New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced plans to combat antisemitism Tuesday afternoon despite leaving out a definition for what separates it from other forms of racial or religious prejudice.
He also did not formally recognize the existence of Israel as he unveiled plans to create the Interagency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
The plan’s announcement puts renewed scrutiny on Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, as he looks to undercut allegations that he lacks support for the Jewish community amid a rising number of hate crimes against the Jewish community.
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“My administration has a responsibility to ensure New York City remains a place where Jewish New Yorkers can live their lives peacefully and safely, where they can walk down the street, enter their houses of worship and build their lives knowing that this city will stand with them,” Mamdani said in a strategy document.
“But too many Jewish New Yorkers have told me that they are no longer certain that promise can be taken for granted.”
Antisemitic acts make up the greatest slice of the city’s tracking for hate crimes in 2026, accounting for roughly 9% of the picture, according to NYPD reporting. In the first eight months of 2026, the city has recorded a hate crime uptick of 16% over last year’s levels.
Recorded hate crimes in the “homosexual” category, for instance, make up 29 incidents, and those against Muslims make up another 21. Hate crimes against Jews have reached 181.
One hundred and thirty-one of those are felony offenses.
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The strategy document, which lays out a number of policy proposals, notes the numerous “useful” definitions for antisemitism that already exist but also stipulates that the Mamdani administration would not adopt any of them.
“New York City can and will leverage all of the tools at its disposal to combat antisemitism effectively without needing to adopt a definition for this specific form of hate,” the framework states.
“Federal hate crimes statutes — which criminalize conduct motivated by bias against protected characteristics, such as race, national origin and religion — do not adopt a standalone definition of discrimination.”
In practical terms, the proposal outlines a substantial increase in its funding to combat hate crimes, a jump from $3 million to $29 million annually. It further creates cooperation pathways between the NYPD, the Office for Prevention of Hate Crimes and the Commission on Human Rights, among other agencies.
It also designates $2 million for the Queens Holocaust memorial and $2.5 million for the Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn.
Mamdani framed the proposal as the beginning of larger efforts to ensure the safety of the Jewish community.
“We will fight antisemitism with urgency and resolve. And we will do so in relentless solidarity with the many communities who also know what it means to be targeted, marginalized or made to question their safety,” he said.
“This Strategy is neither the beginning nor the end of this work. But it is an important milestone: a clear commitment from New York City government and a roadmap for the meaningful work ahead.”
However, the plan ignited backlash from Jewish New Yorkers.
“I sat with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism in July and told them what Jewish teachers and families need: a definition of the hate, an honest reckoning with anti-Zionism, and real security for synagogues and schools. What the mayor announced today does none of that,” Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, told the New York Post.
“Quoting the Talmud while refusing to name Zionism and putting $1 million in security across every house of worship in New York City is not a strategy. It is a disappointment.”
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Moshe Davis, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, gave Mamdani some credit for using some of his proposals but said, “It seems to make a conscious effort to erase the connection between the violence against Jews we are seeing in our city and the anti-Israel propaganda clearly fueling it,” according to the New York Post.
“A report on antisemitism that ignores what is driving much of the hate and violence against Jews is tone-deaf and dangerous.”
Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
