New York Jewish groups boycott Mamdani’s Jewish Heritage Month event

Jewish leaders in New York City say they are not attending Mayor Mamdani’s event marking Jewish American Heritage Month tonight.

Mamdani’s office describes the event as a “Pre-Shavuot Celebration in Honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.”

The UJA-Federation of New York and the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York — the two leading Jewish groups in the city — say they are not attending the event.

“We will not be attending the Jewish American Heritage Month celebration at Gracie Mansion being hosted by a mayor who denies a core pillar of our heritage — the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” the federation tells The New York Post.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis, a prominent Jewish leader in the city, also says he’s not going.

Rabbi David Niederman, a prominent figure in the Satmar Hasidic community, tells The Post he will attend.

The Satmars are theologically non-Zionist, but are not aligned with Mamdani’s political anti-Zionism, and have a warmer relationship to Mamdani’s City Hall than mainstream Jewish groups in the city.

Mamdani’s event comes after his office released a Nakba Day video on Friday that stoked outrage among mainstream Jewish groups due to its one-sided narrative about Israel’s War of Independence and its implication that Israel’s existence is an ongoing “catastrophe.”

Mamdani, who has refused to recognize Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, did not recognize Israel’s Independence Day last month and will not be marching in the Jewish community’s annual pro-Israel parade, called Israel Day on Fifth, later this month.

Mamdani has consistently said he seeks to protect and “cherish” Jewish New Yorkers.