{"id":274612,"date":"2026-02-05T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/274612\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T02:13:08","slug":"zohran-mamdani-names-ny-jewish-agenda-leader-as-antisemitism-czar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/274612\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani names NY Jewish Agenda leader as antisemitism czar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani<\/a> officially has picked his antisemitism czar<\/a>, and he\u2019s chosen the leader of a progressive Jewish group that, unlike him, supports Israel\u2019s right to exist as a Jewish state.<\/p>\n

Phylisa Wisdom, who has led the advocacy group the New York Jewish Agenda since 2023, was named executive director of the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Wisdom declined to comment, but both she and a Mamdani spokesperson confirmed her appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201c@phylisajoy is the perfect person for the job,\u201d tweeted Brad Lander<\/a>, Mamdani\u2019s most prominent Jewish ally and a co-founder of NYJA. \u201cI\u2019ve had the blessing to watch her lead @NYJewishAgenda in many critical moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speculation had been building over who Mamdani would appoint since his first day on the job, when he announced that he would retain the office created last year by his predecessor, Eric Adams<\/a>, even as he repealed Adams\u2019 anti-BDS executive order. Jewish leaders have closely watched Mamdani\u2019s moves to monitor whether and how he might import his longstanding opposition to Israel into his leadership of the city.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (R) and predecessor Eric Adams (L). (credit: ANGELA WEISS\/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, John Lamparski\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

By tapping Wisdom, he is choosing someone to the left of Adams\u2019 antisemitism czar, Moshe Davis, but with no track record of anti-Zionism.<\/p>\n

On its website, NYJA says it is made up of \u201cliberal and progressive Zionists,\u201d and that it is \u201ccommitted to the idea of Jewish self-determination and to the right of all people to live in free and just societies.\u201d The group opposes the movement to boycott Israel.<\/p>\n

Wisdom had been rumored to be in the mix over the last couple of weeks. Some Orthodox Jewish leaders voiced concern because of Wisdom\u2019s past work for Yaffed, an organization that presses for increased oversight of secular education in New York\u2019s Hasidic and haredi yeshivas. Wisdom spent a year as Yaffed\u2019s director of development and government affairs before joining NYJA in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leader of the Office of Antisemitism cannot have a contentious relationship with the Chassidic yeshiva community,\u201d wrote Yaacov Behrman, a Chabad PR liaison, on X in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in New York, a large share of antisemitic hate crimes target Chassidic and Yeshivish Jews,\u201d he wrote without naming Wisdom. \u201cIt is difficult to understand how someone who has spent years publicly antagonizing yeshivas could build the relationships or provide the reassurance needed for the community most often targeted by antisemitic attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

A collection of 13 pro-Israel Jewish organizations and institutions, including NYC Public School Alliance, End Jew Hatred, Progressives for Israel, and Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn, petitioned Mamdani to pick somebody \u201cin the mold of\u201d Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe individual selected must be able to command trust even among those who may not share their personal views,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Wisdom is \u201cfantastic at bringing people together, across many lines of difference,\u201d Lander wrote in his tweet on Wednesday, adding, \u201cShe loves what an extraordinary & diversely Jewish place New York City is, and she\u2019ll work hard every day to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A San Diego native who now lives in Brooklyn, Wisdom started her position at NYJA just a few months before Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Her grandmother was a Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jew who was raised in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Wisdom told the New York Jewish Week that NYJA was playing \u201ca key role in helping liberal New York Jews navigate the complexity of this very difficult post-Oct. 7 world, where many on the political poles are trying to divide us and insisting that one must be simply pro-Israel or pro-Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has indicated that she is aligned with Mamdani in opposing the codification of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s definition of antisemitism, which characterizes some forms of Israel criticism as antisemitic. Mamdani repealed Adams\u2019 executive order adopting the definition.<\/p>\n

Mamdani’s antisemitism czar nominee called on campuses to not adopt IHRA’s definition<\/p>\n

Wisdom has called on universities not to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I am calling upon every university to NOT adopt the IHRA definition but instead make like the Biden administration & adopt an approach that uses some of IHRA and @NexusProjectUS\u2019s definitions,\u201d she wrote in 2024. \u201cThe author of the IHRA definition himself has said it\u2019s not for legal codification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisdom\u2019s stance on the definition drew immediate criticism from Marc Schneier, senior rabbi of the Hampton Synagogue who has been a vocal critic of Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leader of the Office to Combat Antisemitism must understand a basic truth. Israel cannot be bifurcated from Judaism,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cMs. Wisdom\u2019s opposition to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, adopted by 50 nations worldwide and 37 of 50 states in America, calls that understanding into question.\u201d<\/p>\n

The executive director of the Office to Combat Antisemitism, as outlined in Mamdani\u2019s executive order, is tasked with identifying and developing \u201cefforts to eliminate antisemitism and anti-Jewish hate crime,\u201d and establishing a task force with representatives from agencies including the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, police department, and New York City Commission on Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Jews are the target of a large proportion of hate crimes in New York City. The NYPD reported 31 alleged antisemitic hate crimes in January, an average of one per day and a 182% increase from last January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani officially has picked his antisemitism czar, and he\u2019s chosen the leader of a progressive Jewish group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[111,16868,1903,12728,42,119938,5708,43,40,38,41,39,14325],"class_list":{"0":"post-274612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-campus-antisemitism","10":"tag-diaspora","11":"tag-hate-monitor","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-ihra-definition-of-antisemitism","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}