Instead of condemning Elon Musk’s sieg heil or Trump’s antisemitic lies and Proud Boys pardons, the ADL is surveilling New York City’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and threatening to defame members of his new administration.
As Jews in New York and across the United States, we reject false accusations of antisemitism against Black, brown, and Muslim progressive champions who are fighting for a country where all of us can thrive.
Zohran Mamdani has worked and prayed alongside Jewish New Yorkers, made major policy commitments to Jewish safety, and promised to protect, celebrate, and cherish our community.
Instead of partnering with the new mayor, Jewish leaders like the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt are spreading fear and division — doing Trump’s work for him by trying to divide Jews from the multifaith, multiracial pro-democracy movement we need to defeat fascism.
This comes just weeks after Greenblatt chose to delete the ADL’s own Glossary of Hate Groups, the principle of “Protect Civil Rights” from its website, and laid off staff who work on civil rights at the behest of the far right he continues to court.
The time of side-deals with white nationalists, trading Jewish safety (and everyone’s safety) for access to power, and making a mockery of the real threat of antisemitism by conjoining it with the whims of the far right is over.
If the ADL wants to keep Jews scared, defeated and isolated from all our allies and neighbors, their time as Jewish leaders is over too.
Zohran Mamdani’s victory reminds us to look ahead — to a future where Americans across faith, race, and place have each other’s backs to end antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of bigotry.
Photo by: Gage Skidmore