New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended a Brooklyn Sukkot celebration hosted by Devorah Halberstam, a Chabad community activist who chairs the Board of Commissioners at the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism, during which he told Israel Hayom he would fight all forms of antisemitism but dismissed the idea of defining it.
The visit came just hours after Mamdani had unveiled a citywide strategy to fight antisemitism. The plan pours money into security, education and hate-crime prevention. Yet it stops short of adopting a formal definition of antisemitism, and it does not name anti-Zionism as one of that hatred's forms. That puts it at odds with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition that has been adopted by dozens of countries, which does treat certain anti-Zionist statements, among them denying the Jewish people's right to self-determination, as antisemitic.
Video: Mamdani at the event / Or Shaked
Israel Hayom pressed Mamdani on this during the event. "Mayor Mamdani, will your strategy include all forms of antisemitism?" this reporter asked. "We will combat all forms of antisemitism," he replied. Pressed further on why the plan offers no specific definition, he said the strategy didn't need a "specific definition." The Israel Hayom reporter was then referred to Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism, and to Deputy Press Secretary Sam Raskin, but they have yet to comment.
Halberstam's event drew a formidable crowd. New York Governor Kathy Hochul came. So did NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, several other senior police officials and City Council Speaker Julie Menin. Outside, protesters from the neighborhood and beyond gathered against Mamdani. Some cursed him as he arrived.
Mamdani had billed the strategy, published Tuesday morning, as the first comprehensive citywide plan of its kind in the country. It doubles hate-prevention grants to community organizations, to $6.4 million, and adds $1 million to secure synagogues and other houses of worship. It expands education on the Holocaust and Jewish history, and funds assistance for victims. City Hall also announced it would revive an inter-agency team dedicated to securing Jewish institutions, alongside new investments in a Holocaust memorial in Queens and a Jewish culture center in Brooklyn.
None of this is new territory. When Mamdani took office, he rescinded an order signed by his predecessor, Eric Adams, that had adopted the IHRA definition. His new plan still leaves unanswered when anti-Zionist activity crosses into hatred of Jews. It arrives amid an 8.5% rise in anti-Jewish incidents over the first seven months of 2026. In 2025, Jews were the target of 57% of the hate crimes reported citywide.
Video: Governor Hochul at the Sukkot event / Credit: Or Shaked
Hochul used her remarks to promise protection for the Jewish community. "As the governor of New York, I know this is a community that feels you're under siege," she said. "The rise in antisemitism is so heartbreaking to me as someone who is so proud to represent the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, so when we gather in places like that, there's an underlying anxiety that should never exist," she continued.
She ran through what the state has done, including $200 million to protect synagogues, yeshivas and community centers, along with legislation shielding worshippers from harassment and intimidation near houses of worship. "They have a right to be able to go in without harassment and intimidation," she said. "And I will tell you it was a big battle," she continued, "a lot of people opposed our efforts, but I would not allow that budget to be completed until we got that done and we got it accomplished."
"The struggle is very difficult"
"We're going to continue our fight to call out all the hate and the discrimination and the antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head," Hochul vowed, adding, "I'll fight like hell to protect you, because I'm a mom, and I'm a grandma, and we understand the power of that." She invoked Halberstam's son, Ari – murdered at 16 in the 1994 antisemitic shooting attack on the Brooklyn Bridge – and praised the activism his mother built in New York in the wake of that tragedy.
Halberstam took the microphone next. "The Jewish community is a strong community. We are not going anywhere," she told the crowd, before promising to keep pushing the legislation forward. "We will be there to help you strengthen these laws. I know not everything depends on you, and that's why I know the struggle is very difficult." She closed with a message aimed squarely at the ballot box, ahead of the November gubernatorial election in which Hochul faces Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman. "Thank you for everything you have done so far, and we look forward to you continuing to do so for the next four years, my dear friend."
