NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded Wednesday to a report released by the Anti-Defamation League that identified New York as the state with the most antisemitic incidents in the country, despite a sharp drop in 2025 nationwide.
"There's no tolerance for antisemitism in our city," the mayor said. "It is something that we must root out of every single borough of our city, and we have to ensure that Jewish New Yorkers are safe in this city, and frankly, that the threshold is not just that of safety, but that they are celebrated and cherished just as any New Yorker is."
There were 1,160 antisemitic incidents in New York in 2025, with almost three quarters taking place in New York City, according to the ADL report. While incidents of antisemitic vandalism and harassment both dropped by 20% in the state, assaults increased by 10%, the report said.
Despite Jewish New Yorkers making up an estimated 12% of the city's population, they are the target of over half the hate crimes, according to city officials. Mamdani said that amid these numbers, his Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism will be embarking on a listening tour, putting government workers in direct conversation with Jewish leaders to create "the first municipal approach to combatting antisemitism."
"These are the kinds of things we need, because it cannot simply be responses to acts of antisemitism to making it clear that they are unacceptable—that is obvious," Mamdani said. "We also have to do the work to ensure that we're preventing antisemitism."
When asked about his vocal condemnation of many of the policies of the Israeli government and whether or not he should continue to share his stance, Mamdani said that it must be clear that "critique of the policies of a government are very much separate from bigotry towards the people of a specific religious faith."
The question comes after a protest Tuesday outside Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side. Pro-Palestinian protesters flooded the area after the temple was advertised as the location of "the Great Israel Real Estate Event," meant to promote American real estate purchases in Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Demonstrators were soon met with pro-Israel counter-protesters.
Through spokesperson Sam Raskin, Mamdani shared that he was "deeply opposed" to the event, while also confirming his administration's commitment to "ensuring safe entry and exit from any house of worship."
"When we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land, which includes the sale of land in occupied West Bank, in settlements that are a violation of international law, that is something I firmly disagree with and that I also believe that many New Yorkers firmly disagree with," Mamdani said.
A recent City Council measure that Mamdani allowed to pass into law grants the NYPD the power to create protest buffer zones outside houses of worship, with the mayor stating that law enforcement was "successful" in this endeavor during Tuesday's protest.
