Mamdani Keeps Office to Combat Antisemitism; Nixes 2 Orders Jewish Groups Favored

Only hours after his public inauguration ceremony on Jan. 1, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was repealing all executive orders signed by Eric Adams after Sept. 26, 2024 but said that that he intended to keep the Office to Combat Antisemitism. But two r pro-Israel orders that Adams had signed over the past year were included in the repealed executive orders and the repeal of those measures drew criticism from leading Jewish groups.

Among the other executive orders that are being eliminated was an October order creating a cryptocurrency-focused Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain, and the rat hating mayor’s Office of Rodent Mitigation.

But the order signed by Adams on May 13 in which he and appointed Moshe Davis as its executive director appears to have been saved by a new executive order signed by Mamdani, making it the exception to the nine executive orders that were expunged with the swipe of a pen.

Mamdani explained that his second executive order singed hours after his public inauguration on Jan. 1 included a decree covering the infrastructure of city government.

“We wrote about the structure of city government and that includes the continuation of the Office to Combat Antisemitism,” said Mamdani responding to a question at a post inauguration press conferene. “That is an issue we take very seriously and part of the promise we made to Jewish New Yorkers.”

Adams had also repealed other executive orders that pertained to Israel or protecting Jewish citizens that were applauded by Jewish groups when Adams signed and which drew criticism now that they are gone.

Adams adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred via executive order No. 52. issued on June 8.

He also signed executive order No. 60, on Dec. 8, which barred city entities and personnel from boycotting or divesting from Israel. It was seen as blocking some divestment motions being pushed by several unions at the City Council.

On the campaign trail, Mamdani said in an interview with Marcia Kramer on CBS2 that he supported the then-comptroller Brad Lander who did not renew the investment by city pension funds in state of Israel bonds which amounted to some $30 million.

“I think we should not have a fund that is invested in violation of international law,” Mamdani said on “The Point with Marcia Kramer.”

“I think that the current comptroller’s approach [Brad Lander] — as he has taken it with Israel bonds — is the right approach,” he added.

While the bonds tied to the Israeli government were not renewed, the city still has over $300 million invested in other funds connected to Israel that remained intact.

Adams’s executive order No. 61, directed the NYPD to look into creating zones around houses of worship in which protesting would be prohibited. Mamdani is reportedly supportive of that measure. Adams issue the order following a protest outside the Park East Synagogue in late November that drew anti-Israel protestors some of whom were reportedly chanting “Globalize the Intifada” as worshipers entered the synagogue.

Days after the incident, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch who is staying in that role under Mamdani, personally appeared at the UES synagogue to apologize for the police department letting the demonstration get out of hand. Her retention as top cop was seen as a strategic alliance by Mamdani to keep a leading Jewish official within his young administration.

While the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism escaped the axing that killed other executive orders, it is not clear where Moshe Davis, the man Adams appointed to the post, will fare under the new administration.

His Linkedin and X accounts still list him as the executive director and an email to his city email account did not bounce back on Jan. 2. But in his year end annual report, he outlined support for all the executive orders signed by Adams pertaining to Israel and antisemitism including those that been axed by Mamdani’s repeal order. Davis could not be reached for comment.

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was quoted in the Jewish Times stating the “decision to revoke New York City’s adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, along with related executive orders aimed at confronting antisemitic discrimination, is a troubling indicator of the direction in which he is leading the city, just one day at the helm.”

Several other pro-Israel groups, including the UJA-Federation of New York, the Anti-Defamation League’s New York/New Jersey chapter and the New York Board of Rabbis, issued a joint statement critical of Mamdani for repealing “two significant protections against antisemitism”

“Our community will be looking for clear and sustained leadership that demonstrates a serious commitment to confronting antisemitism and ensures that the powers of the mayor’s office are used to promote safety and unity, not to advance divisive efforts such as BDS,” their statement said.

“Singling out Israel for sanctions is not the way to make Jewish New Yorkers feel included and safe and will undermine any words to that effect.”

Mamdani at a press conference on Jan. 2 defended the two executive orders that survived insisting he will “actually deliver on our commitment to protect Jewish New Yorkers” by “actually funding hate crime prevention, by celebrating our neighbors and by practicing a politics of universality.”