Mayor Adams’s Gift to Zohran Mamdani

The release of the Mayor Adams’s 2025 report on antisemitism on his last day in office is a moment to mark Hizzoner’s commitment to Jewish New Yorkers — and to gather vigilance ahead of the swearing in of Zohran Mamdani. The dispatch comes from the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, a brainchild of Mr. Adams that faces an uncertain future under Mr. Mamdani. The same can be said for Gotham as a whole.Mr. Adams writes in his preface to the report that “When an age old hatred rises, we don’t look away or make excuses. We name it, confront it, and protect our neighbors.” His administration adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which acknowledges that the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism is often non-existent. Mr. Mamdani refuses to condemn “Globalize the Intifada.”The mayor reports that “antisemitism is not only a Jewish problem — it tests our city’s character.” New York hosts the most Jewish residents of any city not named Tel Aviv. The 62 percent of all hate crimes in the first quarter of 2025 that were antisemitic therefore threaten not only Jews, but also the majority of New Yorkers who are not Jewish. The report’s author, Rabbi Moshe Davis, does not know if he will be retained by Mr. Mamdani.The report traces the Jewish presence in New York back to the 23 “Sephardic refugees” who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. The Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, tried to expel them, but was overruled by the Dutch West India Company. Thus began one of the most remarkable chapters in Jewish history. New York became the city of Abe Cahan, Ed Koch, Sandy Koufax, Ralph Lauren, Mike Bloomberg and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, to name just a few.No less important is the report’s declaration that the “connection between Jewish identity and the Land of Israel is not political preference but religious and cultural foundation extending back millennia. Jewish prayers are oriented toward Jerusalem.” This means that the “practical consequence of anti-Zionist rhetoric is the dehumanization of Zionists (the vast majority of Jewish people) and the dehumanization of all Jewish people.”Rabbi Davis, the report’s author, makes clear that he sees City Hall’s report as more than mere history. This report, he texted the Sun, “is both a record of what we accomplished and a blueprint for what must continue. Any administration committed to protecting Jewish New Yorkers has the complete framework here, policy, training, messaging, and a 2026 expansion plan ready for implementation.” Enter Mayor Mamdani, who supports BDS, accuses Israel of committing “genocide,” is emphatically an anti-Zionist, and who two years ago declared “that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.” When an anti-Israel mob gathered outside of Park East Synagogue last month, Mr. Mamdani issued a lukewarm pushback and appeared to accuse the synagogue of, with its support of emigration to Israel, “violating international law.”Once Mr. Mamdani swears fealty to New York’s and America’s Constitutions — as well as to New York City’s Charter — he will be judged not just on his rhetoric, reprehensible as it has been, but also on policy. He pledges to take antisemitism seriously, but does not appear to grasp how his anti-Israel politics are precisely what so many Jews see as dangerous. Polities that have embraced this brand of politics reliably see surges in plain old antisemitism.The report concludes by noting that “The Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism” — the first of its kind anywhere in America — was born of the conviction that “antisemitism is not only a Jewish problem. It is a civic problem, a democratic problem, and a moral problem.” Does Mr. Mamdani desire to understand the problem of antisemitism? If he does, Mr. Adams in his lone term has left him an enviable legacy.

Mayor Adams’s Gift to Zohran Mamdani

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