New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a sweeping new strategy Tuesday that he says will combat antisemitism through millions of dollars in security funding, education and hate-crime prevention, but the plan immediately came under sharp criticism from major Jewish organizations, rabbonim and Israeli officials who said it conspicuously avoids confronting anti-Zionism and anti-Israel hostility as major sources of contemporary antisemitism.
The 33-page City Hall strategy, billed by the Mamdani administration as New York City’s first comprehensive municipal plan devoted specifically to combating antisemitism, includes $6.4 million for community-based hate-prevention efforts, another $1 million for security improvements at shuls and other houses of worship, expanded Holocaust and Jewish-history education, and millions more for Jewish cultural projects.
But perhaps the most consequential element of the document is what it does not contain. The plan does not adopt a definition of antisemitism, barely discusses Israel or Zionism, and declines to restore the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism that Mamdani revoked after taking office in January. The IHRA definition includes several examples involving attacks on Israel that can, depending on context, constitute antisemitism.
The UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council-NY, American Jewish Committee New York and New York Board of Rabbis issued a joint response saying that “any effort to confront antisemitism in New York City must fully address the realities Jewish New Yorkers face today.”
The organizations acknowledged that Mamdani’s strategy contains “a number of positive elements, including some increased security funding for Jewish institutions and expanding proven programs.” But they said 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.”
“Those who truly seek to address antisemitism must unequivocally reject such rhetoric and help ensure that Jewish New Yorkers are never made to feel suspect, excluded or unsafe in their own city,” the groups said.
The criticism was echoed by Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, who argued that funding security programs cannot substitute for confronting rhetoric directed against Israel.
“Money can’t buy values,” he said.
“Until you recognize that your language against the Jewish state, which you don’t recognize as the homeland of the Jewish people, is the fundamental reason for the rise of antisemitism in New York City, it will continue to increase,” the Israeli envoy told the mayor.
“Truly combating antisemitism requires readopting the IHRA working definition of Antisemitism, which you overturned as the first decision of your administration on day one,” Akunis stated.
“To truly fight antisemitism would be to call for your supporters to stop shouting ‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘globalize the intifada,’ have them condemn the Oct. 7 massacre and instead of supporting Hamas, declare that they are a terror organization,” he added.
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, said the fundamental problem with the strategy is that it fails to confront what he regards as the connection between the surge in antisemitism and hostility toward Israel. Hirsch also pointed to Mamdani’s own record of accusing Israel of “genocide” and calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest.
Hirsch told JNS that “fundamentally, the report is such a disappointment and frankly unworthy of the mayor and administration.”
“Because it omits the central driver of antisemitism which is anti-Israel hostility,” the strategy “of course omits the mayor’s own role in adding to that,” the rabbi said.
The new strategy “will not stop or even slow down the surge of antisemitism in the city as long as the mayor and forces that are opposed to Israel’s existence” speak about Israel as he does, Hirsch told JNS.
Ignoring the connection between anti-Zionism and Jew-hatred “is a big evasion, very disappointing and I think that the mayor knows better,” Hirsch said.
Other Jewish leaders offered similar criticism. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, praised portions of the plan while arguing that Mamdani himself needs to change the tenor of his rhetoric regarding Israel.
“For this effort to be effective, Mayor Mamdani must also commit to stopping his harsh anti-Israel rhetoric that makes Jewish New Yorkers vulnerable as there are clearly times when antisemitic attacks are fueled by anti-Zionism,” Jacobs said.
The debate comes against troubling statistics. Mamdani himself acknowledged in the introduction to the strategy that Jews constitute a relatively small percentage of the city’s population while accounting for a vastly disproportionate share of reported hate-crime victims.
“The numbers are indisputable: Jewish New Yorkers make up only 12% of our population, yet they are the victims of roughly half of all reported hate crimes,” Mamdani wrote, in an introduction to the report.
Recent NYPD figures provide additional context: during the first seven months of 2026, reported anti-Jewish hate incidents increased by 8.5%, with Jewish victims accounting for 57% of reported hate crimes during that period.
City Hall’s plan points to $26 million that Mamdani previously allocated to the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. Within that broader expenditure, $6.4 million is being directed to the Partners Against the Hate grant program, which supports community organizations working on hate prevention, education, victim assistance, data collection and efforts against online hatred.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York is slated to serve as an anchor organization in that initiative. Individual community groups will be eligible for grants of up to $10,000.
An additional $1 million is earmarked for physical security at nonprofit and religious institutions, including shuls. The program is intended in particular to assist smaller institutions that may struggle to qualify for larger federal security grants. Potential upgrades include reinforced locks, shatter-resistant glass and security equipment.
The strategy also calls for reviving an interagency Security Infrastructure Working Group involving the NYPD, Department of Transportation and other agencies to help shuls and Jewish institutions assess vulnerabilities and improve their security.
Education forms another major component. City Hall intends to expand opportunities for eighth-grade public-school students to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage and continue incorporating Jewish-American history into the school curriculum.
The administration is also committing $2 million toward completion of the Queens Holocaust Memorial and $2.5 million for the Center for New Jewish Culture in Central Brooklyn. A public campaign on LinkNYC kiosks throughout the five boroughs will highlight Jewish contributions to New York.
The strategy describes Jewish life as central to the city’s history and identity. Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, described New York as “Jewish people’s front door to America.”
