For those who doubted whether New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani would maintain his antisemitic stance toward Israel and New York City Jews once he took office, proof positive of Hizzoner's feelings was made clear by his appointment of Phylisa Wisdom to lead the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism.
It's almost beyond belief. While Ms. Wisdom doesn't reject Israel's right to exist (unlike Mamdani, whose weasel words about Israel's "right to exist" fail to include the idea of Israel as the home of the Jewish people), she nevertheless rejects the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRAs) definition of antisemitism. In other words, she denies that "anti-Zionism functions as a contemporary form of bigotry," according to the New York Sun.
This has been the dodge of antisemites since the founding of Israel in 1948. "I don't hate the Jews, I only oppose the creation of a Jewish state," is a familiar refrain from Democrats over the last 20 years as their support for Israel has vanished.
“Mind-boggling” is how the vice chairman of Community Board 12 in Brooklyn, Yaakov Kaplan, put it. Kaplan wondered why Mamdani would appoint someone to that office whom “Orthodox Jews see as an adversary.”
Rabbi Moshe Davis, Wisdom's predecessor, was abruptly fired last week from his position as the Executive Director of the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism in New York City.
“The Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism was built to be operational, not symbolic,” Rabbi Davis said. “It requires government experience, strong agency relationships, and trust across the Jewish community to function effectively from day one.” There's a need for the executive director of the antisemitism office to function effectively.
The annual "State of Antisemitism" in the United States was just published, showing that hate against the Jewish people continues to rise.
Thirty-one percent of Jews reported being the target of an antisemitic incident. Two-thirds of Jews felt that they were less secure in America than last year. And 93% of Jews felt antisemitism was a problem in America, compared to 70% of the general public. Thirty-one percent of Jews reported being the target of an antisemitic incident, 3% which were physical.
“We want leaders across our society to understand that while these appear as data points on a screen or on a piece of paper, every one of them represents the lived experience of Jews and Jewish families in America right now,” Ted Deutch, the CEO of AJC, who formerly represented a heavily Jewish South Florida District in the House, told eJewishPhilanthropy.
The survey landed two days after Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate aired a $15 million ad on the Super Bowl, and less than a week after New York Times columnist Bret Stephens’ call to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League.”
The survey reveals a pressing need for public education about antisemitism, especially among the gentile population.
Much of the data is not news in the post-Oct. 7 world — Jews continue hiding their Magen David necklaces, and 25% of Jewish college students said they have felt or been excluded from a group or an event. Artificial intelligence is only exacerbating the fears of American Jews, with 65% of study respondents worrying that the programming will allow conspiracy theories to flourish. There is also considerable ignorance about the issue among non-Jews: Twenty percent of the general American population have heard of the term “antisemitism,” yet have no idea what it means — 10% of respondents said they haven’t even heard of the word.
Wisdom wrote this after mayoral candidate Andrew Yang posted a ringing defense of Israel in 2021:
As an American Jew and a New Yorker, I am floored by this tweet (although never surprised). NYC deserves a mayor who will stand up for Palestinians in the face of state-sanctioned violence.
— Phylisa Wisdom (@phylisajoy) May 10, 2021
The danger, as always, is not that overt antisemitism will endanger the Jewish people of New York. The threat comes in enabling violence by skirting the issue and pretending it doesn't exist.
For that, Mamdani and Wisdom are on the hook for any increase in antisemitic attacks in New York City.
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