A group of rabbis beseeched Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday to pay greater attention to the effect of his rhetoric about Israel on the safety of New York City Jews during a private meeting at City Hall.
During the hourlong meeting, convened by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, the group of 10 rabbis tried to convey to the mayor how they thought his public statements had reverberated in a city where anti-Jewish hate crimes were on the rise.
There was a mix of opinions in the room, according to Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, with some of the Jewish leaders urging the mayor to soften his rhetoric, and some saying they would like him to stop criticizing Israel and instead focus on local issues.
Others said they supported his right to criticize Israel and its leadership, but asked that he do so with more nuance, perhaps by more consistently condemning Hamas and emphasizing that American Jews are not responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.
“I’m happy to work in partnership with your administration, but Mr. Mayor, you are 90 percent of what could be different here,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the Reform movement in North America, recalled saying in the meeting. “If instead of vilifying Israel, you spoke constructively, in measured tones — that would move the needle more than anything else, and I’m hopeful you’ll use that power.”
Despite the wide spectrum of views in the room, there was a uniform sense that something about Mr. Mamdani’s relationship with the Jewish community had to change, according to one of the invited rabbis who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about private discussions.
During his brief mayoralty, Mr. Mamdani’s relationship with large swaths of the Jewish community in New York City has been rocky.
“There was no tiptoeing around the elephant in the room,” said Rabbi Jonathan Leener, the leader of the Prospect Heights Shul, a liberal modern Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn.
“The mayor’s comments have ramifications and he needs to be aware of how in the current climate, that just adds to the temperature and creates an environment that I think a lot of Jews feel vulnerable in,” Rabbi Leener said.
Two other rabbis, who sought anonymity to discuss the private meeting, said Rabbi Leener’s sentiments on antisemitism and the safety of New York Jews were echoed by the other rabbis in the room.
While many New York Jews oppose Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Mamdani’s recent presidential-style address denouncing Mr. Netanyahu as a “war criminal” — and ultimately acknowledging that the law bars the mayor from fulfilling a campaign promise to arrest him — caused some Jews to worry that Mr. Mamdani risked inflaming antisemitism in the city.
“If he is going to criticize Israel or speak for Palestinian freedom, which I do regularly, than it really matters that there is complexity in his message,” said Rabbi Timoner, whose congregation includes Senator Chuck Schumer. “We can’t vote there, we don’t have any ability to change what’s happening, yet people are profiling us and spewing hate at us because they’re angry at the Israeli government.”
In the meeting, Rabbi Timoner shared this message, emphasizing that she felt that Mr. Mamdani had spoken movingly about Islamophobia after Sept. 11 in New York, and could bring that same clarity to talking about the threats against the American Jewish community today.
Monday’s meeting included Reform, Conservative and modern Orthodox rabbis. Several rabbis described the meeting as candid and respectful. One of the rabbis recalled that Mr. Mamdani had expressed gratitude for the candor and said he was taking what he had heard to heart.
“It was an open, positive and constructive conversation,” Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, said in a statement. “Mayor Mamdani has and will continue to engage with Jewish life in New York City in order to meet the needs of our communities and reaffirm his commitment to the thriving of Jewish communities across the five boroughs.”
Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is New York City’s first Muslim mayor, and he came of political age in the pro-Palestinian movement. As a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, Mr. Mamdani founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and led a failed campaign to convince the school to take part in an academic boycott of Israel.
As mayor of the most Jewish city in the world outside of Israel, Mr. Mamdani has stayed true to his stance on the matter, even as he has moderated in other areas.
Rabbi Leener, a self-described Zionist with family in Israel, said his goal in attending the meeting was not to change Mr. Mamdani’s well-established views on the conflict, but rather to encourage him to create a safer environment for his Jewish constituents. He also urged the mayor to devote more police resources to protecting synagogues and other Jewish institutions.
“That should be his focus and not making comments unnecessarily about the conflict,” Rabbi Leener said. “Or having a bit more nuance around it. That it’s not just good versus evil.”