Latest news with #JewishNewYorkers
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
ADL says it's not aware of Stringer's plan to work with group to combat antisemitism despite mayoral candidate's claim
Longshot Big Apple mayoral candidate Scott Stringer's claim that he'd work with the Anti-Defamation League to root out antisemitism is news to the non-profit. An ADL spokesperson said Sunday that the organization is not aware of 'any authorized plans' to work with the former city comptroller, who said over the weekend he would use tech to help cops 'predict and prevent' biased attacks while referencing the ADL. 'We are not aware of any authorized plans to partner with Mr. Stringer and, as a nonprofit organization, we would not partner with any candidate for elective office,' the spokesperson told The Post. But Stringer's team stressed the candidate wasn't offering a campaign plan and would only implement a version of something that the ADL already has online if elected mayor. The apparent divide between ADL and Stringer comes after the lefty mayoral hopeful told members of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side he would have the NYPD and Office of Emergency Management use 'advanced monitoring tools' to flag social media posts that incite violence or signal threats during and after an international emergency. The ADL Center on Extremism uses a 'first-of-its-kind' interactive map that allows users to detail specific incidents of hate, extremism, antisemitism and terrorism by state and across the country. 'One of my first partnerships will be with the Anti-Defamation League on a project that goes beyond monitoring antisemitism after the fact,' Stringer said, according to remarks provided by the campaign. 'Instead, we will work to predict and prevent violence before it happens.' A spokesperson for Stringer also claimed Sunday the pol was only promoting the ADL's resources when asked about the claimed partnership. 'The ADL has one of the best tools available, and this one has been widely cited by Jewish thought leaders and elected officials,' the spokesperson said in a statement. 'It's been broadly promoted and positioned as a best practice. We should use the best tools and resources available to fight antisemitism — especially from groups that have long led the way on this issue. 'Employing best practices is good leadership, not an implication of a formal campaign partnership. The ADL has welcomed others promoting their resources.' Jewish New Yorkers have faced a disturbing spike in hate since Hamas launched its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, leading to the war in Gaza. Stringer, who is Jewish and a Zionist, has been polling in the single digits with the Democratic primary for mayor just weeks away.
New York Post
13-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Mayor Adams takes page out of Trump's playbook, launches task force to fight antisemitism
Mayor Adams took a page from President Trump's playbook and announced the city's own antisemitism task force – after years of local Jewish groups pushing for action. Hizzoner rolled out a new Office to Combat Antisemitism in City Hall on Tuesday ahead of his weekly off-topic presser with the aim of making sure no city funds flow to any group or organization that promotes hate against Jewish people. The agency will be tasked with monitoring court cases and working with the Law Department on which cases the city should join or bring, as well as advising the administration on potential executive orders. Advertisement 'The Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism will be the first of its kind in a major city across the nation, and will tackle antisemitism in all of its forms,' Adams said. 3 The new office comes after years of rising numbers of anti-semitic incidents. Paul Martinka 'The office will work to ensure city-funded entities and city agencies do not permit different forms of antisemitism,' he added. Advertisement The new office — which, as of Tuesday had executive director Moshe Davis as its sole employee — seemingly mimicked Trump's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism that has gone to war with universities over alleged antisemitism on campus. Earlier on Tuesday, the feds revoked another $450 million from Harvard after the school was found to have 'repeatedly failed' to tamp down on antisemitism and other racial discrimination. 3 The initiative mirrors Trump's task force that has targeted higher education. ALI HAIDER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock The mayor, though, couldn't point to any groups when pressed on what antisemitic groups have benefited from taxpayer dollars — only the city's schools, which twice sent out radicalized messages in newsletters. Advertisement Adams' bare bones announcement comes after years of increases in antisemitic hate crimes and was praised by some who have called on the city to do more. 'We expect the Mayor's office to use its legal authority to root out systemic Jew-hatred in all city agencies and offices and take proactive steps to end the tyranny of terror that silences and excludes Jewish New Yorkers in schools, at work, and in the city's streets,' the group End Jew Hatred said in a statement. 3 Mayor Eric Adams was flanked by a number of people in the Jewish community for the announcement. Paul Martinka However, others skewered the mayor and claimed he was using the office in his longshot reelection bid in the general election in November. Adams dropped out of a crowded Democratic Party primary and is expected to run on an independent ballot line, 'EndAntiSemitism.' Advertisement 'It's insulting. It's pathetic,' said Dov Hikind, former Brooklyn assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism. 'Where has he been? Jew hatred was bad three years ago and it's 10 times worse after Oct. 7, 2023. He didn't know? 'He's creating a task force in the bottom of the ninth inning,' he railed, adding, 'There's no question he's pandering.' Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a seemingly nearly identical slate of initiatives, following a City Council law requiring the creation of an Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. Adams dodged questions about the timing of the new office, only pointing to the 62% of hate crimes this year being antisemitic. Antisemitism has continuously accounted for an outsized portion of hate crime in the Big Apple, dating back to 2019 when more than 60% were anti-Jewish incidents. Over the past two years, the NYPD has reported 325 and 350 antisemitic incidents, accounting for 48% and 52% of all hate crimes in 2023 and 2024, respectively, according to police data. Political operative Hank Sheinkopf told The Post he believed the pandering would pay off for Adams in the general, as he aligns himself opposite of state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is second in polls in the Democratic race after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and could be on the Working Families Party line come November. 'It's smart. It engages Mamdani, not [Andrew] Cuomo,' Sheinkopf added. 'He's not the first incumbent — or the last — to use his office for political gain.'
