Elections New York State New York City

Pro-Israel Group Raised Tens of Thousands for NYC Council Candidates

The candidates did not disclose Solidarity PAC’s fundraising role in campaign finance disclosures.

Chris Gelardi and Julia Rock · March 20, 2025

The pro-Israel Solidarity PAC appears to have raised around $80,000 for seven New York City Council candidates over the past six months, a New York Focus analysis of campaign finance disclosures found. | Photo: Wally Gobetz / flickr Logo: Solidarity PAC

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A pro-Israel fundraising group that funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to state Assembly candidates last year has now jumped into New York City Council races. The group, known as Solidarity PAC, appears to have raised around $80,000 for seven candidates it has endorsed over the past six months, a New York Focus analysis of campaign finance disclosures found. City council primaries will take place in June.

While small relative to its activity in last year’s state legislative primaries, the sum is significant for city council campaigns, which have lower contribution limits than state races. The apparent Solidarity PAC-affiliated donations amount to a quarter of endorsed candidates’ total hauls in the six months. New York City’s eight-to-one public matching program will further stretch those dollars: They could unlock nearly $240,000 in additional funds for the campaigns, according to the disclosures.

Solidarity PAC’s influence in local races is difficult to track. Rather than contributing to campaigns itself like typical political action committees, the group instructs pro-Israel donors to contribute directly to its endorsed candidates. New York City has disclosure requirements for “intermediaries” that solicit donations on behalf of campaigns, but none of the candidates disclosed Solidarity PAC as an official intermediary — a potential violation of campaign finance law.

The city Campaign Finance Board declined to comment on Solidarity PAC specifically. Spokesperson Tim Hunter did say that campaigns must report when they know that entities, including PACs, are soliciting contributions on their behalf. In this case, it appears that they did.

Solidarity PAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Republican and Democratic political operatives created Solidarity PAC last year to boost New York political candidates “who value the American alliance with Israel,” according to its website. The group has relied heavily on hedge fund, venture capital, and real estate donors.

Solidarity PAC has historically boosted primary campaigns facing off against candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and Working Families Party, both of which have been highly critical of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza and US support for it. This year, it’s set its sights on similar targets.

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Since late September, apparent Solidarity PAC-affiliated fundraising efforts have yielded $13,400 to Maya Kornberg, who is challenging Working Families Party-endorsed incumbent and DSA member Shahana Hanif in a Brooklyn race where Israel-Palestine has become a source of tension.

They’ve also yielded nearly $9,100 for Ling Ye, who is challenging DSA-endorsed City Councilmember Alexa Avilés in Brooklyn. That amounts to 27 percent of Ye’s fundraising so far. Her campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Avilés has supported protests against Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

Solidarity PAC is also backing four New York City Council incumbents — Shaun Abreu, Eric Dinowitz, Lynn Schulman, and Susan Zhuang — as well as Dermot Smyth, who is running in an open primary.

“In an age where antisemitism is rising and Jewish New Yorkers are feeling under attack, Eric will always stand against hate,” Dinowitz’s campaign said in a statement. “And it is why he is proud to have support from a broad coalition of New Yorkers from every background.”

The campaigns of Abreu, Schulman, Zhuang, and Smyth did not respond to requests for comment.

Solidarity pac is the first known local version of a pro-Israel political action committee like those managed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Democratic Majority for Israel, which can spend tens of millions of dollars on a single congressional race. While fundraising on a much smaller scale, the New York group has proven influential: In four Assembly races last year, apparent Solidarity PAC-funneled donations accounted for at least half of its endorsed candidates’ fundraising hauls during a critical final stretch ahead of the primary elections.

To identify funds apparently raised by Solidarity PAC, New York Focus matched donations to at least four of its selected campaigns made by the same people, for the same amount, on or around the same date. The analysis excluded sets of donations to three or fewer of the PAC-endorsed candidates, though it’s possible those donations were also made through the group’s solicitations.

The group operates largely out of the public eye. Its model of mobilizing pro-Israel donors to contribute directly to candidates means that its name isn’t attached to any of the donations it facilitates. For the city council races, New York Focus identified apparent Solidarity PAC-affiliated donations by comparing its seven endorsees’ campaign finance disclosures. The analysis revealed a pattern of bundled donations amounting to around $80,000.

