{"id":164655,"date":"2026-03-16T03:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164655\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:48:39","slug":"mamdani-to-meet-with-jewish-leaders-to-discuss-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164655\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani to meet with Jewish leaders to discuss concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to meet with some Jewish leaders Monday amid concerns he and his wife have been hostile to worries about anti-Israel rhetoric<\/a> \u2014 but critics say it\u2019s nothing more than a \u201cphoto op.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The sit-down is expected to cater mainly to Orthodox Jewish community leaders, including at least one who endorsed Mamdani for mayor, as opposed to mainstream Jewish advocacy groups \u2014 and last just 15 to 20 minutes, disgusted sources said.<\/p>\n

One Jewish leader declined to attend the session after learning the Muslim mayor would only briefly be there, calling it an \u201cinsult\u201d and a \u201cphoto-op,\u201d according to a source briefed on the meeting.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to meet with Jewish leaders on Monday in what some critics are calling a \u201cphoto-op.\u201d Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Rabbi Moshe Indig<\/a> \u2014 a leader of a Satmar sect in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who stirred controversy by endorsing Mamdani for mayor last year \u2014 confirmed that he, for one, will be attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a meeting with Jewish community leaders. I don\u2019t know the topic. We\u2019ll see,\u201d Indig told The Post on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Rabbi David Niederman, president and executive director of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg, which has received millions of dollars in city funding over the years to provide services to the Jewish community in Brooklyn, is also expected to attend, according to a source.<\/p>\n

Sources said mainstream Jewish advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League\/United Jewish Appeal, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee are not attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not invited,\u201d said Scott Richman, New York-NJ regional director of the ADL.<\/p>\n

Rabbi David Niederman, president and executive director of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg, speaking in City Hall in 2019. Niederman is expected to attend Mamdani\u2019s summit of Jewish leaders. William Farrington<\/p>\n

He said the meeting appeared to involve orthodox Jewish community leaders.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s anti-Israel views strained relations with many in the Jewish community during last year\u2019s mayoral campaign, and he has has struggled to defuse tensions since taking office.<\/p>\n

The meeting comes after it was revealed Mamdani\u2019s wife Rama Duwaji previously liked posts on Instagram celebrating the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel. AP Photo\/Andres Kudacki<\/p>\n

He was roundly criticized for hosting anti-Israel activist and accused Hamas sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil <\/a>at Gracie Mansion for Ramadan last week. The widespread rebukes came from President Trump\u2019s office as well as Jewish activists.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s wife, Rama Duwaji<\/a>, who also is Muslim, faced criticism herself after it was revealed she \u201cliked\u201d an Instagram post from February 2024 questioning that Hamas committed sexual violence against Israelis during the Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter and also \u201cliked\u2019 another post sharing murderous images of the attack.<\/p>\n

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Duwaji, a Syrian-American artist, previously created artwork for an essay book<\/a> compiled by an anti-Israel activist who has described Jewish people as \u201cvampires,\u201d \u201cdemons\u201d and \u201cghouls\u201d and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.<\/p>\n

The ADL, one of the nation\u2019s leading groups fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, has been particularly critical of the mayor and his spouse.<\/p>\n

Mamdani and Duwaji hosted anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion for dinner last week. Instagram \/ nycmayor<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaborating on a project with Susan Abulhawa goes beyond First Lady Duwaji\u2019s deeply troubling liking of pro-October 7 posts reported last week and demonstrates a troubling pattern,\u201d the ADL said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntisemitic rhetoric has fueled attacks against Jewish communities in the US and around the world for centuries. Antisemitism cannot be ignored and should never be justified.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Mamdani inviting Khalil and his family over to Gracie Mansion for a Ramadan dinner, an ADL spokesman said in a statement, \u201cWelcoming someone known for justifying the October 7 Hamas terror attacks as an honored guest at Gracie Mansion \u2014 while some in the Mayor\u2019s inner circle have amplified antisemitic content and posts dismissing the atrocities of that day \u2014 sends a deeply troubling message.<\/p>\n

\u201cGracie Mansion belongs to all New Yorkers. Public office must never be used to legitimize hate, and New York\u2019s Jewish community deserves a mayor who makes that clear in both words and actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that National Guard troops are stationed around the city \u2014 including at synagogues and other sensitive locations \u2014 as the US and Israel join forces to pummel Iran\u2019s cruel regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to meet with some Jewish leaders Monday amid concerns he and his wife have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9381,3862,68,60,57,9,24,55,54,56,14700,58,1424,82],"class_list":["post-164655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-anti-defamation-league","tag-antisemitism","tag-exclusive","tag-israel","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-satmar","tag-us-news","tag-williamsburg","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164655","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=164655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}