NYC mayor: ‘Antisemitism spreads like a cancer across our city’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams delivers a speech condemning antisemitism, stating that anti-Jewish discrimination “spreads like a cancer across our city.”

Adams, a staunch supporter of Israel with deep ties to the city’s Jewish communities, says he has “deep concerns over what is playing out across our city and our country, particularly when it comes to antisemitism.”

He highlights an art exhibit on Governor’s Island this week that included images that said “Hamas lover,” “Fuck Israel,” showed a Star of David on a Ku Klux Klan hood, and showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a Hitler mustache alongside the words, “Zionism, Nazism, Fascism.”

“This right here is beyond the pale. As questions about where that art came from started to pour in, a shocking number of people were afraid to call this out for what it is, but I am not one of those people. This was a vile, antisemitic exhibit,” he says, adding that the exhibit was unsanctioned and swiftly removed.

“It is a stark reminder of what happens when ignorance and bigotry combine. This incident disturbs me and it should disturb anyone with a conscience,” Adams says. “Activism is not an excuse for antisemitism or hate.”

“Antisemitism is a virus that mutates. It comes back in different forms and finds new ways to hide in plain sight,” he says. “Disagreeing with the policies of Israel’s government does not make someone antisemitic, but to openly praise Hamas at an exhibit in a government facility sends a message of institutionalizing hatred.”

“History shows us how hatred begins on the fringes. It starts small, with a few artists trying to make a statement,” he says. “Before we know it, hate moves to the mainstream, and once it is in the mainstream, it becomes much harder to mobilize against.”

Adams takes a shot at Zohran Mamdani, a far-left anti-Israel activist and the frontrunner to become the next mayor. Mamdani earlier this year defended the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” then later, after coming under massive pressure, said he would “discourage the slogan.”

“We will never surrender our city to hate or to those who want to say they want to globalize the intifada or to choose and believe and not refuse to condemn it, because it is literally a phrase that means, ‘Death to Jews all over the world.”

He says that Jews are targeted in 57% of all hate crimes in the city.

“If this were a stat for any group, we would respond accordingly,” Adams says.

“We must bring down the temperature. Too many across this country are ready to go to war with one another, to start at a place of disagreement, to believe in only the worst of one another. I know we can change that. I know that we can move forward with love and acceptance,” he says.