shanghai and has promoted Beijing’s Confucius Institutes in Africa. One such institute operated at Makerere University in Kampala, where Mahmood Mamdani — Zohran Mamdani’s father — studied and later taught before moving to the United States. Notably, the Confucius Institute at Columbia University, where Mahmood Mamdani now teaches, was shut down in 2018 after pressure from Washington, which accused the institutes of spreading propaganda and threatening academic freedom.

JFREJ also controls The Jewish Vote, its electoral arm co-founded by NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. Funded heavily by Soros-backed outfits like the Tides Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, The Jewish Vote brands itself as a grassroots Jewish operation, but in practice functions as a well-financed political misinformation operation. It has even received tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded nonprofit grants from New York’s government, through JFREJ.

The Jewish Vote has thrown its support not only behind Mamdani but also behind other anti-Jewish and Israel politicians such as Jamaal Bowman, Shahana Hanif, and Alexa Avilés — all of whom, including Mamdani, were arrested at anti-Israel demonstrations in the wake of the October 7th Hamas massacre.

These endorsements reveal a pattern: far from elevating mainstream Jewish voices, this network consistently backs candidates who excuse, minimize, or even join demonstrations that have left New York’s Jewish community and Israel feeling threatened and unsafe.

DSA and Anti-Israel Alliances

The web does not end there. JFREJ and The Jewish Vote are closely tied to both the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Working Families Party. The DSA — Mamdani’s own political home base — has played a leading role in organizing dozens of New York’s pro-Palestinian marches since October 7th. Just six days after the Hamas attack on Israel, the DSA spearheaded a demonstration outside Senator Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn home demanding a ceasefire, where Mamdani himself was arrested. This alignment between activist groups, political organizations, and candidates underscores the power of the Singham and Soros-funded coalition driving Mamdani’s overnight rise in city politics.

A Foreign Influence Operation

In July 2025, The Times of Israel reported allegations that JFREJ is part of a network of progressive groups tied to Beijing-backed funding streams — adding to the mounting concern that foreign money fueling anti-Israel activism is reshaping New York’s Jewish political landscape.

Behind its rhetoric of “justice,” JFREJ has organized radical protests on campuses like Columbia and City College, launched an Israel-Palestine Team in 2022 that partnered with openly anti-Israel groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, and pushed policies like defunding the NYPD, closing Rikers, and ending misdemeanor arrests.

The Bottom Line

“Jews for Zohran” is not a grassroots mayoral effort. It is the local face of a well-financed international influence machine — linking Neville Roy Singham, a billionaire aligned with Beijing, Soros-backed nonprofits, and the radical anti-Israel activists of the Democratic Socialists of America. Together, this network has captured a significant share of New York’s Jewish vote — not to amplify authentic Jewish voices, but to advance the agenda of foreign funders and domestic radicals hostile to Jewish safety, to Israel, and to American values.

Gary Tilzer is the Political Director of the PAC Anyone but Mamdani (ABM). To support ABM’s investigative reporting and voter outreach, visit nycabm.com and make a contribution today.