Andrew Gross arrived in his new role as the American Jewish Committee’s New York regional director on Monday with memories from the other side of the Hudson River — memories of the shattered JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, where in December 2019 antisemitic gunmen killed three people before themselves dying in a firefight with police.

“I remember seeing the bullet casings and glass fragments on the ground,” recalled Gross, who had become executive director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission under then-Gov. Phil Murphy just a few months before. “As I do my job here at the AJC, I’m going to work with everyone to make sure that exact type of scenario does not happen again.”

“Everyone,” as he described it in a wide-ranging interview with Jewish Insider, extends from the NYPD to New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin to AJC’s long-standing network of Jewish and non-Jewish civic allies, and even friendly interests out of the Persian Gulf. Gross said he also plans to draw on another set of experiences from Murphy’s administration: his time at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, as he looks now to forge stronger ties with Big Apple business leaders.

The Jewish and business communities overlap and, he argued, share an interest in opposing the rhetoric of the city’s branch of the Democratic Socialists of America.

“They seem to have a serious issue with capitalism, and they seem to have a serious issue with the West and how the West has developed its economy, and they seem to be very against a lot of the pillars of free markets,” said Gross, recalling the persecution of Soviet Jewry. “Historically, Jewish people have not fared very well when that’s the theme. When you attack free markets, and you attack capitalism, and you attack the ability of business owners to succeed, that usually comes with very troubled waters for Jewish people.”

Gross’ remarks echoed those of another veteran of New Jersey Democratic — and Jewish — politics who arrived in New York City this year with plans to counter Mayor Zohran Mamdani: former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who assumed leadership of the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy organization with numerous Jewish board members. Fulop has highlighted combating antisemitism as a key priority for the Partnership, which has in the past confined itself to promoting policy favorable to private enterprise.

Gross lauded Fulop’s focus, though he added they had not yet coordinated their efforts.

“There are a lot of parallels. And I can tell you that AJC has a very, very strong history and a strong board that’s deep in the New York City business community,” he said. “And one of the areas, especially with my background working with Gov. Murphy over the years, is going to be to deeply, deeply strengthen how AJC works with the business community in the city, and we’ll be looking for ways to build up that portfolio and strengthen relations.”

Yet despite declaring his intention to “push back” on Mamdani and his DSA allies for what Gross described as their “unreasonably hostile” posture toward Israel, he stressed he was open to warmer relations with City Hall — if the mayor is willing to “tone down” his rhetoric around the Jewish state.

“Jewish values tell us that people deserve to be given a second chance,” Gross said. “They deserve to be able to redeem themselves and to repent and to be better. I have absolutely no interest in having an endless battle with him or his administration.”

Gross told JI that he would not have attended a meeting like the one Mamdani’s Office to Combat Antisemitism held earlier this week with several liberal-leaning rabbis at City Hall because of the way the mayor has “singled out” Israel for criticism. Having served at the Israeli consulate himself, Gross also expressed horror that Mamdani’s international affairs commissioner had agreed to a meeting with Iran’s representative to the United Nations.

The mayor has said he was unaware of the planned rendezvous, which the State Department blocked, and called his commissioners actions “an error.”

“When you try to meet with a regime that is currently in kinetic combat with the United States, and a regime that has supported terrorism not just against Israel and Jewish people around the world, but against Americans, killed Americans, I think that is deeply, deeply disturbing,” Gross said, highlighting that the mayor has used his official platforms to excoriate Israeli leadership exclusively. “They seem to just be singularly ideologically focused on attacking Israel. There was no speech about Ukraine. There is no speech about what Russia has been doing. No speech about China or how they have damaged American interests. No speech about Taiwan. Right? There seems to be no other engagement globally.”

Gross pointed to a rise in antisemitic hate crimes during Mamdani’s tenure, as well as recent AJC data finding a majority of Jewish Americans nationally have changed their behavior for fear of being victims of a bias incident, and argued both are linked to the kind of rhetoric the mayor and his allies in the DSA use.

“It’s causing strife and concern, and the Jewish community to retreat from their own identity,” Gross said, arguing that the anti-Zionist Jewish figures Mamdani has elevated in his administration are not representative of the community writ large. “AJC has a unique and urgent role to work with our partners to educate, speak out and call out each instance where Jewish New Yorkers are being discriminated against, and to push back against this tide where the identity of Jewish New Yorkers is being chipped away.”