Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism released the city’s Strategy to Combat Antisemitism on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, committing new city money to security at synagogues, hate-crime prevention, Holocaust education and Jewish cultural institutions. Antisemitic hate crimes account for more than half of all hate crimes in the city, although Jewish New Yorkers make up approximately 12 percent of its population, the administration says.
The strategy directs $6.4 million in Partners Against the Hate grants to community organizations such as the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York that work on hate-crime prevention and survivor support, doubling last year’s funding, and $1 million to strengthen the physical security of synagogues and other houses of worship. The security money can pay for cameras, lighting, stronger locks, risk assessments and training, and the administration said it is aimed in part at smaller institutions that may not qualify for larger federal grants.
Both sums are drawn from a $26 million increase Mamdani announced earlier this year for the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. The administration will also relaunch the once-disbanded interagency Security Infrastructure Working Group, which brings together the New York Police Department, the Department of Transportation and other agencies to help Jewish houses of worship and cultural institutions plan security upgrades. The plan commits $2 million to complete the Queens Holocaust memorial and $2.5 million to the Center for New Jewish Culture in Central Brooklyn, expands opportunities for public school students to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and launches a City Human Rights Law awareness campaign on LinkNYC kiosks and other public spaces across the five boroughs explaining how to report discrimination to the City Commission on Human Rights.
The strategy is organized around seven objectives: preventing hate violence, combating antisemitism in all its forms, educating New Yorkers, supporting survivors, protecting and celebrating Jewish life, listening to Jewish New Yorkers and celebrating Jewish culture and tradition.
“Antisemitism has no place in New York City. Jewish New Yorkers have helped build this city, shaped its culture and strengthened our communities for generations, and they deserve to be safe, celebrated and protected by a city government that stands with them,” Mamdani said in the announcement. “Together, we will root out the scourge of rising antisemitism and build a city where Jewish New Yorkers are not only safe but celebrated.”
Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, said the plan grew out of a five-borough listening tour with Jewish New Yorkers across religious and political lines. “Antisemitism is a complex and persistent form of hate, and it cannot be addressed through a single program or agency,” said Wisdom, who is Jewish. “This Strategy brings the full power of City government to the work of preventing hate, supporting survivors, protecting Jewish institutions, educating New Yorkers and celebrating Jewish life.”
The strategy does not adopt a formal definition of antisemitism. The administration writes that the city “can and will leverage all of the tools at its disposal to combat antisemitism effectively without needing to adopt a definition for this specific form of hate,” and points instead to existing hate-crime and anti-discrimination laws and several competing frameworks, including the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Document. Mamdani rescinded his predecessor’s executive order adopting the IHRA definition on his first day in office in January.
That decision became the plan’s most contested element. The Anti-Defamation League’s New York and New Jersey office said on X that “this mayor does not treat the hate facing Jewish New Yorkers as an emergency and refuses to acknowledge the different shapes it takes.” The UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the American Jewish Committee New York and the New York Board of Rabbis said in a joint statement that the plan “fails to address a central issue that the Mayor himself has perpetuated: rhetoric that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel inevitably leads to the targeting of Jewish New Yorkers.” Council Member Eric Dinowitz, co-chair of the Council’s Jewish Caucus, welcomed parts of the plan but said it “misses an opportunity to confront the reality of the intersection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”
Several progressive Jewish organizations backed the approach. Jamie Beran, chief executive of Bend the Arc, which took part in the listening tour, commended the mayor “for choosing not to enshrine a single definition of antisemitism, which is both unnecessary and often a distraction from substantive policies.” Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, T’ruah, the New York Jewish Agenda, J Street’s New York chapter and the Nexus Project also issued supportive statements.
The administration had promised the plan by Rosh Hashanah and missed that deadline; a City Hall spokesperson had said only that it would come “soon,” Jewish Insider reported. The release follows months of strained relations between Mamdani and parts of the Jewish community over his positions on Israel. He has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, and former Mayor Eric Adams released his own antisemitism “blueprint” on his last day in office.
In the first seven months of 2026, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 8.5 percent and made up 56.9 percent of confirmed hate crimes citywide, according to the NYPD.
The full strategy is posted on the Mayor’s Office website, and New Yorkers can report suspected discrimination to the City Commission on Human Rights.
Featured image: Kara McCurdy / Mayoral Photography Office