Solidarity PAC has sponsored a number of virtual fundraisers for its city council candidates through NYC Votes, an initiative of the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Hunter, the board’s spokesperson, said that campaigns are responsible for setting up those fundraising pages. The arrangement qualifies the group as an intermediary, also known as a bundler, and campaigns should list it as such, according to John Kaehny, executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog group Reinvent Albany.

“If I make a $25 contribution to this Solidarity PAC virtual fundraiser, does the campaign have to report that as an intermediated contribution from John Kaehny? My answer is yes.”

Dinowitz’s campaign told New York Focus that its internal Campaign Finance Board filing data show $11,671 coming from fundraisers orchestrated by Solidarity PAC and the New York Solidarity Network, a pro-Israel 501(c)(4) dark money nonprofit operated by several of the same officials who run Solidarity PAC. New York Focus’s analysis found around $12,100 in apparent Solidarity PAC-affiliated contributions to Dinowitz’s campaign.

Nearly two-thirds of the apparent Solidarity PAC-affiliated city council contributions came in at $175, the maximum individual contribution amount eligible for public matching funds; so far, four of the group’s endorsed candidates have qualified for the program. Almost one in five contributions were at the $1,050 maximum for New York City Council donations.

Solidarity pac isn’t the only pro-Israel group funneling money to local races this year. In the fall, political operatives founded Brooklyn BridgeBuilders, a pro-Israel independent expenditure committee. The group is targeting Hanif, the councilmember being challenged by Solidarity PAC endorsee Kornberg, over her pro-Palestine activism.

Kornberg, a political scientist at the Brennan Center for Justice who has written about how campaign fundraising shapes political power, did not respond to requests for comment.

“My campaign is focused on affordable housing, universal childcare, immigrants’ rights — the local issues that matter to Brooklynites,” Hanif said in a statement. “It’s deeply disappointing to see special interest PACs and big money donors in my opponent’s corner undermining Democrats instead of fighting against the Trump agenda that poses such a grave risk to New York.”

Brooklyn BridgeBuilders held its first fundraiser in January, keynoted by US Representative Ritchie Torres, one of Congress’s fiercest Israel defenders, Politico reported. The committee said it had raised $65,000 as of that month, though it hasn’t yet reported spending in city council races. Its founder told Politico that the group will consider spending beyond Hanif’s race and targeting other Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates.

A year and a half into Israel’s war on Gaza, the issue remains a focal point in New York politics, particularly after federal immigration agents arrested permanent US resident Mahmoud Khalil earlier this month over his pro-Palestine activism at Columbia University. His arrest was an apparent test case for President Donald Trump’s plans to unilaterally deport immigrants over political speech; since then, immigration authorities have attempted to deport two others in relation to last year’s campus protests at Columbia.

Governor Kathy Hochul, Representative Jerrod Nadler, and others march in the June 4, 2023 Israel Day Parade in New York City.

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After Khalil’s arrest, the Trump administration announced that it would strip the university of $400 million in federal funding over what the White House described as its failure to protect Jewish students during the protests. The university had allowed police to disperse a protest encampment and recently expelled and suspended students over the demonstrations.

Israel’s war on Gaza is playing a role in the New York City mayor’s race, too, as the two frontrunners unabashedly stand on opposite sides of the issue. One in five apparent Solidarity PAC-affiliated donors this election cycle have also contributed a total of $13,600 to the mayoral campaign of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who launched his own pro-Israel advocacy group last year. His top opponent, DSA-endorsed Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, has attended pro-Palestine protests and asserted that “Israel is committing a genocide.”

Since Israel began its assault on Gaza in 2023, the Israeli military has destroyed over 90 percent of the territory’s homes and killed at least 48,000 people, while starvation, disease, and hypothermia has killed at least tens of thousands more. Israel recently cut off Gaza’s electricity and water supply. This week, the Israeli military ended a two-month truce with a surprise bombardment on Gaza, killing at least 400.