More than 25 New York Jewish groups are demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani overhaul his new antisemitism strategy, saying it deliberately ignores hatred aimed at Jews and Israel.
A coalition of Big Apple Jewish community organizations sent a letter Friday to Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, tearing into the 33-page blueprint the mayor rolled out only days earlier.
The groups, including the New York City Public School Alliance and Bridgebuilders Grassroots Coalition, say the plan falls short where Jewish New Yorkers need protection most. They want a replacement that defines antisemitism and confronts anti-Zionist hatred head-on.
The New York Post reported the letter landed as antisemitism reports surge across the city and Jewish residents press City Hall for real accountability rather than paperwork.
In the Friday letter the coalition stated the strategy “falls dangerously short” by “largely sidestep[ping] the biggest threat Jewish New Yorkers” face: anti-Jewish harassment and “violence cloaked as anti-Israel activism.”
"That omission isn’t incidental. It’s the central failure of the report,"
the groups wrote. They added that the mayor’s report “explicitly declines to adopt a definition of antisemitism and provides little concrete guidance for perhaps the hardest and most pertinent questions institutions are confronting: When is conduct framed as antizionist political expression simply anti-Jewish targeting or discrimination?”
The letter pressed further: “How can we solve a problem if we refuse to even acknowledge the cause? A strategy to combat antisemitism in New York City must address antisemitism as Jewish New Yorkers are experiencing it today and must not deny their [ability] to identify and define the hate they encounter.”
Ramon Maislen, co-founder of Bridgebuilders Grassroots Coalition, followed with an email to Wisdom the same day. Members of the 25-plus groups “would welcome” a meeting to discuss “concerns and recommendations.” Wisdom did not return messages.
That refusal to define the problem tracks an earlier pattern in which Mamdani committed millions without a clear definition of the hate he claimed to fight.
Mamdani’s 33-page strategy invests $29 million annually toward hate-crime prevention, a $3 million increase, by improving security at synagogues and other Jewish cultural centers. The document offers only one passing remark about Israel: “New York is home to the largest Jewish community of any city in the world outside of Israel.” It does not mention Zionism at all.
The blueprint is largely a pared-down version of the policy framework ex-Mayor Eric Adams released last year. Mamdani spokesman Sam Raskin said the administration stands by the plan.
Raskin stated:
"This strategy reflects the Mamdani administration’s commitment to rooting out antisemitism in all its forms and ensuring every Jewish New Yorker can live safely and proudly in our city, regardless of their political views,"
He continued that “Antisemitism is a scourge, and our responsibility is to address it wherever it appears and whoever perpetuates it. The Mamdani administration is laser-focused on using the many tools available to municipal government to root out antisemitism and ensure Jewish life across the five boroughs continues to thrive.”
Jewish New Yorkers have heard similar assurances while living with the results. International pressure has already arrived; Netanyahu called out Mamdani by name over the same failures to confront antisemitism.
Anxiety inside New York’s large Jewish community did not begin with this document. Breitbart reported deep division and fear driven by Mamdani’s harsh criticism of Israel, including genocide accusations over Gaza. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl said he had “contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism” with words “demonizing Israelis” and “echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews across the world are the root cause of our problem here.” Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove put it plainly: “I believe Zohran Mamdani poses a danger to the security of the New York Jewish community.”
Mamdani has said he would direct the NYPD to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits and has backed Israel only as a state of all citizens, not as a Jewish state. Those positions fuel the very anti-Zionist climate the coalition says the new plan refuses to name.
Even language long tied to calls for violence has drawn only partial retreat. Just the News reported that after winning the Democratic primary Mamdani told roughly 150 business executives he would “discourage” the phrase “globalize the intifada” and would not use it himself. He had earlier refused to condemn the slogan, saying a mayor’s role is not to police speech.
Symbolic outreach continues alongside the gaps. The Washington Examiner noted Mamdani plans a Shavuot celebration later this month with a festive kosher dairy menu, cheesecake and the rest, while critics argue holiday optics do not replace year-round security. One line captured the complaint: he cannot have the cheesecake and leave the community vulnerable the other 364 days.
Administrative stumbles elsewhere have not quieted doubts about execution. A judge recently forced City Hall to scrap bungled second-home tax notices, another reminder that big promises still collide with basic competence.
Mamdani has framed his mayoralty as proof that left-wing politics can scale nationally and called the 2026 midterms a proving ground for the Democratic Socialists of America. That project leaves little room for the clear definitions and enforcement Jewish groups now demand.
When the same mayor pushes DSA politics as a national model, the refusal to name anti-Zionist hatred stops looking like an oversight and starts looking like a choice.
The coalition’s letter and meeting request put the choice on record. Jewish New Yorkers are asking for a plan that matches the harassment and violence they actually face, not a document that spends millions while declining to define the problem or mention the ideology driving much of it.
Public trust erodes further when sensitive moments draw the wrong reaction. Bipartisan condemnation followed after Mamdani was caught grinning during a 9/11 reading of the names, another episode that left many wondering where his priorities sit.
City Hall can keep defending a 33-page strategy that boosts synagogue security funding yet skips a definition of antisemitism and barely nods at Israel. Or it can answer the more than 25 groups that say the central failure is already obvious.
Jewish New Yorkers do not need another glossy report. They need a mayor willing to name the hate that targets them and to stop treating anti-Israel activism as a protected loophole.