Inside Mamdani’s Agenda: Policies With Major Implications for Jewish New Yorkers—and the Details Few Have Noticed.Ng2

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s incoming administration marks a sea change for the city’s Jews, with leading rabbis calling Mamdani a “danger” and warning of his “uncompromising anti-Zionism.”

Mamdani is a longtime anti-Israel activist who has identified as an anti-Zionist, and much of the concern stems from Mamdani’s rhetoric against Israel, with Jewish leaders fearing the administration could foment hostility against Jews. 

Polls have found that a majority of Jews believe Mamdani will make the city less safe for them.

Concerns have continued to mount in recent weeks as Mamdani’s staff comes together ahead of his taking office on January 1.

An ADL report released this week found that many of Mamdani’s appointees have ties to anti-Zionist activist groups and one appointee resigned last week after old antisemitic comments she made online surfaced.

But what policies has Mamdani vowed to enact that could directly affect Jewish New Yorkers?

The mayor-elect has focused on affordability and housing — issues that will affect Jews like other New Yorkers — but also outlined proposals that have a more immediate impact on Jews related to education, security, the city’s annual pro-Israel parade and arresting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Here are some of his policy proposals that could affect New York City’s Jews.

Jewish New Yorkers have repeatedly expressed concern about how Mamdani might handle anti-Israel protests at sensitive sites such as synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods.

Mamdani has vowed to protect Jews, but the mass shooting of Jews in Australia last week resurfaced those fears, with some critics pointing to Mamdani’s past defense of the phrase “Globalize the intifada” as contributing to threats against Jews.

Mamdani has said he would “discourage” the protest slogan, but has not condemned it.

Mamdani has outlined plans for a Department of Community Safety that will prioritize “prevention-first, community-based solutions” for combating crime, such as investing in mental health services, reducing homelessness and “addressing hate violence.”

Mamdani’s campaign said the department will oversee an 800% increase in funding for hate violence programs, from $3 million to approximately $26 million.

Mamdani has also said he will disband the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, a specially trained unit that responds to protests.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes in New York City more than all other groups combined.

So far this year, there have been at least 287 antisemitic incidents reported to police, out of 516 total hate crimes, according to a tally of NYPD data.

The antisemitic incidents amount to 56% of the total hate crimes in the city.

Mayor Eric Adams made opposing antisemitism a priority, establishing an Office to Combat Antisemitism earlier this year.

It’s unclear if Mamdani will keep the office.

A Mamdani spokesperson did not respond to a request for information about his policy proposals and the antisemitism office.

Mamdani has also said he will drop the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which covers some forms of Israel criticism, after Adams ordered his administration to use the definition earlier this year.

Mamdani has said he will keep the Jewish NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in place, assuaging some concerns about the police under his administration stemming from Mamdani’s past antagonism toward law enforcement.

Tisch is a moderate, longtime public servant who is highly regarded as the head of the police force.

Public schools and yeshivas

Mamdani has said he will implement Hidden Voices, a school curriculum that highlights minority communities’ history, including Jews, as a way to rein in antisemitism.

The 300-page curriculum on Jews was created by the New York City Department of Education and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

The curriculum is already available to educators, but it is not mandatory and Mamdani’s plan for implementing the curriculum was unclear.

The Jewish material in Hidden Voices highlights American Jewish history, not antisemitism and the Holocaust.

The material also discusses Jews’ connection to Israel, defining Zionism as “the right to Jewish national self-determination in their ancestral homeland.”

“The relationship between Jews, Judaism, and Israel goes back to ancient times.

For millennia, Jews have directed their prayers toward Jerusalem,” the curriculum says.

Mamdani identified as an anti-Zionist and sought to divorce anti-Zionism from antisemitism.

Mamdani has also said he is opposed to cutting public funds to schools that do not meet state education standards.

Funding for the yeshiva school system, including some Hasidic schools that fall short on secular education, is a priority for Hasidic communities.

Mamdani has found a welcome in the Satmar Hasidic movement.

“I think that our focus has to be on compliance, not on punishment,” he said of cutting funding to the schools at a mayoral forum earlier this year.

The annual Israel parade

Mamdani has said he will not march in the city’s annual parade in support of Israel, called Israel Day on the 5th, the de facto Jewish community parade in the city.

The parade, held on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue, draws tens of thousands of marchers and the city’s mayors have attended for decades, alongside other state and city leaders.

While Mamdani will not attend, he has said he will still ensure security and permits for the event.

Mamdani has repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, stating he opposes Israel because he does not “recognize any state’s right to exist with a system of hierarchy on the basis of race or religion.”

Israeli citizens have equal rights, regardless of race or religion.

Mamdani marched in a parade for Pakistan this year, however.

Pakistan’s official state religion is Islam, and religious minorities are persecuted by state and non-state actors, according to the US State Department.

Minority groups such as Christians are persecuted under laws outlawing blasphemy against Islam.

Asked about the discrepancy earlier this year, Mamdani did not address the apparent double standard.

BDS and arresting Netanyahu

Mamdani is a longtime supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel.

As a state assemblymember, he proposed legislation that sought to strip the nonprofit status from groups that engage “in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”

The bill’s critics said its language was vague and that it would have effectively outlawed Jewish charities because some nonprofits operate across the Green Line, without supporting settlement activity, such as medical responders.

The legislation had little support and did not pass into law.

Mamdani’s options for enacting BDS policies as mayor are limited.

A city law barring discrimination in public contracts says it is illegal for city agencies to deny a contract based on national origin and other characteristics, and New York City legislation needs the approval of the City Council.

Adams issued an executive order opposing BDS earlier this month, but Mamdani could revoke the order after taking office.

Mamdani has also said he would end Adams’s New York City-Israel Economic Council, a group set up to foster business ties between the city and Israel.

Mamdani has said he would support city pension funds divesting from Israel bonds, although the incoming comptroller, Mark Levine, a Jewish moderate, has dismissed the plan.

The comptroller, the city’s chief financial officer, is one of the highest-ranking positions in the city government.

The presumed incoming City Council speaker, Julie Menin, is also a Jewish centrist. Along with Levine and Tisch, Menin could serve as an additional counterweight to Mamdani.

Mamdani has also repeatedly said he would arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when Netanyahu visits the city, citing an International Criminal Court warrant for the prime minister.

The court does not have jurisdiction in the US, though, and federal law bars cooperation with the court in the US. Legal experts and New York Governor Kathy Hochul have said the mayor does not have the ability to arrest Netanyahu, who has dismissed the threat.