Why are some skeptical about Mamdani’s plan to fight antisemitism?

Although New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani (D), has been accused of antisemitism by certain members of the Jewish community, he recently unveiled a massive new plan to counter Jewish hatred in the Big Apple. Some have lauded the mayor’s approach, while others have scoffed at it.

The 35-page plan, titled “Tackling Hate: The Mamdani Administration’s Strategy to Combat Antisemitism,” is part of a $7.4 million “citywide commitment to confront antisemitism and to build a New York where Jewish New Yorkers can live their lives authentically on every block, in every neighborhood and across every borough,” Mamdani said in the plan’s introduction. While Jews make up only 12% of New York City’s population, the city has the highest concentration of Jews in the world outside Israel.

Mamdani has been accused of antisemitism because he is a “longtime critic of Israel,” said The New York Times. Yet this report never expressly mentions the ongoing war in the Middle East. Rather, it “recommends continuing and expanding many existing city policies, such as teaching public school students about the Holocaust and providing training to city workers” about Jewish customs. The report’s “omission of any discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reflects the sensitive and fraught politics around the issue.”

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Since the report’s unveiling some have “welcomed the additional security and education funding but said the strategy glaringly omits the role that anti-Israel hostility plays in fueling anti-Jewish hostility,” said The Wall Street Journal. Others have praised Mamdani’s effort. At a “moment of real and rising antisemitism, extremism and violence across the ideological spectrum, our communities deserve a whole-of-government response,” Amy Spitalnick, the chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said to the Journal.

Antisemitism remains an ongoing issue in New York City. In 2026 so far, there were “around 223 antisemitic hate crimes, making up more than half of all hate crimes in the city,” said Politico. Still, while Mamdani’s report does not specifically define ‘antisemitism,’ that may not ultimately be its purpose. It is not the “city’s role to settle a debate over how to define” this, and governments that “have adopted the definition have not seen a reduction in antisemitism,” Phylisa Wisdom, who was appointed by Mamdani to lead the New York Office to Combat Antisemitism, said in a statement. “No other hate crime category is formally defined by the city.”

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