New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced a new citywide effort to fight antisemitism, one week after reiterating his call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested.
On Tuesday, Mamdani unveiled New York City’s first municipal “Strategy to Combat Antisemitism,” calling it “a roadmap for how our administration will confront the scourge of antisemitism now and in the future.”
City officials said the initiative represents a $7.4 million investment focused on prevention, education, security and support services for Jewish New Yorkers.
The announcement comes as NYPD data shows a rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes since Mamdani took office.
From January through July, after Mamdani assumed office, police recorded 205 confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes. That compared with 189 during the same period in 2025, an increase of 8.5 percent.
July saw an even sharper jump. The NYPD confirmed 23 anti-Jewish hate crimes that month, up from 15 in July 2025—a 53.3 percent increase.
By the end of August, antisemitic hate crimes were up 9 percent year-to-date, according to the NYPD, while confirmed hate crimes across all categories had risen 16 percent.
Jewish New Yorkers represented more than half of all confirmed hate-crime victims, despite accounting for approximately 10 percent of the city’s population.
Mamdani unveiled New York City’s first municipal “Strategy to Combat Antisemitism” on Tuesday, calling it “a roadmap for how our administration will confront the scourge of antisemitism now and in the future.”
After Mamdani took office in January 2026, the NYPD recorded 205 confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes from January through July, compared with 189 during the same period in 2025—an 8.5 percent increase.
In his September 24 address to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu attacked Mamdani, labeling him “the antisemitic mayor of New York” and saying many Jewish New Yorkers had felt less safe since Mamdani’s election.
The 23 confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded in July compared with 15 in July 2025, marking a 53.3 percent increase for the month.
Mamdani’s announcement comes against the backdrop of an unusually bitter political dispute with Netanyahu.
On September 21, the mayor renewed his demand that Netanyahu be arrested before the Israeli prime minister traveled to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Mamdani has called Netanyahu a “war criminal” and accused him of responsibility for what he describes as the “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza.
He has also said he would support enforcement of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, while acknowledging that New York City lacks the legal authority to carry it out independently.
Three days later, the dispute escalated into a public exchange between the two leaders.
Speaking to the UN General Assembly on September 24, Netanyahu described Mamdani as “the antisemitic mayor of New York” and asserted that many Jewish residents no longer felt safe following his election.
Netanyahu also accused the mayor of promoting what he characterized as false claims about Israel and Gaza, and issued a direct warning to him.
Mamdani revoked executive orders signed by former Mayor Eric Adams that adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and prohibited city agencies from boycotting or divesting from Israel.
Mamdani was the first mayor to skip out on New York City’s Israel Day Parade. He pointed to a statement made on his campaign, that he wouldn’t be attending the parade and that he had already made his views on the Israeli government ‘abundantly clear’
Mamdani celebrated Rosh Hashanah with a group of young children at city hall, partaking in the tradition of slicing apples and dipping them in honey
‘Shame on you,’ he said.
He spoke on Mamdani’s efforts to have him arrested, saying the mayor can’t silence him.
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Mamdani rejected Netanyahu’s accusations and said afterward that the Israeli prime minister had used his UN speech to repeat what he called ‘baseless lies’ about Gaza.
Days later, Mamdani is now pouring millions of dollars into a citywide campaign against anti-Jewish hatred.
The strategy includes $6.4 million for community organizations working to prevent hate and support victims, as well as $1 million for security improvements at houses of worship.
It also expands Holocaust and Jewish-history education in New York City schools, and provides $2 million for the Queens Holocaust memorial and $2.5 million for a Center for New Jewish Culture in Brooklyn.
The plan also calls for a public campaign explaining how New Yorkers can report discrimination under city law, greater coordination among police, human-rights officials and hate-crime prevention offices, and additional support for victims of antisemitic harassment and hate crimes.
The administration also says it will regularly engage with Jewish New Yorkers representing different political and religious perspectives.
But one decision is likely to attract particular attention.
Mamdani’s administration is not adopting a single formal definition of antisemitism.
That issue has already caused controversy.
Under former Mayor Eric Adams, New York City took a noticeably different approach to defining antisemitism.
In June 2025, Adams signed Executive Order 52, directing city agencies to recognize and, where appropriate, use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, along with its 11 contemporary examples.
The order made clear that the definition was not legally binding and was not intended to restrict constitutionally protected speech.
The IHRA framework includes examples involving certain forms of hostility toward Israel, including denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli state.
After taking office, Mamdani revoked the IHRA policy as part of his broader move to roll back executive orders issued by the previous administration.
The move was framed as a bid to create a ‘clean slate’ and signal a fresh start for Mamdani’s administration in the wake of Adams’s federal indictment.
The issue resurfaced dramatically in April, when Mamdani’s Antisemitism Czar Phylisa Wisdom, appeared before the City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
Wisdom said the administration would not codify a definition of antisemitism, or of hate more broadly, and that cases would instead be considered individually.
She described antisemitism generally as prejudice, violence and discrimination against Jews because they are Jewish.
That approach is now reflected in the new strategy.
Several organizations involved in the announcement have praised the decision not to impose a single formal definition.
Critics, meanwhile, have argued that the absence of a codified definition could make it harder to identify and respond consistently to anti-Jewish conduct, particularly where hostility toward Israel and hostility toward Jews overlap.
The new strategy also comes after Mamdani was the first mayor to skip out on New York City’s Israel Day Parade.
Mamdani pointed to a statement made on his campaign, that he wouldn’t be attending the parade and that he had already made his views on the Israeli government ‘abundantly clear.’
