Mamdani announces campaign against antisemitism, doesn’t mention connection to anti-Zionism

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday announced his long-awaited plan to combat antisemitism, promising educational programs, public messaging and funding for Jewish institutions.

The plan did not define antisemitism or address its connection to anti-Zionism, though, sidestepping central issues in the mainstream Jewish community’s fraught relationship with City Hall.

Mamdani announced the plan in a video statement posted to social media and detailed the Strategy to Combat Antisemitism in a 33-page report released by his office.

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Jews make up around 10% of the city’s population and are targeted in half of all confirmed hate crimes in the city, according to NYPD data.

Mamdani said that he has been meeting with Jewish New Yorkers for the past year.

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“Time and again I’ve heard the same thing: antisemitism is real and it is growing,” he said. “This is not only unacceptable, it’s something we all have an obligation to change and City Hall will lead the way.”

Mamdani scrapped the previous administration’s endorsement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism on his first day in office.

The definition describes some forms of Israel criticism as discriminatory, while stating that criticizing Israel the way other countries are censured is legitimate.

The Talmud teaches that anyone who sustains one soul, has sustained an entire world. For generations, Jewish New Yorkers have sustained our city. Today, we are launching the first-ever municipal Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.

Together, we will ensure Jewish New Yorkers are… pic.twitter.com/nUpTy7mFlT

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) September 29, 2026

The mayor’s report acknowledged several antisemitism definitions, while stating that the city can “combat antisemitism effectively without needing to adopt a definition.”

Mamdani’s plan focuses on education and hate crime prevention and places the fight against antisemitism in the context of a larger struggle against hatred.

“One form of hatred cannot be combatted in a vacuum. Antisemitism can, and must, be addressed hand in hand with all other forms of hatred,” the document said.

Mamdani pledged a $26 million increase in hate crime prevention funding, which he has announced befor, calling it an 800% increase over last year.

Mamdani’s plan also committed $6.4 million in funding in Partners Against the Hate grants, aimed at broader hate crime prevention, and $26 million for the Office to Prevent Hate Crimes, which deals with discrimination against all groups.

The report said the city school system has hired a K-12 Title VI coordinator to manage complaints related to discrimination, including antisemitism.

The city’s public schools will increase student trips to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a Holocaust education center.

LinkNYC, a system of digital kiosks on city sidewalks, will host a campaign about Jewish contributions to the city.

Mamdani said the city will invest $2 million in the Queens Holocaust Memorial Garden and $2.5 million in Brooklyn’s Center for New Jewish Culture.

The previous mayoral administration, under Eric Adams, last year announced an identical $2 million for the Queens Holocaust site and $2.5 million for the Brooklyn center. It wasn’t clear if Mamdani’s funding was in addition to those allocations or a continuation of the same plans. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Mamdani’s plan to form an Interagency Security Infrastructure Working Group to coordinate the response to antisemitism across city agencies also appeared similar to an initiative by Adams.

Mamdani’s plan had less of a focus on hardening Jewish institutions. The plan pledged $1 million for security at nonprofits, including synagogues and other houses of worship.

The Jewish Federations of North America said earlier this month that Jewish institutions in the US spend an average of around $225,000 per year on security. Funding is also available through state and federal grants.

The announcement followed a listening tour with the Jewish community led by the head of Mamdani’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, Phylisa Wisdom. Jewish community members reported positive meetings with Wisdom during the tour.

The plan added that strategies to combat hatred are “only meaningful if New Yorkers can measure whether it is working,” but did not provide metrics for measurement, such as a future decrease in hate crimes.

Antisemitic hate crimes are up about 8% since Mamdani took office, alongside an increase in hate crimes against some other groups.

Leftist Jewish groups, which often frame antisemitism as part of a more universalist struggle against hatred, praised the initiative.

“Mayor Mamdani’s strategy is rooted in an important recognition that confronting antisemitism is a critical part of the wider struggle against bigotry,” Jonathan Jacoby, the head of the Nexus Project, said in a statement. “Jews have always thrived in pluralistic democracies. When we defend one another and build a society where no group can be singled out for discrimination, we’re all safer and more secure.”

Mainstream groups offered a mixed response, praising some parts of the plan, but criticizing its disregard of anti-Zionism.

The UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the American Jewish Committee’s office in New York and the New York Board of Rabbis — all leading mainstream groups in the city — said the plan “has a number of positive elements, including some increased security funding for Jewish institutions and expanding proven programs.”

The statement said, though, that the plan “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.”

Moshe Davis, the head of City Hall’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under the previous administration, said the plan’s security measures “will greatly help safeguard Jewish New Yorkers against attempted terror attacks carried out by those seeking to ‘globalize the intifada.'”

“The latest report seems to ignore anti-Israel protesters targeting synagogues and the hate being taught in our educational spaces,” Davis added. “In doing this, it seems to make a conscious effort to erase the connection between the violence against Jews we are seeing in our city and the anti-Israel propaganda clearly fueling it.”

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