Beneath Comptroller Brad Lander’s administration, New York Metropolis’s public pension funds have seen windfalls from investments in an Israeli arms producer — a boon that would turn out to be a clumsy strain level for Lander as he mounts a 2026 main problem in opposition to Congressman Dan Goldman.
“Members of Congress set U.S. foreign policy so they have a real role to play here. It’s American taxpayer dollars that are paying for the 2,000-pound bombs that Netayahu is dropping on civilians in Gaza.”
A self-described “liberal Zionist,” Lander was at one level in his profession extra supportive of Israel. A decade in the past, he and different native politicians visited the nation at the same time as he confronted protests for doing so from teams angered by Israel’s remedy of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Financial institution.
Now, Lander is honing his anti-war assault line in opposition to Goldman as he has already secured an endorsement for his marketing campaign from incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose November election was boosted by a large win in Goldman’s Decrease Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn-based tenth Congressional District.
A longtime critic of Israel’s remedy of Palestinians, Mamdani has mentioned he believes Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Lander is amongst a variety of allies who might capitalize politically on embracing the same stance, however the Elbit investments might complicate that.
The pension funds’ holdings in Elbit exceed $1.5 million, the brand new data present. That’s a part of roughly $300 million Lander’s workplace has beforehand mentioned the funds maintain in complete in numerous Israeli firms.
The data present town’s second largest fund, the Lecturers’ Retirement System, which covers pension funds for public educators, management the most important chunk of town’s Elbit inventory, holding over $1 million in firm shares as of this previous June 30, the newest date for which detailed information is obtainable.
That marks a 268% enhance over the simply shy of $280,000 the TRS fund held in Elbit a 12 months earlier on June 30, 2024, disclosures present. About half of the rise between 2024 and 2025 might be attributed to the worth of Elbit’s inventory surging, however the remaining chunk of the TRS’ Elbit progress in that interval got here from purchases of recent shares, per the data.
The comptroller is the custodian of town’s 5 pension funds and, with recommendation from their boards, executes investments. As of June 30, 2021, the final disclosure earlier than Lander grew to become comptroller in January 2022, town’s pension funds held lower than $250,000 in Elbit inventory complete.
The IDF has been accused of utilizing Elbit weapons in strikes which have killed Palestinian civilians in the course of the warfare in Gaza launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror assault. A number of European governments have divested from the arms producer in protest of its supplying of the IDF.
Dan Goldman
Shawn Inglima/for New York Day by day Information
Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) speaks at a press convention concerning the inhumane situations at Metropolitan Detention Heart on twenty ninth St. in Brooklyn in August 2022. (Shawn Inglima for New York Day by day Information)
“You don’t bring your politics to the job of investing the pensioners’ money, and I have not,” he mentioned.
He additionally argued he hasn’t personally reviewed each single pension funding transfer: “The comptroller doesn’t pick every individual company, the comptroller hires investment managers and dozens of them to invest money consistent with a broad set of investment policy guidelines.”
Nonetheless, the Elbit holdings spotlight a problem Lander has struggled to discover a clear lane on.
Throughout his unsuccesful mayoral marketing campaign, Lander advised a progressive group in early 2025 the pension funds weren’t invested in “any” Israeli authorities bonds after being requested how he might as comptroller put strain on Israel to finish the warfare in Gaza.
The funds on the time really held greater than $1 million in Israel bonds. Nonetheless, following Lander’s declare, the group, New York Progressive Motion Community, endorsed Lander’s mayoral run.
Talking across the similar time to Zev Brenner, an Orthodox Jewish radio host, Lander struck a unique be aware as he affirmed he stays against the Boycott, Divest and Sanction motion that requires pulling cash out of Israel over its authorities’s remedy of Palestinians. In that look, he particularly touted the Elbit investments.
“The New York City pension funds are proudly invested in many Israeli-owned companies, tech companies like Nice Ltd, Elbit Systems, Mobileye, Teva Pharmaceutical … and no, of course, we’re not going to divest from them,” he mentioned.
Zohran Mamdani speaks alongside New York Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander at his victory social gathering early Wednesday, June 25, 2025 in Queens, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
In 2015, whereas serving as a Metropolis Council member, Lander went to Israel with different lawmakers for an all expenses-paid journey. On the time, Jewish Voice for Peace, a neighborhood group that backed Mamdani for mayor this 12 months, referred to as on Lander and the opposite Council members to cancel the go to, writing in a petition on the time: “Do not neglect your official responsibilities to our diverse city by touring an apartheid state.”
At different instances, Lander has mentioned he’s not doing sufficient to push again on Israel.
“I know I have not done enough to speak out against Israel’s war crimes, against ethnic cleansing, against forced starvation of Palestinians,” Lander mentioned this September whereas showing alongside Mamdani at a Jews for Racial and Financial Justice occasion.
A Goldman rep declined to touch upon the Israeli pension fund investments beneath Lander.
A spokeswoman for Mamdani, who endorsed Lander’s congressional run along side his marketing campaign launch, didn’t return a request for remark.
