{"id":375781,"date":"2026-10-17T20:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375781\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T20:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T20:16:20","slug":"nyc-mayor-mamdani-slammed-by-polish-americans-over-pulaski-day-parade-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375781\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Mamdani slammed by Polish Americans over Pulaski Day Parade snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Add Polish Americans to the growing list of ethnic groups enraged by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hizzoner blew off an invitation to attend the Oct. 4 Pulaski Day Parade, an annual celebration of Polska pride along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan \u2014 and then tried to rewrite history by lumping Polish Americans into an upcoming event celebrating the heritage of Eastern Europeans.<\/p>\n

Most Poles identify as Central European and strongly reject any \u201cEastern European\u201d label \u2014 largely because of its historical connection with Soviet communism and the Warsaw Pact. <\/p>\n

Adding insult to injury, the socialist mayor then ditched a fresh Gracie Mansion tradition launched by his predecessor Eric Adams <\/a>\u2014 pulling the plug on the annual breakfast reception at Gracie Mansion honoring Polish heritage.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Mayor\u2019s Office sent out invites last week for an Eastern European reception on Oct. 22 at Gracie Mansion.<\/p>\n

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani blew off an invitation to attend the annual Pulaski Day Parade through Midtown earlier this month \u2014 and then tried to rewrite history by lumping Polish Americans into an Oct. 22 event celebrating the heritage of Eastern Europeans. John Angelillo\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cPolish Americans are one of the largest European ethnic communities in America. Lumping Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians together shows shocking historical ignorance and disrespect,\u201d raged Grzegorz Fryc, a longtime NYC Polish activist and business leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani couldn\u2019t be bothered to attend the Pulaski Day Parade, and now his administration wants to replace the traditional Polish Heritage celebration at Gracie Mansion with some generic \u2018Eastern European\u2019 event,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He ripped the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor for the selective snubbing. <\/p>\n

Participants march in the Pulaski Day Parade on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. FaceBook \/ Pulaski Parade<\/p>\n

\u201cWould City Hall combine Jewish and Palestinian heritage celebrations into one generic \u2018Middle Eastern\u2019 event? Of course not.\u00a0This is another slap in the face to our community and an embarrassment for the mayor\u2019s office.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The socialist mayor \u201cneeds to understand that he was elected to represent all New Yorkers, not just the communities he chooses to show up for,\u201d said another top Polish community leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani\u2019s blatant disrespect for European communities, especially Polish New Yorkers, is absolutely disgraceful,\u201d the second leader said. \u201cSnubbing the Pulaski Day Parade was insulting enough, but refusing to even host a Polish heritage celebration at Gracie Mansion for one of this city\u2019s largest ethnic communities is a slap in the face to hundreds of thousands of Polish Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three days before the parade during an unrelated press conference<\/a> in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Mamdani was asked whether he planned to accept his invitation. <\/p>\n

He claimed didn\u2019t know if his schedule allowed him, telling Polish-language Radio RAMPA, \u201cWe will get back to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Eric Adams hosted members of the Polish community at Gracie Mansion on Nov. 26, 2024. FaceBook \/ Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani<\/p>\n

However, his Oct. 4 \u201cpublic schedule\u201d eventually listed him only attending a 5 p.m. \u201cchurch service\u201d at an undisclosed location \u2014 four-and-a-half hours after the parade began and long after a Midtown Mass at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral and other Pulaski Day festivals concluded.<\/p>\n

In 2024 City Hall initially sought to include the Polish community in a broader Eastern European heritage event, according to sources.<\/p>\n

An invitation to Mayor Mamdani\u2019s Eastern European Cultural Heritage reception at Gracie Mansion. Obtained by the New York Post<\/p>\n

Polish American leaders were outraged \u2014 and Mayor Adams shifted gears to throw a separate celebration for them at Gracie Mansion that November. \u00a0Adams continued the trend the next year, his final one in office. <\/p>\n

Mamdani has made a habit of dodging certain parades since taking office in January.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Christopher Columbus critic infuriated Italian Americans citywide<\/a> by refusing to attend Columbus Day parades held in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also passed on the German-American Steuben Parade in September and the Israel Day Parade in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani clearly hates Europeans, especially white New Yorkers. Period,\u201d wrote former Councilman Robert Holden on X on Oct. 10<\/a>. \u201cFirst, he snubbed German-Americans at the Steuben Day Parade. Then Polish-Americans at [the] Pulaski Day Parade. Now Italian-Americans on Columbus Day. What does that tell you? I call it racism, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdan has found the time to attend other parades, including ones honoring Pakistani, Sikh, West Indian and African American communities.<\/p>\n

The Ugandan-born mayor did show Europe some love when he marched in the famed St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade celebrating Irish pride in March and the Greek Independence Day Parade in May.<\/p>\n

City Hall spokesperson Jimmy Wyderko declined to address the decision to include Polish Americans in the Eastern European event, but said \u201cMayor Mamdani is deeply grateful and proud of the contributions Polish Americans have made towards our city in Greenpoint, Ridgewood and across all five boroughs \u2014 and we are excited to host Polish New Yorkers at Gracie Mansion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add Polish Americans to the growing list of ethnic groups enraged by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Hizzoner blew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[852,272,81,5886,8409,57,360,9,56,63,65,64,273,21538,87,42936,46080,58,82],"class_list":["post-375781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-christopher-columbus","tag-columbus-day","tag-eric-adams","tag-europe","tag-gracie-mansion","tag-metro","tag-midtown","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-parades","tag-poland","tag-politics","tag-pulaski-bridge","tag-st-patricks-day","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375781","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=375781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}