Mamdani Releases Plan To Fight Antisemitism, a Term He Refuses To Define

Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his plan to combat antisemitism in New York to resounding ambivalence from the city’s Jewish leaders on Tuesday, as the chief executive announced new funding and education drives to address a problem Hizzoner refuses to define and erases any mention of anti-Israel hostility.Within its 33-page, seven-point plan, the Mayor’s Office declines to provide any clear outline of the scourge it aims to address, because “scholars, community members and community leaders do not agree on certain aspects of what antisemitism is.”The document references the definition of antisemitism advanced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which the city previously adopted under Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, as well as definitions set forth in The Jerusalem Declaration and The Nexus Document. The latter includes “attitudes about Zionism” as a potential source of antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League rejected the gesture in a statement Tuesday, saying the plan “only confirms what we already knew: this mayor does not treat the hate facing Jewish New Yorkers as an emergency and refuses to acknowledge the different shapes it takes.”The plan prioritizes funding to solve its undefined antisemitism problem, with $1 million committed for enhancing security at “vulnerable nonprofits,” including synagogues, and $6.4 million for grants under the city’s anti-hate crime initiative, Partners Against the Hate, or PATH. The investment doubles the amount of funding for PATH grants, “with a renewed focus on countering online hate speech, data collection, restorative justice and survivor support.” The funds are being drawn from the $26 million cash infusion to the city’s Office to Prevent Hate Crimes announced earlier this year.City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz said he appreciated the plan’s emphasis on education initiatives, including expanding a program he launched with City Council Speaker Julie Menin to fund free school trips to the city’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, in a statement. Nevertheless, he said, the plan “misses an opportunity to confront the reality of the intersection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”Mr. Dinowitz defined Zionism as the belief that “Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their indigenous homeland.” “Though Zionism is not an endorsement of a particular Israeli government or political agenda, we cannot ignore that attacking or excluding ‘Zionists’ can and has become a convenient way to disguise antisemitism as political disagreement,” he wrote.The director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Mark Goldfeder, called the plan’s action items “mostly just the Adams plan that he deleted on Day 1 of his administration, but with every page that touches Israel torn out,” in a post on X.The plan was released days after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed against Mr. Mamdani from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly after a summer of escalating rhetoric between the politicians. Mr. Mamdani tried to have Mr. Netanyahu arrested under an outstanding warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr. Netanyahu has accused Mr. Mamdani of “fomenting hate” in New York.As antipathy between the politicians has grown, members of Mr. Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist party have doubled down on support for Palestinian independence and rhetoric that many Jewish and Israeli groups view as calling for their erasure.On Sunday, students introducing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at an appearance at Cornell University led the audience in chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Mr. Mamdani has refused to condemn the chant and such slogans as “Globalize the intifada,” saying during a podcast interview in June that he is “less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words.”

Mamdani Releases Plan To Fight Antisemitism, a Term He Refuses To Define

Mamdani Releases Plan To Fight Antisemitism, a Term He Refuses To Define

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