By Rikki Zagelbaum, JNS
The meeting “focused on strategies to strengthen Jewish safety and belonging, maintain candid lines of communication and collaborate on issues where we have shared values and goals,” Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor's office to Combat Antisemitism, told JNS.
The roundtable discussion that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani held with rabbis on Monday was “an open, positive and constructive conversation,” Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, told JNS.
“Mayor Mamdani met for an hour with a group of New York City rabbis from several denominations, including Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Modern Orthodox, as well as unaffiliated groups,” Wisdom said.
The meeting was organized by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, according to Wisdom.
It “focused on strategies to strengthen Jewish safety and belonging, maintain candid lines of communication and collaborate on issues where we have shared values and goals,” she told JNS.
“Mayor Mamdani has and will continue to engage with Jewish life in New York City in order to meet the needs of our communities and reaffirm his commitment to the thriving of Jewish communities across the five boroughs,” Wisdom added.
Neither the New York Board of Rabbis—which represents more than 750 rabbis across religious denominations in the New York area—nor the Rabbinical Council of America was invited to the roundtable, the groups told JNS. JNS asked the mayor's office for a list of attendees.
A source told JNS that rabbis who attended were: Union for Reform Judaism president Rick Jacobs, Rabbinical Assembly COO Ashira Konigsburg (Conservative), Steven Exler of Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (open Orthodox), Jon Leener of Prospect Heights Shul (Modern Orthodox), Felicia Sol of B’nai Jeshurun (non-denominational), Rachel Timoner of Beth Elohim (Reform), Michelle Dardashti of Kane Street Synagogue (Conservative), Ellen Lippmann of Kolot Chayeinu (non-denominational), Josh Rabin of Astoria Center of Israel (Conservative) and New York Jewish Agenda executive director Margo Hughes-Robinson.
Timoner told The New York Times that those present at the meeting urged the mayor to stop criticizing Israel and focus more on issues local to New York City. Another rabbi told the newspaper that “there was a uniform sense that something about Mr. Mamdani’s relationship with the Jewish community had to change.”
Jacobs told the Times that he urged Mamdani to soften his tone when speaking about the Jewish state.
“I’m happy to work in partnership with your administration, but Mr. Mayor, you are 90% of what could be different here,” Jacobs recalled telling him during the meeting. “If instead of vilifying Israel, you spoke constructively, in measured tones—that would move the needle more than anything else, and I’m hopeful you’ll use that power.”
