{"id":92946,"date":"2026-01-07T22:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/92946\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T22:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:49:21","slug":"with-a-vow-to-calm-tensions-julie-menin-elected-nyc-councils-first-jewish-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/92946\/","title":{"rendered":"With a vow to ‘calm tensions,’ Julie Menin elected NYC Council’s first Jewish speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julie Menin was elected the City Council\u2019s new speaker<\/a> Wednesday, making her the chamber\u2019s first Jewish leader \u2014 a historic moment she pledged to use to bridge political \u201cdivides,\u201d even amid emerging signs of potential friction between her and Mayor Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Menin\u2019s speakership selection was solidified in a unanimous 51-0 vote by the Council\u2019s members at their first meeting of 2026.<\/p>\n

As speaker, Menin will face pressure, especially from moderates and conservatives, to act as a check on Mamdani. Before voting for Menin, the Council\u2019s five Republicans delivered speeches specifically urging her to resist Mamdani, including Brooklyn\u2019s Inna Vernikov, who said the new speaker \u201cmust be a check on his radical, Marxist agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JulieJulie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (Emil Cohen \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

In remarks after the vote, Menin, a more centrist Democrat than Mamdani, focused on striking a unifying tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a day when the first Muslim mayor of New York City, and the first Jewish speaker of this Council, are serving at the same time. This moment truly is historic,\u201d Menin, who didn\u2019t endorse Mamdani\u2019s mayoral run, said to applause.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what will write this interfaith leadership into the history books is if it can act as an opportunity for all of us to come together \u2014 to calm tensions, to bridge divides, and to recognize we are one city, no matter the religion we practice or the language we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Upper East Side Democrat also homed in on some areas of agreement with Mamdani, specifically child care, which the mayor promised during the campaign to make free for all kids between 6 weeks and 5 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have worked to take the first steps to enact universal child care \u2014 and by working with the mayor and governor, we can truly make it a reality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"JulieJulie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (Emil Cohen \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

In a press conference after the vote, Menin declined to offer support for Mamdani\u2019s other core promises: Freezing rent for the city\u2019s 2 million stabilized tenants, making public buses free and increasing taxes on corporations and millionaires.<\/p>\n

She said she wouldn\u2019t opine on those matters because she argued the Council doesn\u2019t have a role in them, with stabilized rents being set by a mayorally controlled board while the bus and taxation questions rely on state action. In terms of child care, she said she\u2019s chiming in because she sees a role for the Council to allocate funding for it by finding \u201csavings\u201d across the municipal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m going to focus on is where the Council can actually contribute to the affordability agenda,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there will be areas of disagreement,\u201d she added when asked about her Republican colleagues\u2019 expectations for her. \u201cThat happens in every single City Council-administration relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JulieJulie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (John McCarten \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

Mamdani didn\u2019t attend Wednesday\u2019s vote, though his first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, and intergovernmental affairs director, Jahmila Edwards, were on hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, we will work to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, protect workers and consumers, and restore belief in city government,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement on Menin\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

The proposed tax hikes \u2014 some of which Gov. Hochul openly opposes \u2014 are especially critical for Mamdani, as he has said he needs them to generate enough new revenue to fund his affordability platform.<\/p>\n

While she may not have a direct role in enacting several Mamdani policy pledges, his Albany agenda could benefit from bully pulpit assistance from Menin.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, a Mamdani-aligned Democrat who was Menin\u2019s main challenger in the speaker\u2019s race, suggested she still expects many Council progressives to push aggressively for the mayor\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know many in this body are committed to delivering that agenda and will fight tooth-and-nail to enact it over the next four years,\u201d Hudson said before stressing she hopes all local leaders are willing to \u201cshare power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JulieJulie Menin is sworn in as Speaker of the New York City Council on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, at City Hall. (Emil Cohen \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

As for Council business, Menin and Mamdani are expected to soon begin negotiating this year\u2019s city budget. Among potential sticking points in those talks could be public safety.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has pledged to keep the NYPD\u2019s officer headcount flat and allocate $1 billion for a proposed new agency, the Department of Community Safety, that\u2019d absorb certain functions from the police, like handling mental health calls. Menin hasn\u2019t said publicly where she stands on the DCS proposal, but the Daily News reported<\/a> in November she has privately affirmed she won\u2019t be a rubber-stamp on the plan.<\/p>\n

On a macro level, projections show big city budget deficits for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, an outlook that may require Mamdani and Menin to find new revenue or make cuts in order to balance the spending plan. That picture is made more complicated by federal funding cuts from President Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Another potential flash point in the relationship between Menin and Mamdani is Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a longtime advocate for Palestinian rights, has accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Menin is a supporter of Israel and has voiced concern about pro-Palestinian protests in the city, saying they fan the flames of antisemitism. She made brief reference to that concern in her speech, saying, \u201cWe must never jeopardize a New Yorker\u2019s right to worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we cannot let what happened outside Park East Synagogue ever happen again, at any house of worship,\u201d Menin said, a reference to a raucous pro-Palestinian rally that took place outside that Manhattan temple in November.<\/p>\n

After the Park East incident, a Mamdani spokeswoman said he discourages \u201cthe language\u201d used at the protest but also believes the synagogue shouldn\u2019t promote \u201cactivities in violation of international law,\u201d a reference to a Zionist group that hosted an event inside the temple during the protest.<\/p>\n

Menin\u2019s election was a foregone\u00a0conclusion, as she announced in late November she had secured support from a supermajority of her colleagues.<\/p>\n

First elected to the Council in 2021, Menin previously worked as Consumer Affairs commissioner under ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julie Menin was elected the City Council\u2019s new speaker Wednesday, making her the chamber\u2019s first Jewish leader \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[301,302,19077,9,24,56,63,65,64,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-92946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-city-council","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-julie-menin","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92946","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=92946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}