On July 27, 2026, the Jewish Lawyers Guild (“JLG”), which serves as a prominent voice for New York’s Jewish legal community, wrote a letter to Mayor Mamdani expressing its deep disappointment that not a single Jewish attorney, former judge, or legal professional, was appointed to the 18-person Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary, a committee that the mayor’s administration touted as being “truly reflective of New York City.”

JLG’s letter states that “excluding Jewish representation from the committee is neither reflective nor inclusive” and “follows a troubling pattern that has left many Jewish New Yorkers feeling increasingly marginalized, especially following [the Mayor’s] rejection of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) definition of antisemitism and the omission of Jewish neighborhoods from a map highlighting immigrant enclaves.” JLG cautioned that “at a time when antisemitism is reaching historic levels in our city, leadership matters. Last week’s attack on a visibly Jewish man on the Upper West Side is yet another painful reminder that antisemitic violence is real and growing.” Against this backdrop, the Mayor’s exclusion of Jewish professionals from involvement in decisions and processes that will shape the future of New York’s judiciary is worrisome.

Last week, Mr. Mamdani raised further concerns among New York’s Jewish community when he posted a video denouncing Israel’s conduct in Gaza and explaining that had planned to honor a campaign vow to arrest Israel’s prime minister during his planned visit to New York in September to address the United Nations General Assembly until he was advised by counsel that it would be illegal for him to do so. As the JLG noted and as the New York Times reported, two days after the Mr. Mamdami posted his inflammatory video, a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was brutally stabbed by an assailant yelling “Allahu akbar,” during the attack, according to police.

Many in the New York Jewish community have expressed concern that the Mayor has explicitly refused to support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. He is on record urging that Israel only has the “right to exist with equal rights for all”, ignoring the reality that Jewish settlers in the former Palestine were subjected to widespread persecution long before the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 and that Israel’s Arab neighbors have never espoused equal rights for Jews let alone their right to exist at all.

Mamdami’s virulently anti-Israel rhetoric, combined with his calls for boycotts against Israel and accusations of “genocide”, and his frustration over not being able to arrest Israel’s prime minister during his upcoming trip visit to the United Nations clearly resonates with his base on the far left. There is growing concern that his rhetoric may provide disaffected Jew haters a sense of license and an opening to engage in acts of vigilante retribution against Jews. Mr. Mamdani maintains that his positions stem from a universal commitment to human rights and international law, while explicitly separating critique of Israel from support for violent acts or terrorist entities. Yet his some of the Mayor’s avid followers may not appreciate such fine distinctions.