Days into Zohran Mamdani’s first week as mayor of New York City, some Jewish leaders are privately raising questions about whether his fledgling administration is prepared to implement a clear strategy to counter rising antisemitism, one of the key pledges of his campaign.

Even as he swiftly moved to revoke two executive orders tied to Israel and antisemitism on his first day in office, Mamdani has yet to disclose how he and his team plan to substantively address what he has repeatedly called “the scourge of antisemitism” in remarks vowing to protect Jewish New Yorkers.

The mayor, a democratic socialist and outspoken critic of Israel, faced backlash from leading Jewish groups last week after he repealed executive orders issued by former Mayor Eric Adams, including ones that adopted a working definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and banned city agencies from engaging in boycotts targeting Israel.

“He went from giving a speech about unity and collectivism to signing executive orders against the Jewish community,” one Jewish community leader said of Mamdani’s repeals.

Another Jewish leader in touch with Mamdani’s team echoed others who have emphasized that his advisers “need a plan” to counter antisemitism and that proposing a strategy is “important and should happen soon.”

The response so far has been limited. “A lot of ‘Yes, thanks for the feedback,’” the Jewish leader relayed. “I suspect they know and are working on it.”

While Mamdani also announced he would retain the office to combat antisemitism created last year by the Adams administration, he has otherwise not shared additional details about how it will be staffed or what specific issues it will prioritize.

Moshe Davis, who led the office under Adams, told Jewish Insider on Monday that he was “at his desk in City Hall,” but had not “heard much else” about the future of the office or his role in it. He said that on Friday he had distributed to officials an 80-page report produced by the office under Adams and publicly released last week.

The new report includes plans that Mamdani would likely oppose, such as training for all city employees on the IHRA definition, which labels some criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

One person familiar with the matter, who has spoken with Mamdani’s team, said that Davis will not be asked to continue on as the office’s executive director. Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive Zionist group, is rumored to be a front-runner for the role, though no final decisions have been made, the source told JI.

Wisdom said that she was not familiar with the hiring process, but looks “forward to seeing how the Mamdani administration plans to tackle what he has rightly called the ‘scourge of antisemitism’ facing our city.”

“This will require a comprehensive strategy,” she told JI on Monday, noting that the office to combat antisemitism “can play a key role, coordinating between long-standing offices and agencies tasked with combating hate, and input from the diversity of New York’s Jewish community.”

A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. 

Other Jewish community leaders said they were now waiting to learn more about Mamdani’s plans for the office — which could shed early light on his approach to antisemitism as he enacts his agenda. 

“Haven’t heard anything beyond that he will retain the office but make some changes,” said one Jewish leader, who was unaware of what the changes would entail.

Mamdani, in defending his decision to revoke the executive orders, said last week his administration “will be relentless in its efforts to combat hate and division, and we will showcase that by fighting hate across the city.”

“That includes fighting the scourge of antisemitism by actually funding hate crime prevention, by celebrating our neighbors and by practicing a politics of universality,” he added during a Friday press conference.

Rabbi Joe Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis who served on Mamdani’s transition committee for emergency response, said he was taking a wait-and-see approach to the first few weeks of the administration. “No further details have been released so there is nothing more to add at this time,” he told JI. “Let’s wait and see if there are changes.”

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that the administration “has a real opportunity to not just signal its commitment to Jewish safety but to take real action.”

“From increased investment in hate crimes prevention to expansion of proven education tools, Mayor Mamdani can build this office into a hub to advance a comprehensive strategy to counter antisemitism and advance Jewish inclusion and safety,” she told JI.

Having recently returned from a trip to Israel, Rep. George Latimer (D-NY) is emphasizing that Israel’s critics in the United States and around the world are overlooking Hamas’ key role in perpetuating the conflict and contributing to the humanitarian issues in Gaza, strengthening the terrorist group’s position and insulating it from external pressures. 

At the same time, the New York Democrat also said that Israel must do more to pursue an end to the war, make its case to the world and provide aid in Gaza.

Latimer, speaking to Jewish Insider last week, said that the trip, organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation for Democratic freshmen and leading Democratic lawmakers, had reinforced his view that the situation on the ground is more complicated than the more simplistic narratives demonizing Israel that have been spread by some critics and media.

“When you see on the ground, you understand it is not a simple black-and-white situation,” Latimer, a first-term congressman from Westchester County, N.Y., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said. “People come up to me and say, ‘Israel is practicing genocide. What they’re doing is evil and we need to stop it.’ And then you get on the ground and you realize how much more complicated it is than that.”

He said that American critics of Israel fail to acknowledge Hamas’ “role in all of this and its contributory actions.” He said he sees a “lack of appreciation here in the United States that Hamas is committed — has shown no signs to want to sit, talk peace, have a cessation of hostilities. … That makes it very, very hard to plot a strategy, if the other side is completely intransigent.”

Latimer said the situation is comparable to overlooking the fact that the U.S. entered World War II because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, or that the U.S. invaded Afghanistan because of the 9/11 attacks. He said that the “mindset” that motivated such attacks doesn’t disappear overnight, and can take protracted conflict to address.

At the same time, he said that “there’s a gap between what [the Israeli government] needs to be doing and what it is doing, and it’s a serious gap.” He said he doesn’t see proposals to relocate the population of Gaza out of the enclave, discussed during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as “workable” or “humane.”

He addressed friction within Israeli society over Israel’s war plans in Gaza, and said that Netanyahu’s decision-making may be shaped by his far-right coalition members, adding that “if there’s no movement from Hamas, what can you ask Israel to do unilaterally?”

“So Netanyahu’s strategies present as intransigent in the face of intransigence on the other side,” Latimer continued. “You need some joint breakthrough where both sides step back from the path that they’re on, and both sides have to be willing to do that, if you can expect the other side to also then do that.”

