Mamdani’s Flawed Plan To Combat Antisemitism
Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of New York City, released a comprehensive plan to combat antisemitism on September 29. Amid an upsurge of antisemitic incidents in the Big Apple, he pledged millions of dollars for security and hate-crime prevention programs.
A few liberal and progressive Jewish organizations, such as the New York Jewish Agenda, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Nexus Project and Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, welcomed the 35-page report
Major Jewish groups, notably the UJA-Federation of New York, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and the New York Board of Rabbis, were critical of it: “While the mayor’s plan has a number of positive elements, including some increased security funding for Jewish institutions and expanding proven programs, it fails to address a central issue that the mayor himself has perpetuated: rhetoric that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel inevitably leads to the targeting of Jewish New Yorkers.”
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said the strategy can only be effective if Mamdani agrees to stop his “harsh anti-Israel rhetoric,” which “makes Jewish New Yorkers vulnerable.” There are “clearly times when antisemitic attacks are fuelled by anti-Zionism,” Jacobs told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, delivered a similar critique. “Security grants do not substitute for moral clarity,” he said, arguing that Mamdani’s “actions or inactions only serve to help fuel antisemitism.” He added that Mamdani “does not treat the hate facing Jewish New Yorkers as an emergency and refuses to acknowledge the different shapes it takes.”
Multiple Jewish organizations, including the ADL, have criticized Mamdani’s lack of support for the definition of antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which considers most forms of anti-Zionism as antisemitic.
Shortly after his election as mayor last autumn, Mamdani, a fervent anti-Zionist, revoked an executive order issued by his predecessor, Eric Adams, who had adopted the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism.
Mamdani’s plan takes an eclectic approach to fighting antisemitism: “New York City can and will leverage all of the tools at its disposal to combat antisemitism effectively without needing to adopt a definition for this specific form of hate.”
Phylisa Wisdom, who crafted the strategy and leads New York’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, compared the Mamdani administration’s approach to that of President Joe Biden’s 2023 national antisemitism strategy.
It drew on several competing definitions: the IHRA framework, the Nexus formula, which holds that criticism of Israel or opposition to Israeli government policy is not necessarily antisemitic, and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which offers a narrower definition.
Wisdom said that Mamdani’s focus is less on settling that contentious debate, which has been a source of tension between his administration and Jewish organizations, than on protecting Jewish New Yorkers, regardless of their politics or perceptions of Israel and Zionism.
The plan does not directly link Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack and the Israel-Hamas war that followed with the uptick in antisemitism. Instead, it points to the broader rise of antisemitism since the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh a year later during which 11 congregants were killed by a ne0-Nazi.
According to Wisdom, who was previously the executive director of the progressive and pro-Zionist New York Jewish Agenda organization, antisemitism often spikes during conflicts in which Israel is involved.
Since Mamdani became mayor on January 1, 2026, New York City has experienced an increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes. New York Police Department statistics show that such crimes rose 8.5 percent during the first seven months of the year and about 8 percent through August.
While Jews represent 12 percent of New York’s population, they comprise roughly half of all victims of reported hate crimes, according to the mayor’s report.
Jewish leaders and some politicians have blamed Mamdani’s strident criticism of Israel for contributing to an atmosphere in which antisemitism has flourished, a claim Mamdani rejects and for which the police department has not established a causal connection.
The upsurge of antisemitism started before the Mamdani era. The Anti-Defamation League recorded 976 antisemitic incidents in New York City in 2024, its highest-ever count for an American city. Incidents remained elevated in 2025.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, has accused Mamdani of arousing hatred against Jews. Last week, during his speech at the United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Mamdani an antisemite and accused him of spreading lies about Israel and contributing to an atmosphere in which Jews feel unsafe.
Mamdani, who maintains close relationships with progressive Jewish organizations, has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and denounced Netanyahu as a war criminal. Recently, he produced a Nakba Day video commemorating the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
During his mayoral campaign, he pledged to have Netanyahu arrested under an International Criminal Court warrant if he visited New York. Subsequently, he admitted he lacked the authority to carry out such an arrest.
Mamdani distinguishes between his opposition to Israel and Zionism and his commitment to protecting Jewish residents of the city. He has repeatedly clashed with Jewish organizations and leaders over where anti-Zionist activism crosses the line into antisemitism.
Tensions have flared during pro-Palestinian protests outside synagogues hosting events promoting real estate in Israel and the West Bank and following accusations by Mamdani that Israel committed genocide during the war in the Gaza Strip.
Many Jewish leaders have deplored anti-Zionist chants at demonstrations as antisemitic and intimidating. They include strident calls for “global intifada” and a Palestinian state stretching from “the river to the sea.” While Mamdani has defended the constitutional right of demonstrators to protest, he has condemned violence and expressions of support for terrorist organizations.
In a video announcing his strategy, Mamdani said that his conversations with Jewish New Yorkers over the past year has accentuated his concern of growing antisemitism. “This is not only unacceptable,” he said. “Today, we hold a responsibility to sustain and protect our Jewish neighbors.”
Mamdani is obviously concerned about the blight of antisemitism in a city with a significant Jewish population. But his seemingly sincere aversion to racism is diluted by his refusal to acknowledge that anti-Zionism, in far too many cases, often leads to antisemitism.
