We’ve been heartened to see many Jewish organizations that didn’t support candidate Mamdani working with Mayor-elect Mamdani in good faith for the welfare of New Yorkers. We are also grateful to the mayor-elect for his continued efforts to denounce antisemitism, build trust with more of the Jewish community, and make clear his commitment to the safety of Jews and all New Yorkers.
And we were disappointed but not surprised to see today’s ADL report continue their practice of conflating criticism of the Israeli government’s actions with antisemitism, favoring Trumpian tactics over bridge building, and prioritizing fear-mongering over the safety of American Jews and our neighbors. The ADL of today seems to have three interests: keeping their right-wing mega-donors happy, protecting the current Israeli government’s violent far-right agenda by conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and cozying up to Trump to stay close to power. None of these things fights antisemitism. Their McCarthyist Mamdani monitor is the first of its kind because the ADL chose not to deploy a similar tactic when their bedfellows offered Nazi salutes, hired and pardoned neo-Nazis, and openly continued to spread dangerous antisemitic conspiracy myths. If the ADL truly wanted to fight antisemitism—like we do every day—they would actually confront it at its roots and how it works alongside all forms of bigotry, rather than instrumentalize it for an unpopular political agenda that has nothing to do with Jewish safety.
As the mayor-elect himself shared in response to the report, “I have always spoken out against antisemitism and hatred in any form and have made it clear that the commitment that I have made to protect New Yorkers, to protect Jewish New Yorkers, is one that I will uphold . . . We must distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government, and the ADL’s report oftentimes ignores this distinction, and in doing so, it draws attention away from the very real crisis of antisemitism.” Thank you, Mayor-elect. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
