As he settles into his role leading the Partnership for New York City, a prominent business advocacy group, Steve Fulop, the former longtime mayor of Jersey City, N.J., has a few major issues on his mind, chief among them countering the rise of antisemitism.<\/p>\n
For Fulop, a Jewish Democrat who assumed his new job<\/a> last month, just five days after he left office on Jan. 15, such efforts are not only personal<\/a> as a former yeshiva student who was also the grandson of Holocaust survivors. They are directly connected, he explained to Jewish Insider, to promoting a friendlier climate where businesses can feel safe and welcome in the city.<\/p>\n Many of the Partnership\u2019s Jewish board members, representing some of the city\u2019s most powerful firms in finance, real estate and other leading sectors, also share his sense of urgency, Fulop said, as do many of the 800,000 employees who make up his group\u2019s core constituency.<\/p>\n \u201cThey often say of the tax conversation that we could talk about whether people stay or go, if they migrate elsewhere,\u201d Fulop said of his conversations with members in an interview with JI on Tuesday at his fifth-floor office in the Financial District, which looks out on Jersey City. \u201cBut if you continue on a trend where it feels like antisemitism is increasing and quality of life is decreasing, that is a trigger for people to leave very, very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing statistics from January that showed<\/a> a sharp, year-on-year uptick in antisemitic incidents in New York City, Fulop emphasized that the city now finds itself on an \u201calarming\u201d track. \u201cThose are things that will push people to leave immediately,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously you have a fringe far left that often says antisemitic things and has normalized it, and that\u2019s not OK,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it continues on a trajectory, we will be vocal on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulop said that he has met with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani \u201cmultiple times,\u201d and described their discussions as \u201cvery positive and pleasant,\u201d despite clear differences on hot-button topics ranging from support for Israel to proposed tax hikes on wealthy New Yorkers.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to agree on everything,\u201d he told JI, \u201cbut we do try to find places where we agree,\u201d including such shared affordability issues as \u201chousing growth\u201d and child care.<\/p>\n Speaking from his own experience as a former Democratic \u201coutsider\u201d who also rose to mayor in his 30s, Fulop, who turns 49 next week, acknowledged that Mamdani has a \u201ctough job\u201d as he faces pressure from his far-left base in the Democratic Socialists of America, which has aggressively pushed boycotts of Israel. \u201cThere is clearly antisemitic rhetoric coming from that base,\u201d Fulop said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven if he\u2019s not sympathetic to some of them, his base is very vocal,\u201d Fulop said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be something that we pay attention to, when you start talking about some of the rhetoric around the BDS language, where the left pushes, and how [Mamdani] stands up to them,\u201d he elaborated, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. \u201cIt\u2019s early days at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulop\u2019s assessment underscores how the business community, in conjunction with Jewish leaders and others concerned about Mamdani\u2019s policies, is now formalizing an approach to act as a bulwark against the mayor while navigating a new political landscape it views as largely inhospitable to its goals.<\/p>\n Even as he expressed a desire to be \u201chelpful\u201d to Mamdani, Fulop has also indicated<\/a> that he will not hesitate to stake out more adversarial positions on key areas where they are not aligned. In November, for instance, he described<\/a> Mamdani\u2019s proposal for a corporate tax hike as \u201cabsolute suicide\u201d for the city.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to be more aggressive on tenor, not necessarily adversarial all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be clear that we think that a fragile city environment is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding the administration\u2019s track record on Israel and antisemitism a month and a half into Mamdani\u2019s tenure, Fulop voiced reservations in particular about the mayor\u2019s skepticism of the partnership between Cornell University and Israel\u2019s Technion on Roosevelt Island, which Mamdani\u2019s team had suggested<\/a> during the campaign he would review.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think that would be shortsighted and a double standard to Israel,\u201d Fulop, who said he held a call \u201cwith some people affiliated with the partnership\u201d to discuss the situation last week, told JI. \u201cSingling out one country that happens to be the Jewish state is, I don\u2019t think, OK with anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n In his final days as mayor, Fulop signed executive orders<\/a> banning Jersey City from engaging in BDS and regulating the kinds of protests outside houses of worship that Mamdani has struggled to condemn<\/a> decisively as mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy following me wants to be like Mamdani, but he\u2019s less charismatic,\u201d Fulop said of his mayoral successor, James Solomon, a progressive Democrat. \u201cI thought that there was risk, and better off putting guardrails in place \u2014 because you don\u2019t know where things go.\u201d<\/p>\n During an unsuccessful Democratic primary campaign for governor of New Jersey last year, Fulop had criticized<\/a> efforts to legally codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s working definition of antisemitism. But he said he believed that Mamdani had made a strategic error when, on his first day as mayor, he swiftly revoked<\/a> \u2014 as part of a blanket repeal of all of former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 executive orders<\/a> following his September 2024 indictment on federal corruption charges \u2014 an executive order that had adopted the definition in the city, along with an order prohibiting BDS in city agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt obviously elevated the idea that the incoming administration is anti-Judaism,\u201d he told JI, saying he is closely monitoring Mamdani\u2019s next steps amid rising rates of antisemitism the mayor has vowed to confront.<\/p>\n Fulop said that the Partnership\u2019s board members, who met with Mamdani during the campaign<\/a> as he drew criticism over his refusal to condemn calls to \u201cglobalize the intifada\u201d and rejection of Israel\u2019s right to exist as a Jewish state, remain worried about his hostile views on Israel and commitment to fighting antisemitism. \u201cVery, very very, very\u201d worried, Fulop said.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment from JI.<\/p>\n Eric Goldstein, the CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, which was among the first groups that Fulop met with when he took over the Partnership, said he looked \u201cforward to working with\u201d the former mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSteve brings a strong record of public service, principled leadership and a commitment to civic responsibility,\u201d he told JI. \u201cWe also support and appreciate Steve\u2019s deep support of Israel\u2019s existence as a Jewish homeland and commitment to fighting antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that he is no longer a politician, Fulop, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Marine veteran who recently relocated to Hell\u2019s Kitchen across the river from Jersey City, is appreciating his time away from elected office, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a different world not being on the elected side, which I\u2019m thankful for, to be honest,\u201d he told JI. \u201cWe\u2019re in a very polarized environment here for people in elected office. So, for me, I think this is kind of a sweet spot of advocacy and impact without some of the headaches of being in elected office.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulop praised his predecessor, Kathy Wylde, the former longtime Partnership leader who reportedly<\/a> faced internal backlash from members who felt that she was too deferential to Mamdani. But the group finds itself in a moment \u201cwhere we need to be more assertive with both our actions and voice,\u201d he said, noting that he is seeking to focus on a \u201cvery narrow subset\u201d of advocacy issues, including antisemitism.<\/p>\n