“My administration has zero tolerance for antisemitism. Not on our subways. Not in our workplaces. Not online. Not anywhere,” Mamdani stated. “As mayor, I will use every power entrusted in me to protect Jewish New Yorkers and ensure that Jewish life flourishes for generations to come.”
The administration developed the plan following a five-borough listening tour in which Wisdom’s office met with Jewish New Yorkers representing different levels of religious observance and political views. Mamdani has also held meetings with rabbonim and Orthodox and chassidishe communal leaders as he has attempted to address deep concerns within parts of the city’s Jewish community about his positions on Israel.
Still, the most contentious question — how the city defines antisemitism and when anti-Zionism crosses into Jew-hatred — remains unresolved.
The strategy discusses three different frameworks used to define antisemitism but adopts none of them. Those include the IHRA working definition, the Nexus Document and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. City Hall says it can combat antisemitism without formally selecting one definition.
That represents a sharp break with the policy in effect before Mamdani became mayor. On his first day in office, Mamdani rescinded an executive order adopted under Mayor Eric Adams that embraced the IHRA definition. Among the examples contained in the IHRA framework is denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, such as claiming that the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is inherently illegitimate.
Mamdani has been an outspoken opponent of Zionism and has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. During his campaign for mayor, he said he would seek to have Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli prime minister entered New York pursuant to an International Criminal Court warrant, although his administration subsequently acknowledged that City Hall lacks the legal authority to independently carry out such an arrest.
He also drew intense criticism during the campaign after declining at first to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada.” Mamdani did not himself use the phrase and later said he would discourage its use. He also skipped the city’s annual Israel Day Parade in June.
Netanyahu directly attacked Mamdani from the podium at the United Nations last week, accusing the mayor of helping create an environment in which Jewish New Yorkers feel threatened. Mamdani rejected Netanyahu’s criticism and continued to defend his characterization of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
The new City Hall document does refer to the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and the war that followed in discussing the environment surrounding the rise in antisemitism, but it does not directly identify anti-Zionism as a cause. The report instead places the current surge within a broader timeline of antisemitic activity that includes the 2017 Charlottesville rally and the 2018 massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life shul.
The report states that antisemitism should also be confronted alongside other forms of hatred.
“One form of hatred cannot be combated in a vacuum,” the report states. “Antisemitism can, and must, be addressed hand in hand with all other forms of hatred.”
The strategy also notes that neither the NYPD nor FBI automatically regards demonstrations outside houses of worship as antisemitic or hateful. That issue has been particularly contentious following anti-Israel demonstrations outside shuls hosting events connected to Israel.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin previously pushed legislation requiring the NYPD to develop procedures for buffer zones when demonstrations outside houses of worship involve intimidation, harassment or threats. Mamdani had expressed concerns about restricting lawful protests and ultimately allowed the legislation to become law without his signature.
Eric Dinowitz, co-chairman of the City Council’s Jewish Caucus and its bipartisan task force on antisemitism, welcomed several practical portions of Mamdani’s initiative, particularly those dealing with education and security.
Dinowitz praised the report for “its focus on education, prevention, enforcement and ensuring Jewish New Yorkers can live openly and proudly in our city.” But the mayor’s strategy “misses an opportunity to confront the reality of the intersection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism,” the Jewish council member stated.
“Though Zionism is not an endorsement of a particular Israeli government or political agenda, we cannot ignore that attacking or excluding ‘Zionists’ can and has become a convenient way to disguise antisemitism as political disagreement,” Dinowitz stated.
Not all Jewish communal figures shared those objections. Nancy Kaufman, chair of the progressive New York Jewish Agenda, argued that a municipal strategy focused on Jewish life and safety in New York does not need to center Israel.
“This really is singularly focused on Jews in New York and celebrating Jews in New York, so it doesn’t surprise me that Israel isn’t part of it,” she said. “It hits the right tone and hopefully will reassure Jewish New Yorkers, who have questions about the commitment of the mayor to their safety.”
Brad Lander, the Democratic congressional nominee and ex-New York City comptroller, also backed the initiative.
“Mayor Mamdani’s plan to combat antisemitism is a thoughtful, strategic combination of education for tolerance, enforcement of civil rights and investments in safety,” stated Lander.
“It’s no secret that we don’t all agree on many things, from how we pray to how we relate to Israel, but we can all agree and work together on this: Jewish New Yorkers—like all New Yorkers, and in all our diversity—deserve to be and feel safe in our shuls, streets, homes and workplaces, and to feel a valued and integral part of this extraordinary city that has welcomed us, and where we have welcomed so many others,” Lander stated.
Rabbi Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, offered a considerably harsher assessment, arguing that much of the substance of the new initiative resembles measures pursued by the previous administration while eliminating the components dealing directly with Israel.
“Mamdani’s ‘first-ever’ antisemitism strategy is mostly just the Adams plan that he deleted on day one of his administration but with every page that touches Israel torn out.”
“That is the whole review, the rest is commentary,” he said.
The controversy even reached Albany on Tuesday, where Gov. Kathy Hochul declined to offer a substantive assessment of Mamdani’s plan, saying she had not yet reviewed it in detail. New York State maintains its own approach to defining antisemitism, while state lawmakers have separately pushed legislation to formally codify the IHRA definition.
Hours after releasing the strategy, City Hall announced that Mamdani “will celebrate Sukkot with Jewish New Yorkers.” According to the mayor’s office, the event is “available to invited press only.”
