WASHINGTON (TNND) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing flak for revoking three executive orders signed by former Mayor Eric Adams that codified protections for Jewish New Yorkers against antisemitism and curtailed anti-Israel sentiment in city leadership.
Mamdani signed an order revoking these three executive orders among many others signed by Adams after September 26, 2024 — the day Adams was indicted on federal charges which were later dropped — because he wanted to operate the city on a clean slate.
“That was a date that marked a moment when many New Yorkers decided politics held nothing for them,” Adams said on Thursday to reporters.
Mamdani revoked an executive order signed by Adams last month which prevented city officials from boycotting or divesting from Israel. Mamdani also nullified an executive order which adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which consists of 11 examples of antisemitism in action, seven of which include criticisms of Israel.
The Israel Foreign Ministry took to social media to express its disdain with Mamdani.
“On his very first day as New York City Mayor Mamdani shows his true face: He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a post.
“This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.”
However, not all Jewish organizations share the Israeli’s disdain for Mamdani’s decision to roll back Adams’ executive orders.
“There is not consensus necessarily around whether the I.H.R.A. definition of antisemitism should be codified in this way,” Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of the New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive group, told the New York Times. “Not everyone thinks you need to codify I.H.R.A to keep the Jewish people safe, in the same way we don’t necessarily have codified definitions of other forms of hate.”
Mamdani also revoked Executive Order 61, which mandated that the New York Police Department strengthen its protection around synagogues in the wake of growing harassment and threats from protesters. The order included a directive ensuring the establishment of safe zones which prohibits protests from occurring within a certain distance of sites of religious worship.
However, Mamdani ensured that his administration remained focused on protecting Jewish New Yorkers by pointing to “the continued incorporation of the Office to Combat Antisemitism.”
“That is an issue that we take very seriously and as part of the commitment that we’ve made to Jewish New Yorkers: to not only protect them, but to celebrate and cherish them,” Mamdani told reporters.