Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare project, says Mamdani’s appointees “can use their institutional power to mainstream positions” that are “hostile or exclusionary or even discriminatory towards Jews” and “erode democratic norms”<\/p>\n
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been in office for just six weeks, and concern continues mounting among Jewish leaders.<\/p>\n
Many are warning that he may not only fail to be a good mayor for the city\u2019s Jewish community, but also struggle to serve New Yorkers more broadly.<\/p>\n
Those concerns stem from a series of controversial appointments widely viewed as anti-Israel and antisemitic, which have raised early red flags. While these figures may not ultimately succeed in pushing their agendas through City Hall, the developments warrant close attention. Jewish New Yorkers, some community leaders argue, should be watching carefully and prepared to respond if necessary.<\/p>\n
Sacha Roytman, CEO of Combat Antisemitism, said that while Mamdani may be vocal, he remains constrained by a system of checks and balances, most notably the New York City Council, which Speaker Julie Menin leads.<\/p>\n
He can say what he wants, but the opposition against him is well organized. Mamdani cannot change the city so fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can say what he wants, but the opposition against him is well organized,\u201d Roytman told The Media Line. \u201cMamdani cannot change the city so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Roytman, the City Council largely opposes many of Mamdani\u2019s ideas. It is expected to counter him legislatively, including by advancing policies at the council level that reverse or offset the mayor\u2019s executive actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City Council has enormous power, and Julie is exceptionally good on these [Jewish] issues,\u201d Roytman explained. \u201cWe will work with the City Council to do the same work that we used to do with the mayors before Mamdani.\u201d<\/p>\n
In context textUnder New York City law, much of a mayor\u2019s agenda must pass through the City Council. The council introduces and votes on legislation, controls the city budget, and has the authority to override mayoral vetoes, limiting how quickly or unilaterally a mayor can enact policy changes.<\/p>\n
Beyond the City Council, Roytman pointed to additional layers of opposition. New York\u2019s borough presidents, who represent the city\u2019s five boroughs, have also expressed resistance to many of Mamdani\u2019s proposals. In addition, the city comptroller, Mark D. Levine, a Jewish communal leader, has publicly pledged to challenge the mayor\u2019s investment policies. The New York Police Department is led by Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a member of a prominent Jewish family who is openly pro-Israel.<\/p>\n
New York will not die because of the mayor. \u2026 He will make bad statements and take bad positions, but the opposition will not let the city collapse.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York will not die because of the mayor,\u201d Roytman said. \u201cThere is leadership on the district level that will rise, and the opposition will be so strong that he will not be able to deploy almost any of his policies. He will make bad statements and take bad positions, but the opposition will not let the city collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roytman also noted that elections will take place later this year, including a special election for City Council District 3 in Manhattan and the gubernatorial election. If the right candidates are selected, he said, the opposition to Mamdani could grow even stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will not be a good mayor for New York,\u201d Roytman said.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, Mamdani has been carefully selecting a cabinet that reflects his ideology, including figures who are anti-Israel, anti Zionist, and pro-Marxist. Among the most controversial appointments is lawyer Ramzi Kassem, who was named chief counsel.<\/p>\n
Kassem, who defended an al Qaida member, has an outsized role in shaping the city\u2019s legal strategies<\/p>\n
\u201cKassem, who defended an al Qaida member, has an outsized role in shaping the city\u2019s legal strategies on everything from civil rights to policing to defending the government in litigation,\u201d warned Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at The Lawfare Project. \u201cHis decisions on legal interpretations involving these issues could reflect his stance on Israel-Palestine, on Jewish civil rights, and on what seems to be an anti police bent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filitti said Kassem\u2019s position is central to defining policy and described it as \u201ca very important role.\u201d In the past, Filitti noted, individuals who held similar positions were \u201cfairly neutral when it comes to politics and politics. They\u2019ve been more focused on even-handed application of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that decisions related to policing and civil rights directly affect Jewish New Yorkers, including how and where protests against Israel, for example, are permitted to take place.<\/p>\n
According to Filitti, Kassem\u2019s public record dates back to his time as a student at Columbia University, where he wrote that Israel was committing acts of ethnic cleansing. Kassem accused Israel of intending to conquer the land it was occupying and argued that a two-state solution was not credible. After becoming an attorney, Filitti said, Kassem took on several high-profile cases, including the defense of a terrorist linked to al Qaida who was convicted of conspiring to blow up a French oil tanker off Yemen\u2019s coast. Kassem sought to have the terrorist repatriated outside the United States to serve his sentence in his home country.<\/p>\n
Another appointment drawing scrutiny is Phylisa Wisdom, selected to lead New York City\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism. Wisdom has opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which was developed as a tool to combat contemporary antisemitism.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and senior founding rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue, described Wisdom as antisemitic. In a statement, he said that \u201cthe leader of the Office to Combat Antisemitism must understand a basic truth. Israel cannot be bifurcated from Judaism. Ms. 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
Schneier added that many Jewish New Yorkers view anti-Zionism as antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cEighty-one years after the liberation of Auschwitz, honoring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust demands vigilance, moral clarity, and the courage to speak out against those who choose to define and reformulate the definition of antisemitism in our day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Last week, in an exclusive report, the New York Post revealed that Mamdani\u2019s Department of Health created a \u201cworking group\u201d that accused Israel of committing genocide during its first meeting, which took place last Tuesday. The group, called the \u201cGlobal Oppression and Public Health Working Group,\u201d convened in Long Island City and via Zoom.<\/p>\n
According to the New York Post, one presenter said the group was specifically developed \u201cin response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yael Halaas, president of the American Jewish Medical Association, told the Post that \u201cthis is a meeting using New York City Department of Health resources that promote libel against the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filitti said there is already a widespread feeling among Jewish New Yorkers that the law is not being enforced sufficiently to protect their community. With Mamdani\u2019s recent appointments, he added, those concerns have only intensified.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople know or should know that when you look at all of the appointments that Mamdani has made so far, they represent a complete transformation of what most New Yorkers understand their city government looked like,\u201d Filitti told The Media Line. \u201cThe people that he is appointing to office and that he\u2019s using as consultants or staff have very radical views that most New Yorkers do not traditionally share. So this election was not just about electing Zohran Mamdani. It was about bringing into office people who share his views.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast to Roytman\u2019s more measured assessment of the mayor\u2019s early moves, Filitti argued that many New Yorkers are underestimating the long-term impact of these appointments.<\/p>\n
These positions will become increasingly entrenched in city agencies and in city government, making it harder to change them by the next mayor<\/p>\n
\u201cThese positions will become increasingly entrenched in city agencies and in city government, making it harder to change them by the next mayor,\u201d Filitti warned.<\/p>\n
He said that The Lawfare Project and other organizations aim to raise awareness among individuals in leadership roles and to ensure that the public is closely watching which policies they pursue and what is motivating those decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Kassem specifically, the concern is that like Mamdani, these are not fringe actors,\u201d Filitti said. \u201cThese are people who can use their institutional power to mainstream positions that many New Yorkers and civil rights advocates see as hostile or exclusionary or even discriminatory towards Jews, and that corrodes democratic norms. It\u2019s important for people to be aware of the backgrounds of these individuals and to be more watchful of the policies that are implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will New York\u2019s system of checks and balances limit how far Mamdani can go? Or will the appointments he is making today quietly shape the city for years to come?<\/p>\n
As both leaders stressed, vigilance will be critical in determining which path New York ultimately takes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare project, says Mamdani’s appointees “can use their institutional power to mainstream…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-130532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}