New York City
NYC's Antisemitism Strategy Covers Every Kind Of Antisemitism Except The Current Kind
By BSN Staff, . BSN Network. Satire.
NEW YORK, NY: Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office announced last week the release of what it described as a "first-of-its-kind municipal strategy" to combat antisemitism in New York City, a document praised internally for its comprehensiveness, its sensitivity, and its 14-member advisory committee, which met six times over eight months in a room at City Hall that reportedly had very good sandwiches.
The plan does not mention Israel. It does not mention anti-Zionism. It does not mention the period between October 2023 and the present day, which is, by most measures, the period during which antisemitic incidents in New York City increased by roughly 60 percent.
A joint statement from several of the city's most prominent Jewish organizations described the omission as "significant," which is the diplomatic word people use when they mean "we cannot believe this."
"We commend the mayor's commitment to the issue," the statement read, before spending four paragraphs not commending it.
Mamdani's office defended the strategy at a press conference Tuesday, with a spokesperson explaining that the plan was "intentionally broad" so as to reach "the full diversity of antisemitic experiences," a phrase that was used three times without anyone in the room appearing to notice.
When a reporter asked whether anti-Zionism, which the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance defines as a form of antisemitism, was addressed anywhere in the document, the spokesperson said the city had chosen to "focus on areas of clear consensus," and then looked at her phone.
Rabbi David Sternfeld, of Congregation Beth Shalom in Crown Heights, said his community found the report "genuinely puzzling."
"We had a woman harassed on the subway last March," Sternfeld said. "Someone screamed at her that Israel was committing genocide and that she should be ashamed. That is in the report as, and I looked this up, a 'bias-motivated verbal altercation.' The word Israel does not appear. The word subway does not appear. The word woman does not appear. What does appear is a very nice section on the history of European pogroms, which I appreciate, but we are not currently in 1903 Kishinev."
The 47-page strategy does include a robust appendix on medieval blood libel myths, an entire chapter on the Dreyfus affair, and a half-page acknowledgment of antisemitism in the insurance industry during the 1950s, which no one had asked for.
Mamdani himself appeared on NY1 Wednesday evening and described the plan as "a living document," which is the phrase politicians use when they mean it will be revised after everyone stops being angry.
"This is just the beginning," he said. "We are committed to hearing from every corner of the Jewish community." He then listed three Jewish organizations that had not signed the joint statement, two of which later clarified they had not been consulted either.
City Councilmember Linda Rosenthal called the rollout "a missed opportunity," and said she had raised the Israel question during the drafting process and been told the committee was "still workshopping the framing."
The committee had eight months and chose not to finish the worksheet.
The plan is now in a 30-day public comment period. The comment form asks respondents to identify the type of antisemitism they experienced from a dropdown menu. The dropdown menu does not include "related to Israel or Zionism." It does include "other," which is where the current kind goes.
The story we are making fun of: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/6130352-zohran-mamdani-antisemitism-strategy-criticized/