It's been three days since Mayor Mamdani took the stage to demonize and denigrate his Jewish constituents. I initially didn’t say anything because I felt certain he would retract his incendiary comments or at least explain them.
I was wrong.
This is the kind of bigoted conspiracy mongering that you expect from unhinged streamers or white supremacists. It’s not the language that we should expect from the mayor whose jurisdiction suffers from the highest levels of antisemitism of any city in America.
This is not a principled disagreement. This is prejudice pure and simple.
It is deliberate, dangerous and disgraceful.
When a movement celebrates a deadly antisemitic attack, it shows us exactly who they are. Glorifying a man who firebombed a group of people as they peacefully walked to call attention to the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza is not activism. It's a moral disgrace.
This attack resulted in the death of an 82-year-old grandmother, Karen Diamond z"l, and left others with life-altering injuries, and this SJP chapter chose to celebrate the perpetrator and call for his release.
That should be condemned by anyone who believes in basic human decency.
We are grateful to @GovKathyHochul for championing a new buffer zone law protecting safe access to houses of worship as part of the New York State budget. Because of her leadership, New Yorkers of every faith can now enter and exit their house of worship without fearing intimidation or harassment. This victory belongs not just to Albany, but to the countless grassroots advocates, faith community leaders, and partner organizations across New York who fought tirelessly alongside @ADL to make it a reality.
Thank Governor Hochul here: https://t.co/QMMSOKqbqc
A mayor represents every New Yorker. Using City Hall resources to post a one-sided video about Israel’s founding — omitting the UN partition plan, the Arab rejection, the reasons that many Palestinians left, the many who stayed and the 850,000 Jewish refugeesforced to leave Arab lands — isn’t commemoration. It’s propaganda. Releasing it right before Shabbat isn’t leadership. It’s provocation. Especially when Nakba Day “commemorations” in this city featured open support for US-designated terror organizations, veneration of their leaders, and calls for Israel’s destruction. New Yorkers deserve a mayor with the moral clarity to call that out.
Jon Favreau: "When you say Hamas is a thousand times better, do you mean that?"
Hasan Piker: "I do mean it … I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.”
We are deeply troubled that on his first day in office Mayor Mamdani weakened protections to fight antisemitism by revoking executive orders adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and providing safeguards against Israel-related discrimination in city procurement and pension decision-making. While the continuation of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism (MOCA) is welcome and important, revoking these executive orders removes key tools for addressing antisemitism, including BDS-driven efforts that seek to demonize, delegitimize, and isolate the world’s only Jewish state. https://t.co/VllCOFJtjs
In our latest editorial: the New York mayor-elect’s statement on the chaos at Park East Synagogue is an ominous sign of things to come. https://t.co/EILhNzoS7a
Last night in NYC, Jews entering a synagogue were cursed, harassed and threatened by a mob celebrating violence.
Any responsible leader – and certainly the Mayor-elect of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world – should be able to condemn this blatant antisemitism without hesitation or qualifications.
Yet the Mayor-elect would not unequivocally denounce people shouting, “F*cking Jewish pricks” and “We don’t want no Zionists here" outside of a synagogue, and instead took the opportunity to imply the synagogue was in the wrong.
This wasn’t about intemperate rhetoric. This is about civil rights. It is about whether Jewish New Yorkers are entitled to dignity and respect like all other New Yorkers. This is about whether our basic rights as Americans, like freedom of assembly, will be protected. Full stop.
It is disgusting to see this display of blatant antisemitism outside of @PEsynagogue in NYC. We are in touch with law enforcement to ensure the safety of the community as the protesters harass New Yorkers with chants of “intifada revolution” and other unrelenting threatening verbal assaults. No one going to a house of worship or walking the streets of #NYC should face such hatred. https://t.co/7bnTIUmX3x
🚨A new survey by the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research found that a substantial number of Americans justify violence against Jews and hold antisemitic views. This dangerous normalization of antisemitic beliefs threatens Jewish communities. Full report: https://t.co/u9jUkgfEA5