Mamdani’s New York penalizes Jews

Two weeks ago, on May 1, Mamdani posted a tribute to Devorah Halberstam, the mother of a Jewish boy murdered in a 1994 antisemitic attack on the Brooklyn Bridge, and a woman who has spent the decades since fighting to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe. “This Jewish American Heritage Month,” the mayor wrote, “we honor the rich culture and history that Jewish New Yorkers contribute to our city daily.” Just days later, on May 5, a pre-school at Park East Synagogue was forced to close early due to safety concerns.

One week earlier, on April 24, Mamdani vetoed City Council Bill Int. 175-B, which would have given Jewish schools the type of protections Halberstam has spent her life demanding. 

The Jews have a word for this: chutzpah. 

The mayor who showed up at the Jewish Children’s Museum for a photo op is the same mayor who, days before, stripped Jewish institutions of legal protection against hordes of extremist anti-Israel radicals who crowd their entrances, shrieking abuse at members and professing allegiance to Hamas, the terrorist group that massacred over 1,200 Jews and took 254 innocent hostages, including 12 Americans, on Oct. 7, 2023. 

You cannot honor Jewish life on Friday after vetoing Jewish safety on Thursday. Or rather, you can, but no one is obligated to pretend the Friday pronouncements mean anything.

Mamdani has been weakening Jewish protections since his first day in office. His first act in office was to revoke executive orders adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism and preventing city staff from undertaking discriminatory divestment measures. The IHRA definition provides a comprehensive framework for identifying antisemitism, one that explicitly preserves space for criticism of Israeli policy, while recognizing that attacks on Jews motivated by hatred of the state of Israel constitute antisemitism, a category the ADL now says drives the majority of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the United States. Mamdani’s decision to remove the definition drew intense criticism from Jews around the city and world. Not long after, Mamdani went against his comptroller and rejected plans to invest in Israeli bonds. The message was clear: The mayor of New York will not protect the beleaguered Jewish community, and attacking Jews for their ties to Israel is now encouraged. 

The results have been staggering. During Mamdani’s first month in office, antisemitic attacks surged 182% compared to the prior year, then another 152% in his second month. Today, around 57% of all hate crimes in the city target Jews, who make up just 10% of the population. The Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism still lacks an operating definition of antisemitism to guide its actions, and instead of working to counter hate, mayorally-appointed NYPD leadership changed reporting procedures in a way critics say obscures the true scope of attacks

Mamdani himself has become a supporter of the onslaught. In a high-profile assault on the Park East Synagogue just prior to his inauguration, when violent extremists assailed congregants to “make them scared”, Mamdani defended the rioters and accused the synagogue of being in violation of international law. 

This is all well-aligned with Mamdani’s dismissal of Jewish suffering and outspoken hatred of the Jewish State. Mamdani has repeatedly refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, and, furthermore, has at times refused even to denounce the terrorist group Hamas. The same mayor who unapologetically weighs in on foreign policy and threatened to arrest democratically elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York City also refused to call on Hamas to disarm, while the group slaughtered Gazan civilians in the streets. Recently, the mayor’s wife has come under intense scrutiny for her posting and liking of deeply antisemitic and anti-Israel content that glorifies Hamas and terrorism. 

The discourse around the protection Mamdani vetoed has often invoked the First Amendment. But the Supreme Court has long recognized that governments may impose reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of protest activity. In Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, Inc. (1994), the court examined buffer zones around facilities facing sustained protest and affirmed the government’s authority to ensure safe, unobstructed access. Buffer zones do not silence speech. They ensure that the exercise of one right does not come at the expense of another. A content-neutral buffer zone around schools is not a speech restriction. It is a measured protection that allows both protest and prayer to continue within appropriate boundaries. The bill Mamdani vetoed asked for nothing more.

Despite Mamdani’s promise to protect and enhance public expression, some New Yorkers have found themselves shut out. Under Mamdani, Muslim religious observances have become civic events: The mayor has personally participated in public tarawih prayers in Times Square and Ramadan celebrations across the five boroughs, lending the city’s imprimatur to gatherings where crowds chanted against Israel and prayed for Palestinian victory. That same mayor vetoed protections for Jewish schools.

Mamdani wants the symbolism of Jewish life without the responsibility of protecting it. He wants the photo ops, the proclamations, the applause, but not the hard work of standing between a vulnerable community and those who would harm it. New Yorkers should take him at his word, not his tweets: Under this administration, Jewish safety is negotiable.

Adela Cojab Moadeb is a legal fellow at the National Jewish Advocacy Center. She holds a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law and a B.A. from New York University.