No Jews on Mamdani’s 'truly representative' NYC judiciary panel, sparking backlash
City Hall repeatedly touted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 19-member judiciary advisory panel as a "truly representative cross-section" of New York City’s legal profession — but four Jewish bar associations say not one Jewish member was appointed.
The groups, backed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), are demanding Mamdani correct what they called a profound omission from the influential committee, which screens and recommends candidates for judgeships across the five boroughs and across various different courts, including Criminal Court, Family Court and, on an interim basis, Civil Court.
City Hall touted Mamdani’s 19-member judiciary advisory panel as a "truly representative cross-section" when it was announced July 22. Meanwhile, Mamdani’s own Jan. 2 executive order establishing the committee stated that its membership "shall reflect the cosmopolitan population of the City of New York."
"The members announced today offer a truly representative cross-section of the legal profession in New York City, bringing a wide range of professional experience from all five boroughs to the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary," said Ramzi Kassem, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall, who supervises the activities of the Committee.
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"Under Mayor Mamdani’s leadership, [Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary] will reach across the legal community to build a broad and highly qualified pool of judicial applicants," Kassem continued. "An independent and impartial judiciary composed of jurists who have served their fellow New Yorkers in a range of legal circumstances is essential to a healthy democracy, and these appointments reflect our administration’s commitment to a fair, inclusive and transparent judicial selection process."
But the Brandeis Association, Jewish Lawyers Guild, Brooklyn Brandeis Society and Queens Brandeis Association — along with other critics — say the absence of even one Jewish member from the 19-person panel exposes a glaring contradiction between City Hall’s rhetoric and its appointments.
"At a time when antisemitism is rising and Jewish communities are increasingly under threat, excluding Jewish voices from this influential body is not only disheartening, it is dangerous," the groups wrote in a joint letter they sent to Mamdani on Monday. "The absence of Jewish representation on a committee entrusted with shaping the future of our judiciary sends a deeply troubling message to the Jewish community and undermines the committee’s credibility and ability to serve all New Yorkers fairly."
In addition to Mamdani, the four groups sent the letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, along with other state, city and judicial officials.
The letter's warning, which included calls to "correct this exclusion," came amid renewed fears over Jewish safety in the city.
On Tuesday, a hammer-carrying intruder entered the grounds of the Jewish Institute of Queens and shoved an 8-year-old boy into a fence during a struggle with security, leaving the child with a head injury, authorities said. Police did not believe the boy was the intended target, and investigators have not established a motive.
The frightening episode followed last week’s alleged hate-crime attack on an Orthodox Jewish man who was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver shortly after leaving an Upper West Side synagogue. Prosecutors say the suspect shouted "Justice for Islam" and "Allahu Akbar" before committing the attack.
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The mayor’s office, the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary and committee Chairman Ali Najmi did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by publication time. However, Mamdani press secretary Joe Calvello told NBC New York that any suggestion the appointments to the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary were motivated by religion was "false."
Calvello said Mamdani had appointed "a dozen qualified judges from a range of backgrounds, including Jewish judges," and said the administration declined to appoint retired Justice John Leventhal, who is Jewish, after learning he had served on Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team.
"Make no mistake, the leader of the Democrat Party, Mayor Mamdani, is working to bulldoze the rest of New York government to fit his ideology," Mark Bednar, a principal at Monument Advocacy who previously led communications for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and served as communications director for then-Rep. Sean Duffy, told Fox News Digital. "Americans of all backgrounds should take notice of the threat his ideology poses, and to sound the alarm about anyone he appoints to important positions."
Jewish civil rights attorney Gerard Filitti argued that the absence of Jewish members was particularly glaring in a city with the largest Jewish population in the country. He also pointed out the committee’s influence over the courts that hear hate-crime cases.
"His own chief counsel called the slate a truly representative cross-section of the city's legal profession, in the city with the largest Jewish population in America, on the panel that will pick the judges who hear hate-crime cases," Filitti wrote on X. "City Hall did not deny the exclusion. It changed the subject to judges Mamdani appointed elsewhere. Jewish New Yorkers are owed the same representation as everyone else, and this mayor just seated a panel that gives them none."