{"id":320686,"date":"2026-08-13T20:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320686\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T20:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:48:07","slug":"rabbis-say-mamdani-listened-await-his-antisemitism-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/320686\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbis say Mamdani listened, await his antisemitism plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> is trying to repair a troubled relationship with some Jewish New Yorkers<\/a> without backing away from the positions on Israel and Palestine that have long been central to his politics \u2014 a balancing act that came into sharp focus during a private meeting with 10 rabbis earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Four participants who took part in the closed-door, no-camera meeting, in speaking with amNewYork, described broad agreement among them that many Jewish New Yorkers do not feel the safety and belonging that Mamdani says he wants for them, but sharply different ideas about what the mayor should change.<\/p>\n

Some urged him to temper the way he talks about Israel; another cautioned against asking him to retreat from those positions. Most agreed that Mamdani was listening carefully and engaging in good faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani, during a Thursday press conference<\/a>, called the meeting \u201ccandid and productive.\u201d With no new commitments publicly announced following the meeting, his forthcoming antisemitism strategy, which City Hall says will be released for Rosh Hashanah, will offer an early test of what comes from the listening session.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism delivered one of the bluntest messages at Monday\u2019s roundtable, telling Mamdani that the way he talks about Israel \u201cendangers the Jewish community writ large.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to work in partnership with your administration, but Mr. Mayor, you are 90% of what could be different here \u2014 if instead of vilifying Israel, you spoke constructively, in measured tones \u2014 that would move the needle more than anything else, and I\u2019m hopeful you\u2019ll use that power,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

Speaking Thursday, Mamdani said he appreciated hearing from rabbis representing \u201ca wide swath of New York\u2019s Jewish communities and affiliations.\u201d He pointed to increased funding for hate-crime prevention, the expansion of the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism, and its work developing what he called a \u201cfirst in the nation municipal response to combating antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s hour-long meeting was organized by the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism and brought together rabbis from Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Modern Orthodox Judaism, as well as unaffiliated groups.<\/p>\n

Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the office, said the discussion focused on \u201cstrategies to strengthen Jewish safety and belonging,\u201d maintaining candid lines of communication and collaborating on issues where City Hall and Jewish leaders share values and goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an open, positive and constructive conversation,\u201d Wisdom said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n

Rabbis to Mamdani: Choice of words harm, not help<\/p>\n

Rabbi Michelle Dardashti of Kane Street Synagogue said she told Mamdani that his approach had consequences beyond disagreements over foreign policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI conveyed to the Mayor that his approach and tone in critiquing Israel and its government make it harder for us to be at the table with our neighbors on issues we jointly care about,\u201d Dardashti told amNewYork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor expressed a desire to build bridges and we shared where we feel he is doing the opposite,\u201d she added.\n<\/p>\n

Dardashti, who is Iranian Jewish, also asked Mamdani to \u201cwork harder to understand and platform Jewish diversity and complexity.\u201d She said the hour did not provide enough time for the rabbis to fully convey what they were hearing from their communities or for Mamdani to respond in depth.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Jon Leener of Prospect Heights Shul said he warned Mamdani that his \u201cinflammatory rhetoric around Israel can have real consequences for Jewish New Yorkers\u201d and advocated for increased police presence around synagogues and other Jewish institutions.<\/p>\n

Still, Leener described the meeting as \u201cproductive, thoughtful, and at times quite raw.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy impression was that the mayor was primarily there to listen,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt that he was genuinely engaging with us, acting in good faith, and listening carefully to our concerns, particularly our plea to help turn down the temperature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Different prescriptions for Mamdani<\/p>\n

Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson, executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, offered a different prescription from her seat at the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody was actually clear on what the issue was, and the diversity of views was actually around the action steps they were asking the mayor to take,\u201d Hughes-Robinson told amNewYork.<\/p>\n

She rejected the idea that Mamdani should simply stop discussing Israel or abandon his longstanding positions. Instead, she said she wants him to pair those positions more explicitly with recognition of the anxiety and pain felt by Jewish New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t think that criticism of Israel or the Israeli government is inherently anti-Semitic,\u201d Hughes-Robinson said.\n<\/p>\n

But when people feel permission to direct legitimate anger over human rights violations at \u201ctheir Jewish neighbors,\u201d Hughes-Robinson said, \u201cthat permission structure is a function of anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes-Robinson also cautioned against laying the broader problem of antisemitism in the city at Mamdani\u2019s feet.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this problem began with the mayor, and is so much bigger than any single politician,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

