NYC comptroller says city’s relationship with Israel ‘deeply important’ after ditching Israel bonds

By Luke Tress

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Today, 8:09 pm

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Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine speaks during the annual New York State Financial Control Board meeting, August 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, who is Jewish, says that the economic relationship between the city and Israel is “deeply important,” a day after announcing that the city will not reinvest in Israel bonds.

Levine says New York City invests more than $285 million in Israel, mostly in equities. The city’s pension funds have a value of more than $300 billion.

“Israel remains one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative economies, and those holdings remain an important part of our portfolio. They also make clear that New York City’s pension funds are not engaging in BDS,” Levine says in a statement, referring to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Levine is a moderate Democrat who is closely connected to the Jewish community. He a supporter of Israel and a critic of the Netanyahu government.

He had pledged to reinvest in Israel bonds during last year’s campaign. He said yesterday that the decision against reinvesting, a longstanding issue in the city, was motivated by financial concerns, not politics.

Anti-Israel groups have long called on the city to divest from Israel Bonds.

He adds that the city is unable to purchase the bonds partly due to a rules change regarding short-term investments made by the previous comptroller, Brad Lander.

Lander, also Jewish, is a leftist critic of Israel who identifies as a “liberal Zionist” but is a close ally of the city’s anti-Israel mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Lander left the city’s $40 million in Israel bonds to mature, without reinvesting, in 2023.

Levine says the city continues to evaluate investing in Israel bonds.

“Anyone suggesting that this means I am giving up on Israel is trying to turn the ordinary rebalancing and management of a pension portfolio into a political issue,” Levine says. “That is simply not the case. Our commitment to investing in Israel remains clear in the hundreds of millions of dollars in Israeli equities that our pension funds continue to hold.”

“Like many Jewish New Yorkers, my deep personal connection to Israel is a part of who I am. It will not change. As New York City comptroller, I also have a solemn duty to safeguard our city’s pension funds, and I will not shirk that responsibility,” he says.