ADL announces ‘Mamdani monitor’ to track incoming NYC administration

The Anti-Defamation League announces a program to “track and monitor policies and personnel appointments” in New York City’s incoming Zohran Mamdani administration.

The effort aims to protect Jewish New Yorkers, the ADL says in a statement. Jews are disproportionately targeted in hate crimes in the city.

“Mayor-Elect Mamdani has promoted antisemitic narratives, associated with individuals who have a history of antisemitism, and demonstrated intense animosity toward the Jewish state that is counter to the views of the overwhelming majority of Jewish New Yorkers,” ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt says in a statement.

“We are deeply concerned that those individuals and principles will influence his administration at a time when we are tracking a brazen surge of harassment, vandalism and violence targeting Jewish residents and institutions,” Greenblatt says.

The platform includes an antisemitism tip line for New Yorkers to report discrimination; research into policies, appointments and funding at City Hall that relate to Jews; and a “Mamdani monitor” that will track the administration.

Mamdani is asked about the initiative at his first press conference after winning the election.

“I have not spoken to Jonathan Greenblatt. I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously, and last night in my speech, I spoke about how my City Hall will stand steadfast with Jewish New Yorkers in fighting the scourge of antisemitism across the city and making that clear in the actions we deliver on,” he says.

“I look forward to working with Jewish leaders across this city, whether they be elected officials, whether they be rabbis, whether they be community leaders, to deliver on the promise of not just protecting Jewish New Yorkers but celebrating and cherishing them,” he says.

“I think anyone is free to catalog the actions of our administration. I have some doubts in Jonathan’s ability to do so honestly, given that he previously said I had not visited any synagogues, only to have to correct himself,” he says.

Greenblatt said in an interview in August, after Mamdani won the city’s primary, that Mamdani had not visited any synagogues, although Mamdani had been to the far-left congregation Kolot Chayeinu and attended a mayoral debate at B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan during the primary.

Greenblatt later said that Mamdani had not visited “a single mainstream synagogue or Jewish community since the primary.”