New York Mayor Zahran Mamdani announced a new strategy to combat the rise of anti-Semitism in the city, describing it as the first of its kind in the United States. The plan includes allocating $7.4 million to implement awareness campaigns, support Jewish cultural institutions, and enhance security measures in places of worship.
According to the details revealed by Mamdani, the initiative will allocate millions of dollars to build a Holocaust memorial in Queens, in addition to a Jewish center in Brooklyn, as well as highlighting the contributions of the Jewish community in New York through public digital kiosks. The city also allocated $1 million to support small religious institutions in improving their security infrastructure by installing locks, shatter-resistant glass, and metal detectors.
For its part, the Wall Street Journal explained that this strategy – which is supervised by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Anti-Semitism and led by Executive Director Felisa Wisdom – was the result of extensive dialogues conducted with members of the Jewish community in New York from various political orientations.
The launch of this strategy comes in light of a significant increase in hate crimes against Jews since the attacks of October 7, 2023 in Israel, according to federal reports. New York Police data showed that 229 hate crimes against Jews were recorded in the period between January 1 and August, an increase of 8% compared to the same period in 2025. The police indicated that these crimes represented more than half of the total confirmed hate crimes in the city, even though the Jewish population constitutes only 10% of the total population of New York.
This step comes at a time when Mamdani’s political positions are witnessing widespread controversy, especially in Jewish circles, as a result of his sharp criticism of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Mamdani had boycotted the Israel Day parade last May to express his support for the Palestinians, in a move that contradicted the approach of previous mayors. Last week, he also called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the United Nations, based on the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes.
