New York Magazine is facing a wave of backlash over its Habibi City cover story, with critics accusing the publication of erasing Jews while presenting Arab and Muslim culture in New York as its subject. The Monday issue, which was meant to spotlight a thriving cultural scene, instead set off accusations that the magazine framed the city through an anti-Israel lens and minimized Jewish history and identity.
The controversy centers on the magazine’s focus on the aftermath of October 7 and the war in Gaza. Critics said the package repeatedly referenced Israel’s response while failing to give equal weight to the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and led to 251 abductions into Gaza. The magazine described a growing cultural ecosystem among young SWANA New Yorkers, saying it was shaped by resistance and protests after October 7 and by pain over what it called the genocide in Gaza. Jewish readers, activists, and writers argued that language like that crossed a line by casting Zionism alongside hatred and discrimination.
Among the loudest reactions was from journalist Jordana Horn, who said she would cancel her subscription to a magazine she had long admired and written for. She said the publication was actively trying to diminish Jewish history and identity, and she told The Post that she would not support what she called anti-Jewish sentiment in the city. Jewish civil rights group End Jew Hatred also condemned the issue, saying it was dangerous and that it narrowed belonging around views on Gaza in a way that pushed out Mizrahi Jews whose families came from across the Middle East and North Africa.
Other critics said the piece blurred important distinctions that many Jews view as central to their identity. AIPAC said treating Zionism as one more form of identity-based hatred erases the belief that Jews, like other peoples, have a right to self-determination and safety. Pro-Israel activist Yardenne Greenspan said the magazine appeared to be claiming authority over who truly counts as Middle Eastern. New York immigration lawyer Abraham Hamra, a Jewish Syrian native, made a similar point, saying the omission of more than 120,000 New York Jews from Arabized countries was not a mistake but exclusion presented as inclusion.
