(CNN) \u2014 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a strategy to combat antisemitism Tuesday, including tens of millions of dollars in funding for hate crime prevention and Jewish cultural centers.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, who has faced accusations of antisemitism from some Jewish groups over his criticisms of Israel<\/a> and his handling of protests<\/a> outside synagogues, has attempted to make outreach to Jewish communities in the city a strong element of his administration.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the last year, I\u2019ve met with Jewish New Yorkers across the five boroughs. I\u2019ve met with them in their dining rooms, sat with them on the subway, and spoke to them in their shuls. Time and again, I\u2019ve heard the same thing: antisemitism is real, and it is growing,\u201d Mamdani said in a two-minute video<\/a> posted on social media, laying out what he described as \u201ca road map for how our administration will confront the scourge of antisemitism\u201d<\/p>\n The first-term mayor vowed to devote more than $30 million in funding to prevention efforts and restarting the interagency security infrastructure working group to help city agencies identify threats to Jewish New Yorkers. Antisemitic hate crimes are up 8%<\/a> so far this year and make up more than half of the hate incidents in New York City, according to statistics released by the New York Police Department earlier this month.<\/p>\n This move will also add funding to Jewish cultural centers and non-profits, including $2 million for the Queens Holocaust Memorial Garden and $2.5 million towards the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n \u201cFor generations, Jewish New Yorkers have sustained our city,\u201d Mamdani said in the video, referencing noted composer Leonard Bernstein and businesses Kleinfeld Bridal and Katz\u2019s Deli. \u201cToday, we hold a responsibility to sustain and protect our Jewish neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n The new strategy comes as Mamdani has faced scrutiny from Jewish groups after making criticisms of Israel\u2019s handling of the war in Gaza a central element of his campaign. During his campaign, he suggested as mayor that he could arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under an International Criminal Court warrant for war crimes, even though the US is not a signatory to the ICC. The mayor acknowledged earlier this summer that he would not have the legal authority to do so. He\u2019s also faced backlash after comparing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its spending in US elections to \u201cmonsters\u201d during a rally this summer.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s announcement was met with mixed reaction from Jewish groups, with several pointing to Mamdani\u2019s rhetoric around Israel as contributing to antisemitism and arguing that his strategy did not go far enough.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the Mayor\u2019s plan has a number of positive elements, including some increased security funding for Jewish institutions and expanding proven programs, it fails to address a central issue that the mayor himself has perpetuated: rhetoric that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel inevitably leads to the targeting of Jewish New Yorkers,\u201d the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, American Jewish Committee and New York Board of Rabbis said in a joint statement<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, whose organization launched a \u201cMamdani Monitor\u201d<\/a> to track the mayor\u2019s administration, criticized the announcement in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSecurity grants do not substitute for moral clarity. A mayor who will not define antisemitism, will not confront terror flags being marched around in Jewish neighborhoods and terror sympathizers at the doorstep of a synagogue, and will not put his own politics aside is not fighting this crisis. He is managing around it,\u201d Greenblatt said. \u201cThe mayor\u2019s actions or inactions only serve to help fuel antisemitism in NYC. This \u2018plan\u2019 is just further proof.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan\u2019s rollout comes just days after Netanyahu was in New York City for the United National General Assembly, where he accused Mamdani of antisemitism and of distorting facts about Israel<\/a>. At the same time Netanyahu was in New York, the mayor posted a video on X<\/a> planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion with Palestinian families from Gaza.<\/p>\n Some Jewish leaders, however, welcomed the new initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cAt a moment of real and rising antisemitism, extremism and violence across the ideological spectrum, our communities deserve a whole-of-government response,\u201d Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs said in a statement. \u201cThis strategy marks an important step toward that goal \u2014 rooted in the recognition that Jewish safety and inclusive, pluralistic democracy must go hand-in-hand.<\/p>\n New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who proposed and passed legislation that would require police to publish plans to establish buffer zones at schools and houses of worship during protests, praised the plan to increase funding of security and Holocaust education.<\/p>\n \u201cJewish New Yorkers, and everyone in our city, deserve to be safe. I look forward to continuing to work with the Administration to address the unacceptable rise of antisemitism in our city,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n The-CNN-Wire<\/p>\n \u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n \u200bCOPYRIGHT 2026 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CNN) \u2014 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a strategy to combat antisemitism Tuesday, including tens of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[86,28834,9,24,55,54,12,56,27],"class_list":["post-360102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-national-politics","tag-national-and-world-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360102","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=360102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}