New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch revealed plans on Wednesday to step up security measures at the 9/11 memorial on Friday and around Jewish institutions that evening and on Saturday for Rosh Hashanah — asserting that the department is unaware of any impending threat, but acknowledging a dangerous environment amid rising antisemitism and the conflict with Iran.

The mayor and police chief appeared together at City Hall to discuss measures to ensure safety around both observances, including “heightened” local and federal security and restricted street and transit access around Ground Zero during the 25th anniversary ceremony for the victims of the attack during the day. In the evening, they said Jewish New Yorkers can expect police deployment to synagogues, yeshivas and other communal spaces, to deter any person hoping to replicate the acts of violence and vandalism inflicted in recent months.

“We know that for many Jewish New Yorkers, there have been moments of immense sadness over this past year. Too many of our neighbors have been the victims of antisemitic hate crimes and too many are understandably afraid to come together and celebrate openly,” said Mamdani, addressing his comments directly to the city’s Jewish community. “Your safety during these sacred days is of the utmost importance to our administration and we will work tirelessly to ensure that you can observe the holiday securely.”

Antisemitic hate crimes have spiked under Mamdani, according to NYPD statistics, which some Jewish leaders have blamed on the mayor’s broadsides against Israel. Yet he has kept in place Tisch, a scion of a prominent Jewish family and a strong supporter of the Jewish state, who on Wednesday vowed a “massive security operation” for the 9/11 memorial — and a “major” one for the Jewish High Holy Days. 

“I want all Jewish New Yorkers to know this. You have a partner in the NYPD now and throughout the year. As of today, there are no specific credible threats directed at High Holy Day celebrations in New York City, but we remain vigilant,” Tisch said, even as she acknowledged the rise in antisemitic attacks. “There will be assets you see and others that you don’t. Our intelligence and counterterrorism bureau is watching the threat environment here at home and around the world, working closely with our federal, state, local and international partners.”

“So whether New Yorkers are gathered Friday morning to remember those we lost 25 years ago or entering a synagogue that evening to welcome the new year, they should know that the NYPD will be there,” she concluded.

Tisch acknowledged that the ongoing struggle with Iran has “amped up” NYPD deployments for large events. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, the department’s top intelligence official, told reporters that terror had become more “individualized and idiosyncratic” in the quarter-century since the destruction of the World Trade Center towers — and the department’s focus has pivoted from Islamism to the homegrown political extremes.

“It’s diversified tremendously ideologically. Now, we’re not primarily dealing with al-Qaida or even al-Qaida ISIS, but a proliferation of threats coming from conspiracy theories, grievances, nihilistic violence, far-left, far-right, anti-government, all of those things,” said Weiner. “A lot of the trip wires that we established in those early years post-9/11 had to be altered and that’s just what we’ve done here at the NYPD.”