Loudspeaker in hand, Assemblyman Michael “Misha” Novakhov made his way down a Brooklyn boardwalk on a sunny October afternoon. “I’m fighting socialism. I’m fighting antisemitism. And I’m fighting Mamdani,” he told passersby in a video posted to Facebook on Oct. 26, urging them to “vote red on November 3rd.” Some in the crowd answered with chants of “Misha, Misha” and “spasibo,” Russian for “thank you.”
For the Baku-born Republican, now seeking a third term in Albany, the fight against antisemitism has become a central focus of his reelection campaign, a cause he says became personal after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
“I never felt so Jewish as after Oct. 7,” Novakhov told the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) in an interview published Oct. 26.
In a separate video, the fourth installment of his “Fighting Antisemitism” series, Novakhov said he introduced a bill, “Not On Our Dollar!”, aimed at blocking funding for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as a response to the “Not On Our Dime!” Act championed by Zohran Mamdani, now mayor of New York City. He also said he worked to get Uzbek singer Yulduz Usmanova’s U.S. tour canceled over what he called antisemitism, and that he secured funding for a Chabad in Sheepshead Bay to buy land for a new Jewish community center.
Raised in Moscow, Novakhov told JNS that he was harassed for being Jewish as a child in the 1980s, an experience he said taught him that antisemites respond only to strength. After the Oct. 7 attacks, he displayed posters of Israeli hostages in the window of his district office and received anonymous notes criticizing the display, JNS reported.
Novakhov also told JNS that Jewish voters should rethink their traditional support for Democrats and build political power through the Republican Party. He has criticized Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel and backs Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor, according to the outlet.
His district includes parts of Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach, home to sizable Jewish and immigrant communities.
Running on the Republican and Conservative lines in the Nov. 3 election, Novakhov faces Democratic challenger Joey Cohen-Saban, who this year is also on the Fight Antisemitism Party line, in a rematch of one of New York’s closest legislative races in 2024. Novakhov won that contest by just 232 votes, 15,383 to 15,151.
A journalist by profession, Novakhov co-founded the Russian-language station Freedom FM in 2019. He was first elected in 2022, defeating Democrat Steven Cymbrowitz, who had represented the district for 22 years, JNS reported.
By Erin Levi
The Bukharian Times
English Editor
