Mamdani’s Malevolent Mission to Redefine Antisemitism in America

On his first day in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made three moves that should alarm anyone tracking the rebranding of Antisemitism in American progressive politics. I say this as a mainstream liberal who left the Democratic Party last year to become an Independent. I had seen enough of how Mamdani and his anti-Zionist allies were reshaping the party by trying to redefine Antisemitism for the rest of us.

Within hours, Mamdani re-legalized the possibility of BDS in New York City. He overturned the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of Antisemitism, rejecting IHRA’s recognition that anti-Zionism is a common form of Jew-hatred. But he also announced he would keep the city’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, created by his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams.

What do these actions mean together?

They are a coordinated demonstration, advanced for years by anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, designed to prove a fraud: that one can be anti-Zionist without being Antisemitic.

Had Mamdani eliminated the Office to Combat Antisemitism, his agenda would have been too obvious. The outrage would have been wider. And his ability to proceed further with policies hostile to Jewish self-determination would have been constrained.

Instead, Mamdani chose a sophisticated and far more dangerous path, preserving the office while stripping it of the definition it needs to function.

And that is why keeping the Office to Combat Antisemitism is not a reassurance. It is the subversion.

By decoupling anti-Zionism from Antisemitism, Mamdani can claim to be protecting Jews while giving a free pass to the most common and socially tolerated form of Antisemitism that Jews now encounter in civic life, higher education, and activist spaces.

If you want to understand what Mamdani really thinks, don’t look at the office he kept. Look at the community he chose not to mention.

In his inauguration speech, Mamdani spoke about the oppression of other communities in New York, including Palestinians — but not of Jews, the most targeted group for hate crimes in New York City. According to a report from Mayor Adams’ Office to Combat Antisemitism, during the first quarter of 2025, Jews were the victims of 62 percent of all hate crimes in the city.

Mamdani’s subversion is not limited to policy. It is also cultural. In his speech, Mamdani pandered to Jews with a line about his loving bagels and lox. That’s like implying that I, a passionate supporter of Israel, am sympathetic to anti-Zionism because I have eaten at Palestinian restaurants in Brooklyn.

But how could Mamdani be insincere? He ran his primary campaign as a buddy movie with a fellow candidate, the Jewish Brad Lander. Mamdani also had Jewish icon Mandy Patinkin sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at the inauguration.  Heck, I was waiting for Mamdani’s anti-Zionist confidant Linda Sarsour to lip-synch “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Mamdani is demonstrating how Antisemitism is laundered in polite company. He’ll keep some kind of office for Jews. He’ll issue easy statements to mark Jewish holidays. And he’ll generate photo ops by wearing a kippah when he visits synagogues.

Come on, mishpacha. You’re smarter than that.

When Jews are harassed for supporting Israel, when synagogues are targeted for being Zionist, and when Jewish students are told that Zionists are unwelcome, Mamdani will have already decided none of it counts.

In other words, the cover of the alarm box will remain, but the most common fires will no longer classified as fires.

New York City does not merely reflect national trends. It exports them. As Mamdani redefines Antisemitism in New York, he knows that schools, nonprofits, and civic institutions across the country are taking note. They are learning to perform concern for Jews while excusing the behavior Jews are pleading with them to confront.

According to a 2024 survey by the American Jewish Committee, 85 percent of American Jews believe the statement “Israel has no right to exist” is Antisemitic.

In that spirit, combating Antisemitism must begin with a simple principle: We Jews, rather than a politician who hedges on denouncing the Global the Intifada movement, must get to define the hatred we face.

Any framework that denies that premise is not fighting Antisemitism. It is managing Jews for political convenience.

And after 3,000 years of persecution, we Jews know where that road may lead.