Mayor Adams Tuesday introduced a brand new metropolis Workplace to Fight Antisemitism amid a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes and an rising deal with the difficulty on this yr’s mayoral race.
The mayor mentioned NYPD stats present that greater than half of hate crimes are antisemitic regardless of Jewish New Yorkers making up about 10% of town’s inhabitants. He known as it an “imbalance” that have to be knocked down.
Adams known as the brand new workplace, “a symbolic gesture, but most importantly, a substantive gesture” at a Tuesday press convention. The brand new workplace comes regardless of the existence of an identical workplace in his administration that was shaped in 2019, additionally in response to an increase in antisemitic hate crime incidents.
The brand new workplace, which is made up of 1 individual, comes amid a hotly contested mayoral election during which antisemitism — and the continuing battle in Gaza— have come into sharp focus.
In November, Adams, who’s operating as an impartial, might face off in opposition to Andrew Cuomo, the frontrunner within the Democratic main and certain a progressive candidate operating on the Working Households Occasion line. Each Adams and Cuomo are very pro-Israel, and are vying for Orthodox and conservative Jewish voters, essential voting blocks for the candidates.
Mayor Eric Adams establishes the Mayor’s Workplace to Fight Antisemitism, a mayoral workplace devoted to preventing antisemitism in all varieties and protecting New Yorkers secure. Metropolis Corridor. Tuesday, Might 13, 2025. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Workplace)
Moshe Davis, who’s been the administration’s Jewish liaison since 2022, will function the chief director beneath First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro.
The workplace will work to determine a job power centered on antisemitism comprised of OPHC, the police division, town’s Fee on Human Rights and others, in keeping with an government order establishing the workplace. It’ll additionally monitor courtroom circumstances and advise on government orders and laws, the mayor mentioned.
”This workplace will likely be a sledgehammer, deliberate, coordinated and unapologetic,” Davis mentioned at its announcement.
Adams instructed the workplace will goal faculty campus protests, organizations that obtain taxpayers {dollars}, an obvious reference to a called-off Summerstage live performance by Kehlani, a pro-Palestine singer, and metropolis messaging together with a Division of Training pamphlet that known as Israel’s actions in Palestine a “genocide.”
Adams is petitioning on an “EndAntiSemitism” poll line, along with a “Safe&Affordable” line, for the November election.
The transfer additionally comes after President Trump shaped an “Anti-Semitism” job power that has focused and minimize funding from universities.
Brad Lander, town’s comptroller operating for mayor, accused the mayor of utilizing Jewish New Yorkers as “pawns” in an announcement.
“Creating a taxpayer-funded office in the waning days of his mayoralty to rhyme with his made-up personal ballot line is cynical and transparent, even for this mayor,” he mentioned.
