Mamdani’s antisemitism plan draws criticism as rabbis say it avoids key driver of hate
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a multimillion-dollar strategy to combat antisemitism, drawing criticism from prominent Jewish leaders who described the announcement as an attempt to deflect attention from the mayor’s own rhetoric while avoiding one of the defining sources of modern anti-Jewish hostility: the demonization of Israel and Zionism.
Mamdani announced what his administration called the nation’s first municipal strategy dedicated to combating antisemitism, declaring that Jewish New Yorkers "should feel cherished and celebrated in the most Jewish city in America."
The mayor cited New York Police Department statistics showing that although Jewish residents constitute approximately 12% of the city’s population, antisemitic incidents account for more than half of its confirmed hate crimes.
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"This is not only unacceptable, it’s something we all have an obligation to change," Mamdani said. "And City Hall will lead the way."
His administration said it is increasing hate crime prevention funding by $26 million, an increase of more than 800% from the previous year. The plan includes $6.4 million for community organizations working to prevent hate violence and would restart an interagency security and infrastructure initiative disbanded in 2024.
The city also pledged $2 million for the Queens Holocaust Memorial Garden and $2.5 million for the Brooklyn Center for New Jewish Culture, alongside expanded education, reporting resources and security support for Jewish institutions.
The way that money would be distributed also drew scrutiny. Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, said that only $1 million is dedicated specifically to security while millions more would be directed through community initiatives.
"All of this money is pure pork barrel politics," Steinmetz told Fox News Digital. "Outside of a million dollars in security, it is all being spent on community initiatives that will reward his supporters."
The Jewish leaders who spoke with Fox News Digital welcomed the security investments but argued that physical protection alone cannot address an environment in which Jews increasingly feel pressured to distance themselves from Israel.
From Manhattan’s East Side to its West Side, three prominent rabbis shared another concern: Not one had been contacted by the mayor or his administration while the strategy was being developed, despite collectively leading some of the borough’s largest Jewish congregations.
Those concerns raise basic questions about how the strategy was constructed: which Jewish leaders and institutions helped shape it, how did the administration decide where the funding would go, and how were organizations selected to receive it? Fox News Digital asked those questions, along with Steinmetz’s criticism of the funding process, to the mayor’s office but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The mayor's strategy acknowledges rising antisemitism since Oct. 7 and expands Holocaust education, but does not directly address the hostility Jewish students have experienced on college campuses or examine when anti-Israel activism crosses into antisemitic harassment and intimidation. The three rabbis interviewed by Fox News Digital identified that omission as a significant weakness in the city’s strategy.
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan and president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said the plan omits what he considers the central driver of contemporary antisemitism.
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"If the purpose here is to combat and reduce antisemitism, the plan omits the central driver of contemporary antisemitism, which is an obsessive loathing of Israel," Hirsch told Fox News Digital.
That hostility, he said, is directed "not only" toward the state of Israel but toward "the Zionist idea, the right of Israel to exist, the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in the land of Israel."
"To write a 30-page report and never mention the state of Israel, let alone address the vicious anti-Zionism, partially fomented by the mayor himself, is evading the issue," Hirsch said. "It’s not dealing head-on with the issue itself."
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Hirsch welcomed the additional security funding, while emphasizing that Jewish institutions must routinely absorb expenses other communities do not face.
"The security obligations in every Jewish institution in the city are, in effect, an additional surtax on New York Jews that nobody else pays," he said. "And so any funds for security are welcome."
He also supported educational initiatives and Holocaust museum visits but said the city must teach more than the history of Jewish persecution.
"What I would like to see is a focus in New York public schools on the nexus, the connection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism," Hirsch said.
"One of the key lessons from the Holocaust," he added, is that "Jewish self-determination and Jewish empowerment are the answer to Jewish powerlessness that gave rise to centuries of antisemitism that culminated in genocide."
Steinmetz also said the mayor is using the strategy to avoid examining the consequences of his own language.
"Rather than taking responsibility for combating antisemitism, Mamdani is using this plan to deflect attention from himself," Steinmetz said. "His rhetoric has been reckless."
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Steinmetz said statistics measuring physical crimes capture only part of what Jewish New Yorkers experience.
"Far more common is the nasty look and whispered insult," he said. "You cannot talk about a trip to Israel at the water cooler. Jews feel like they have to hide parts of themselves to be accepted."
The mayor has long been an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and has faced scrutiny from Jewish leaders over his descriptions of Israel, Zionism and organizations that support the Jewish state. Critics argue that separating antisemitism from anti-Zionist rhetoric ignores how Jewish identity is experienced by much of the city’s Jewish population.
Rabbi Yosie Levine of The Jewish Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side thanked the mayor for recognizing the severity of the problem but called for a corresponding change in his language.
"I want to thank the mayor for his commitment to combat antisemitism," Levine told Fox News Digital. "Acknowledging the problem is an important first step."
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"At the same time, we would welcome an equally clear commitment to stop using rhetoric that vilifies Jewish leaders and the Jewish state," Levine continued.
"When you turn Zionism into an accusation, you turn Zionists into the accused."
Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, referred Fox News Digital to a joint statement issued by UJA Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
While the organizations recognized "positive elements" in the plan, including increased security funding and the expansion of established programs, they warned that 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."
"Those who truly seek to address antisemitism must unequivocally reject such rhetoric and help ensure that Jewish New Yorkers are never made to feel suspect, excluded or unsafe in their own city," the statement continued.
Mamdani said the administration’s efforts would ultimately benefit every community because "our safety is bound up together."
"Fundamentally, what is lacking is even an acknowledgment that obsessive loathing of Israel is generating much of this antisemitism," Hirsch said. "It would have been much more mature and, frankly, much more useful to lay out that fact."
"Simply to omit it and avoid it is a wasted opportunity," he concluded. "I’m disappointed in the mayor, and he should have done better."