She pointed to Mamdani\u2019s handling of an Israel-related question at a Bronx transportation press conference on Wednesday<\/a> as an encouraging example. <\/p>\n

Asked about potential NYPD and City Council trips to Israel and whether his recent comments about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could affect their reception, Mamdani said he would follow up about the NYPD and noted that the Council is an independent body before returning to the event\u2019s subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my focus today is Tremont Avenue busway,\u201d Mamdani said. Hughes-Robinson called the response \u201ca really public, good faith first step,\u201d saying several colleagues had suggested that kind of approach during Monday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

A complicated relationship with Jewish New Yorkers<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s relationship with parts of the Jewish community has been strained by his positions on Israel, against a backdrop of rising hate crimes. NYPD data shows<\/a> hate crimes increased 9.4% year to date through July, with antisemitic incidents accounting for 56.9% of all hate crimes.<\/p>\n

In May, Mamdani drew criticism<\/a> after City Hall published a video marking Nakba Day and later declined to attend the Israel Day on Fifth parade<\/a>, while stressing that his administration would provide extensive security for the event. <\/p>\n

In July, Mamdani said a city legal review found he lacked independent authority to enforce the International Criminal Court\u2019s arrest warrant for Netanyahu, despite having said during his campaign that he would seek to arrest the Israeli prime minister if he came to the city, provided doing so complied with the law. Mamdani nevertheless declared Netanyahu \u201cnot welcome in New York City.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But a national AP-NORC poll<\/a> conducted in June found Jewish adults viewed Mamdani more favorably than Netanyahu. Forty-four percent viewed Mamdani favorably and 39% unfavorably, while roughly six in 10 viewed Netanyahu unfavorably and about one-third viewed him favorably.<\/p>\n

Hughes-Robinson said that debates over antisemitism can sometimes become stand-ins for wider political disagreements.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the Jewish New Yorkers I\u2019m speaking with are really just wanting to get to a place where it doesn\u2019t feel like we are a political football,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, meanwhile, remains broadly popular among New York City voters. In an August Siena College poll<\/a>, 69% of city respondents viewed him favorably and 24% unfavorably. In March, those figures were 56% and 26%, respectively. The August survey polled likely voters, while the March survey polled registered voters.<\/p>\n

Polling specifically of Jewish voters in the city has painted a more difficult picture. A poll released in May by The Jewish Majority<\/a>, based on a February survey conducted by Mercury Public Affairs of 665 Jewish New York City voters who voted in the 2025 mayoral election, found 32% rated Mamdani\u2019s performance as mayor excellent or good, while 58% rated it only fair or poor. The poll had a reported margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.<\/p>\n

The same survey found 82% of Jewish New Yorkers polled were worried about rising antisemitism, including nearly two-thirds of respondents who said they had voted for Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Siena\u2019s statewide polling has also shown Mamdani struggling with Jewish respondents. In March, 40% viewed him favorably and 52% unfavorably. In August, 26% viewed him favorably and 66% unfavorably. Jewish respondents made up only a small portion of each poll\u2019s overall sample.<\/p>\n

Strategy due for Rosh Hashanah<\/p>\n

City Hall confirmed Wednesday that the Mayor\u2019s Office to Combat Antisemitism will release its broader strategy for Rosh Hashanah. The press office declined to address whether Monday\u2019s meeting would shape that strategy or whether Mamdani had agreed to increased NYPD presence around Jewish institutions.<\/p>\n

Leener said increased police presence around synagogues and other Jewish institutions was a follow-up from the meeting. City Hall did not confirm that characterization.<\/p>\n

Dardashti said Mamdani explicitly stated that he wants every New Yorker, regardless of how they vote or their politics on Israel, to feel equally safe and at home in the city. But she said he made no commitment to change his rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cI very much hope that our feedback and input will help prompt a shift in the mayor\u2019s rhetoric, but he made no such commitments,\u201d Dardashti said. \u201cTime will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani is trying to repair a troubled relationship with some Jewish New Yorkers without backing away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[120839,26090,1445,22925,41753,9,11,10,8035],"class_list":["post-320686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-antisemism","tag-jewish-new-yorkers","tag-mamdani","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-mayors-office-to-combat-antisemitism","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rabbis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320686","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=320686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}