{"id":206781,"date":"2026-04-23T01:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206781\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:25:16","slug":"nyc-council-speaker-julie-menin-urges-mamdani-not-to-veto-buffer-zone-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206781\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin urges Mamdani not to veto buffer zone legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin warned Wednesday morning that if Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoes the council\u2019s legislation<\/a> intended to regulate protests at religious and educational sites, the city will face \u201cmore divisiveness,\u201d calling the decision a critical test for the mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bills, which include measures to create standard NYPD policy for deploying buffer zones during protests at educational and religious facilities, face a potential veto as Mamdani has repeatedly declined to take a stand on the issue. He has acknowledged concerns against the legislation from left-wing activists and civil rights groups who have targeted synagogues and yeshivas<\/a> with anti-Israel demonstrations, and has until the end of this week to veto the bills or they become law automatically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need less divisiveness. I really hope \u2014 and I\u2019ve said this to the mayor \u2014 that there is not a veto of the package of bills. That\u2019s necessary. It will create much more division,\u201d Menin said\u00a0during a panel discussion at 92NY on \u201cthe future of being Jewish in New York,\u201d featuring the city\u2019s most senior Jewish elected officials: Menin, who is the first Jewish\u00a0council speaker, Comptroller Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The panel, moderated by 92NY CEO Seth Pinsky, comes as the city has experienced historic levels of antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks \u2014 and as Jews navigate a tense relationship with a mayor who has held hostile views towards several key communal issues. New York City has the largest population of Jews outside of Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked by Pinsky what advice each would give to Mamdani to try to reassure the roughly 70% of the Jewish New York City electorate that did not vote for him, Hoylman-Sigal called on Mamdani to \u201cfollow the tradition of every mayor preceding him [since 1951] and visit Israel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that Mamdani already has some \u201creally good Jewish advisors,\u201d including Phylisa Wisdom, a progressive Jewish leader Mamdani tapped in February<\/a> to run the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism. A range of Jewish Democratic politicians and advocates had lauded Wisdom\u2019s selection, though she has alienated some Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish leaders over her work criticizing the secular education taught at yeshivas in the past.<\/p>\n

Hoylman-Sigal\u2019s assertion that the mayor\u2019s heart \u201cis in the right place\u201d when it comes to the Jewish community was met with a chorus of \u201cboos\u201d from the audience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Addressing the city\u2019s long-standing Israel bonds investments, which Mamdani has called to end<\/a> in a key source of tension for him and Levine, Levine said the investments \u201care not political [and] shouldn\u2019t be political.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael bonds have never missed a payment in 70 years,\u201d said Levine. \u201cAnd by the way, we\u2019ve had no protests about our investments in Saudi Arabia, our investments in Pakistan or China.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

All three Jewish leaders echoed the sentiment that despite a turbulent past few years, the New York City Jewish community remains resilient, and urged New Yorkers not give into the rising calls to decamp to Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely stay in New York,\u201d said Menin. \u201cThis is not a time to lose hope. Hopefully the three of us here can embody the future of the commitment to fighting antisemitism, the commitment to supporting the Jewish community. This is a time to lean into it as opposed to shy away from it. New York is a city that has been a beacon of inclusion and tolerance; we need to make sure that it stays that way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the Jewish community in New York City is stronger than it\u2019s ever been,\u201d said Levine, who praised Mamdani\u2019s decision to retain former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish and openly identifies as Zionist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many synagogues, attendance is way up. Jewish New Yorkers are active in ways they haven\u2019t been. We\u2019ve seen new coalitions come together \u2026 This engagement gives me real hope for the future,\u201d continued Levine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wish looking forward to the next 25 years is that we see a community that fought \u2014 that didn\u2019t move to Miami with its bad bagels \u2014 and that we kept this story going of what is really one of the most glorious Jewish communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin warned Wednesday morning that if Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoes the council\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-206781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206781","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=206781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}