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Not in our name': Jews in NYC say Trump attacks on Gaza activists not about fighting antisemitism
As the Trump administration escalates its campaign against international students and Palestinian activists, Jewish New Yorkers are increasingly refuting the idea that the president's efforts are actually about fighting antisemitism. After Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested at his U.S. citizenship test in Vermont, a group of his Israeli classmates penned a letter against his detainment, which they called immoral. A day later, a wide-ranging coalition of Jewish organizations issued a statement rejecting what they call a 'false choice' between Jewish safety and protecting democratic principles. 'Trump doesn't give a damn about Jews,' said Sarah Chinn, an English professor at Hunter College who has family in Israel. 'This is part of a concerted attack on higher education — that's it.' During a nationwide day of campus protests, one Jewish speaker in Lower Manhattan said he felt compelled to speak out against Trump's deportation efforts as Jews 'of conscience.' Further uptown, a leftist Jewish group held a 'Seder in the Streets,' where activists condemned the federal government's actions. For Aharon Dardik, 24, an Israeli-American student at Columbia, the Trump administration's crackdown is not only the stuff of headlines, but an active threat to his friends. Dardik, who helped found a Jewish group at Columbia calling for a ceasefire, and Mahdawi took a class together on peacemaking and negotiations. They were working on a 65-page framework for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when the activist started pulling back from daily life. After Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian activist at Columbia, was detained on March 8, Mahdawi stopped texting friends, relying on the encrypted messaging platform Signal for communication, before a 'self-imposed house arrest' because he feared the government, Dardik said. He was detained Monday by federal immigration authorities. 'As Israelis who knew him very well, we wanted to write a bit about more broadly, what it means for the administration to be doing this in in our name,' Dardik said, 'and how simple it was for us, as people who know Mohsen well, to see how preposterous of an understanding of Jewish interests the United States government has — if it's something they care about at all.' Dardik and his classmates' open letter topped 400 signatures by the end of the week. 'Many of us experienced the past year and a half on Columbia's campus in a deeply personal and emotional way,' read the memo, which was first published in the Jewish news outlet The Forward. 'We are deeply impacted by the experiences of antisemitism and hate on our campus, and disheartened by the lack of nuanced dialogue on campus and within society at large about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.' 'However, we adamantly oppose the use of the immigration system as a punitive political tool and an alternative to the criminal justice system when no crime has been committed.' On Tuesday, American Jewish organizations from three denominations — Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism — released a joint statement against holding activists for constitutionally-protected speech and threats to federal research funding. 'We at JCPA have been speaking out on this since the first arrest, making clear that two things are true at the same time,' said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Manhattan-based Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which convened the groups. Spitalnick went on to say that she met last week with about 50 Jewish students at Columbia, part of a leadership program at Hillel, who shared the feelings of American Jews more broadly: 'The deep, rightful concerns they have about how their university has handled antisemitism over the last year and a half — and concerns that the administration is now exploiting that fear.' The Trump administration has defended its actions, saying it is a privilege and not a right to study on American college campuses. In recent weeks, the federal government has taken immigration action against visa and some green card holders for pro-Palestinian activism and minor legal infractions, such as a speeding ticket. In the cases of Khalil and Mahdawi, the government alleged their advocacy could have an adverse effect on foreign policy interests to combat antisemitism. (Their lawyers deny the claim.) The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association, an organization formed during last school year's campus protests, has reviled both activists on social media and questioned public sympathy for them in the aftermath of their arrests. But Chinn, the professor at Hunter, part of the City University of New York system, said antisemitism is 'clearly pretext' for the Trump administration's actions. 'I understand why some diaspora Jews feel very connected to Israel. It's like in your bones,' Chinn said. 'The same way if you're a child or grandchild of a Palestinian refugee, this is generational trauma.' 'I don't think being angry is by definition violent.' On Thursday, hundreds of faculty and students from Columbia, CUNY and other New York colleges participated in a national day of action for higher education, where students and faculty held rallies on campus, before marching from Washington Square Park to Foley Square. Jonah Inserra, a New York University student and member of its graduate student union, started his speech in the Federal Plaza, just steps away from where Khalil was first held in immigration court, by arguing for the importance of standing up 'as a Jew of conscience.' 'We at NYU have so far been spared the kidnappings and arbitrary arrests of organizers and protesters,' said Inserra. But he accused college administrators of missing the moment to get organized. 'The total abdication of responsibility for the lives and well-beings of their students by the highest levels of university administration has left the task of securing our safety and our futures wholly to us,' he continued. 'And the number of people here today tells me that we are rising to meet the occasion.'
