Catherine Almonte Da Costa had been announced as the incoming mayor’s director of appointments. The statements were from 2011 and 2012.

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What’s next for NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani?

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani pulled off a win, but what challenges could he face once in office?

A top appointee to New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s incoming administration on Dec. 18 resigned over resurfaced antisemitic social media posts.

A day earlier, Catherine Almonte Da Costa had been announced as the incoming mayor’s director of appointments, which leads the administration’s hiring for city leadership. She previously had roles in city government and the private sector, including Sotheby’s, according to the Mamdani transition team’s Dec. 17 news release.

On Dec. 18, the Anti-Defamation League posted a series of Da Costa’s old X, formerly known as Twitter, posts between 2011 and 2012 when she made anti-Jewish tropes.

Mamdani, who takes office Jan. 1, is set to become New York’s first Muslim mayor, and he’s faced criticism from many Jewish groups over his stances toward Israel and Palestine. Exit polls showed most Jewish voters didn’t support Mamdani. New York is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.

In 2011, when she was around 19 years old, Da Costa posted “Money hungry Jews smh,” as well as “Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps.” A 2012 post called a train line “the Jew train.”

Dora Pekec, a Mamdani spokesperson, confirmed Da Costa handed in her resignation.

“I spoke with the Mayor-elect this afternoon, apologized, and expressed my deep regret for my past statements,” Da Costa said in a statement. “These statements are not indicative of who I am. As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused. As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.”

In a statement, Mamdani said he accepted her resignation. 

“Catherine expressed her deep remorse over her past statements and tendered her resignation, and I accepted,” he said.

The New York and New Jersey chapter of the ADL, an organization founded to fight antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, said Da Costa’s social media footprint from over a decade ago included “classic antisemitic tropes and otherwise demean Jewish people” and called it “indefensible.”

“We appreciate Da Costa has relationships with members of the Jewish community, but her posts require immediate explanation — not just from Ms. Da Costa, but also from the Mayor-Elect,” the ADL chapter said on X.

The ADL has been critical of Mamdani. A day after Mamdani’s Nov. 4 election win, the ADL, which staunchly supports Israel, launched an antisemitism tracker of the incoming Mamdani administration.

Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, an advocacy group, said on social media she was glad to see Da Costa resigned.

“The views she expressed are unacceptable and intolerable,” Soifer said. Especially at a time of rising antisemitism, she had no place in the mayor’s office of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world.”

Da Costa’s husband, Ricky Da Costa, is Jewish. He works as a deputy under Comptroller Brad Lander, the city’s highest ranking Jewish official, who cross-endorsed with Mamdani in the Democratic primary for mayor and enthusiastically backed him in the general election.

In an X post, Ricky Da Costa said, “as the Jew who married Cat, I can guarantee she has grown so much since some dumb tweets when she was 19. Her remorse, like everything else about her, is deeply genuine & she works so hard for a NYC where everyone is safe.”

Mamdani has tried to reach out to Jewish communities after his election. 

A day after the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach shooting in Australia that killed 15 people at a Chabad-Lubavitch Hanukkah event, Mamdani visited the gravesite of the religious movement’s founder in Brooklyn. Mamdani called the Bondi Beach attack “a vile act of antisemitic horror.”

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.