{"id":195600,"date":"2026-04-13T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/195600\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:28:10","slug":"rabbis-give-mamdani-failing-grade-on-first-100-days-as-nyc-mayor-jns-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/195600\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbis give Mamdani failing grade on first 100 days as NYC mayor – JNS.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

(
\n Apr. 13, 2026
\n \/ JNS
\n )<\/p>\n

To mark his first 100 days in office, Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, talked about how many potholes he has filled. He should be focusing on mending his relationship with New York City\u2019s Jews, according to Jewish leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, in his first 100 days, Mayor Mamdani has done nothing to allay the concerns I expressed before the election regarding his stance on Israel and the safety of Jewish New Yorkers,\u201d Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, who leads Park Avenue Synagogue, a Conservative congregation on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side, told JNS.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who is Muslim, has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in the Big Apple, and his spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law by hosting pro-Israel events.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a moment when anti-Israel rhetoric is increasingly bleeding into antisemitic violence, from Bondi to West Bloomfield, Mich., his refusal to recognize that danger, coupled with the voices he elevates and the company he keeps, reflects a troubling mix of na\u00efvet\u00e9 and negligence toward the very communities he has been entrusted to protect,\u201d Cosgrove told JNS.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, spiritual leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation on the Upper West Side, told JNS that he hopes that Mamdani \u201cavoids rhetoric and policies that reflect his antagonism towards Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is enough for him to do just to run the city. One place to start would be to cease accusing Israel of \u2018genocide.\u2019 It is a modern-day blood libel,\u201d Hirsch said.<\/p>\n

Moshe Davis, who ran<\/a> the mayoral office to combat Jew-hatred under Eric Adams, Mamdani\u2019s predecessor, and a frequent critic of the current mayor, told JNS that Mamdani could have made better choices than attending and hosting Passover events that emphasized aspects of the holiday other than the redemptive one that pines for \u201cnext year in Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mamdani<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers his 100 days address with guest Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at Knockdown Center in Queens, April 12, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hopes the mayor actually opened the traditional haggadah during his many Seder photo-ops this year rather than just using our traditions for optics,\u201d Davis told JNS.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad he, he would have learned that we are an ancient nation with an ancestral homeland,\u201d Davis said. \u201cMayor Mamdani claims he\u2019s not an antisemite and says he\u2019ll commit resources to fight anti-Jewish hate. So far, it seems like the Jewish community\u2019s concerns are not a priority for this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abby Stein, a progressive rabbi who grew up Chassidic and identifies as transgender, stood behind Mamdani at the mayor\u2019s event on Sunday evening marking 100 days in office. Stein held a sign saying \u201cpothole politics\u201d and wore a shirt saying \u201crabbis for ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein told JNS that Jews ought to be impressed with Mamdani, since the mayor attended Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah services at Stein\u2019s independent synagogue.<\/p>\n

The mayor \u201csat through the whole 2.5 hour-service and really enjoyed it,\u201d Stein told JNS. \u201cMost Jews don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stein, who served on Mamdani\u2019s transition committee after his election, told JNS that the mayor is \u201c1,000,000% not antisemitic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mamdani supporter also thinks that the mayor showed his concern for Jews by naming Phylisa Wisdom, whose appointment drew extensive criticism<\/a>, to lead the mayoral office to fight Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Mamdani<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers his 100 days address with guest Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at Knockdown Center in Queens, April 12, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we got someone appointed to the antisemitism office in a month is saying something,\u201d Stein told JNS. \u201cThese are important things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis, who held the role before Wisdom, told JNS that under Mamdani, New York City is seeing an alarming rate of Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n

NYPD statistics bear that out, including more than a 180% increase<\/a> in Jew-hatred in the city in Mamdani\u2019s first month in office. Despite changing the way it reports hate crime statistics twice already during Mamdani\u2019s mayoralty, the New York City Police Department has still recorded a disproportionate percentage of hate crimes targeting Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of action, we get photo-ops with friendly Jewish audiences, silence on his wife\u2019s support for terror and appearances alongside those who chant \u2018strike, strike Tel Aviv,\u2019\u201d Davis told JNS. \u201cAnti-Jewish hate crimes make up more than 55% of all hate crimes in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis also said that he gave the mayor a 100-day plan to protect Jewish New Yorkers in January, before he left his city role. \u201cWe are all still waiting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"( Apr. 13, 2026 \/ JNS ) To mark his first 100 days in office, Zohran Mamdani, mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-195600","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-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195600","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=195600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}