He noted the difficulty of forcing a dug-in enemy like Hamas to surrender, comparing it to the challenge of forcing a Japanese surrender during WWII.

Latimer unseated Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a vocal Israel critic, in the 2024 Democratic primary, boosted by significant support from his district’s Jewish community as well as national pro-Israel groups.

Latimer told JI he thinks Israel has not done enough to try to win over or influence global opinion in its favor. Latimer said he believes that the Israeli government views such efforts as a lost cause and not worth attempting.

“There’s a case to be made [for Israel]. But in lieu of that, the rhetoric is all what Israel is doing and not doing, and how evil they are, when, in fact, all of this came from an attack that was horrific on Oct. 7,” Latimer said.

He said that there have been “atrocities” on the Israeli side, pointing broadly to settler violence in the West Bank, but said that “the question is, overall, are you weighing all of these things together, or as the world opinion, and much of the United States opinion, particularly among younger people, has been framed completely around ‘Israel bad,’” ignoring the “evil that’s been done on behalf of the other side of this. That is a contributing reason why we’re in the situation we’re in.”

“The fact that people are starving is horrific. But as long as the world blames Israel for it solely, Hamas is winning. Why would they change any strategies?” Latimer said. “The leaders of Hamas are not sitting in the tunnels. … They’re sitting in the safety of the protection of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan or over in Qatar. Therefore, they’re not under the pressure.”

Latimer said that the food supply in Gaza was a key issue he examined on the trip, calling starvation in Gaza a “legitimate” problem. 

He said that the current four Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites are “nowhere near enough,” given the “massive number of people that need to be fed and housed.”

But he added that Hamas being “unwilling to cooperate” in the safe delivery of aid is an impediment to efforts to improve the humanitarian situation and that the United Nations “in the eyes of the Israelis, has lost credibility.” 

He said that the best path forward would likely be for a coalition of Arab countries to take the lead of a humanitarian aid distribution entity: “We need to have a third party that has credibility.”

“Israel is not doing enough to solve the problem, and Hamas is doing things to prohibit the problem from being solved,” Latimer said, calling on Israel to work to increase the number of food distribution centers and strengthen supply lines and on Hamas to stop attempting to intercept food and sow chaos at distribution sites.

“The fact that people are starving is horrific. But as long as the world blames Israel for it solely, Hamas is winning. Why would they change any strategies?” he said. “The leaders of Hamas are not sitting in the tunnels. … They’re sitting in the safety of the protection of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan or over in Qatar. Therefore, they’re not under the pressure.”

“What I saw in September 2005 gave me hope. What I see when I go back 20 years later is, you shake your head and you go, ‘Why did it turn out this way?’” Latimer said. “Did it turn out this way because Israel wanted it to turn out this way? Israel didn’t want Oct. 7. Israel didn’t want all of its young men in the reserves and active duty, constantly on a wartime footing.”

He declined to weigh in definitively — citing the limited information at his disposal and his limited power as a lone congressman — on whether the U.S. needs to increase pressure on its allies in Turkey or Qatar to expel or detain those Hamas leaders, but said that “clearly there has been insufficient pressure on Hamas” because its leaders have shown no urgency to return the hostages, negotiate in good faith or participate in un-corrupted food distribution.

Latimer said he first traveled to Israel two decades ago, just after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and that there was hope at the time that the Israeli withdrawal would “allow the opportunity for Gaza to experience peace and some kind of growth.”

“What I saw in September 2005 gave me hope. What I see when I go back 20 years later is, you shake your head and you go, ‘Why did it turn out this way?’” Latimer said. “Did it turn out this way because Israel wanted it to turn out this way? Israel didn’t want Oct. 7. Israel didn’t want all of its young men in the reserves and active duty, constantly on a wartime footing.”

He said that if Gaza’s leaders had pursued growth and development over the past 20 years, “we could be in a very different place today,” but instead Hamas seized power and used Gaza as a platform to attack Israel.

Asked about recent decisions by European countries to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, which came around the time of Latimer’s trip, the congressman said that he supports a two-state solution, but one that “comes out of a negotiated process,” noting the many outstanding issues to be worked through.

“You cannot expect Israel to survive with a hostile entity interspersed with its borders, and yet be its own country. And there has to be a sense that this country can function and provide its services to its people and maintain civil control. None of those things are automatically in place yet, so I don’t know what we’re recognizing in substance,” Latimer said. 

“I think what we’re recognizing in symbolism is European countries that basically are saying, ‘We need to have a two state solution,’ and probably their population is reacting to what’s happening in the moment and putting pressure on their governments to do this,” he continued.

“The Palestinian Authority certainly has a steep mountain to climb, but right now, they’re the best hope that you have of a presence — and certainly it’s not Hamas, it’s certainly not coming out of any of the groups that Iran is backing or has backed,” Latimer said.

Based on the delegation’s meeting with Palestinian Authority leaders, Latimer said that he believes there is an “intent” and “willingness” in the PA to pursue needed reform and bolster credibility with the Palestinian population.

“How much success they’re going to have with the civilian population to accomplish those things — it’s going to be a tall task,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that some Arab governments such as those in Jordan and Egypt maintain cooperative relationships with Israel even as many of their citizens remain hostile.

“The Palestinian Authority certainly has a steep mountain to climb, but right now, they’re the best hope that you have of a presence — and certainly it’s not Hamas, it’s certainly not coming out of any of the groups that Iran is backing or has backed,” he continued.

In the long term, Latimer added, the Abraham Accords represent a path forward for the region, and said that moderate Sunni Arab states want to see a viable and demilitarized Palestinian Authority government that can credibly govern the Palestinian people.