{"id":133103,"date":"2026-02-14T00:05:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133103\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:05:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:05:44","slug":"adl-raises-concerns-on-hot-girls-4-zohran-alvaro-lopez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133103\/","title":{"rendered":"ADL raises concerns on Hot Girls 4 Zohran, Alvaro Lopez"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Anti-Defamation League New York\/New Jersey escalated its criticism of Zohran Mamdani<\/a> this week, citing concerns about both a senior Brooklyn appointment and the mayor\u2019s continued proximity to an activist group that helped energize his campaign.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the ADL said Mamdani\u2019s selection of Alvaro Lopez<\/a> as Brooklyn Borough Director raised \u201cserious concerns<\/a>,\u201d pointing to a now-deleted social media post and to Lopez\u2019s past activism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The role is seen inside City Hall as a key liaison post for Brooklyn, home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the US. In the statement quoted by a local New York-area publication, the ADL said the borough includes \u201capproximately 500,000 Jewish New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ADL said that on November 3, 2023, less than a month after Hamas<\/a> and other terror groups abducted 251 people from Israel on October 7, Lopez referred to individuals seen ripping down posters of hostages as \u201cheroes\u201d in a post that was later deleted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also said Lopez attended events in 2024 and 2025 that \u201cfeatured pro-Hamas rhetoric<\/a>\u201d or explicitly called for Israel\u2019s destruction, and it highlighted his involvement with the Democratic Socialists of America – NYC chapter, which it described as having promoted extreme anti-Israel messaging since October 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a separate post the same day, the ADL publicly called on Mamdani to distance himself from Kaif Gilani, a co-founder of Hot Girls 4 Zohran, arguing that Gilani had a history of sharing antisemitic content and pro-Hamas rhetoric online, mocking Israeli victims of terror, amplifying conspiracy theories from a Holocaust revisionist, denying sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7, and calling for Israel\u2019s eradication.<\/p>\n

The ADL said the group, now rebranded as Hot Girls Organize, \u201ccontinue[s] to be embraced by\u201d Mamdani, and asked whether the mayor\u2019s office would \u201ccut ties and disavow\u201d Gilani, as it said the office of Brad Lander had done.<\/p>\n

Lander\u2019s campaign said it severed its relationship with Gilani\u2019s firm after reports about the consultant\u2019s social media activity surfaced. In a New York Jewish Week newsletter item published February 11, 2026, the outlet reported that Lander\u2019s team said it was unaware of the account and ended the relationship, with a spokesperson saying the posts did not reflect Lander\u2019s views.<\/p>\n

The controversy spilled into state politics this week. A New York Jewish Week roundup reported that after Mamdani testified about the city budget in Albany, he dodged a question about Gilani from Politico, after Jewish Insider reported that Gilani circulated pro-Hamas content and conspiracy theories about Israel.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s office did not immediately respond to the ADL\u2019s latest criticism or to questions about whether City Hall intends to publicly disavow Gilani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Anti-Defamation League New York\/New Jersey escalated its criticism of Zohran Mamdani this week, citing concerns about both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[9381,3862,98,100,99,79,9,24,63,901,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-133103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-anti-defamation-league","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-diaspora","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133103","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=133103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}