{"id":52679,"date":"2025-07-10T00:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52679\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T00:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T00:02:08","slug":"eric-adams-mask-ban-hits-a-snag-after-jewish-groups-call-it-overly-broad-in-bungled-rollout-of-new-proposed-nyc-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52679\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Adams’ mask ban hits a snag after Jewish groups call it ‘overly broad’ in bungled rollout of new proposed NYC law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fate of Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 fledgling mask ban is up<\/a> in the air after a bungled rollout that had even potentially supportive Jewish groups calling it \u201coverly broad,\u201d The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Adams and City Hall officials tried to schedule a pair of events to unveil the anti-masking measure \u2014 even switching up the location Wednesday \u2014 only to cancel them amid failed talks with advocates and City Council lawmakers, sources said.<\/p>\n

But despite the snag, the Adams administration insists the ban is still very much in play as they work to make certain modifications. <\/p>\n

NYC Mayor Eric Adams was joined by city official for a heat related presser at the NYCOEM headquarters at 165 Cadman Plaza East on July 8, 2025. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

Many insiders lambasted Adams\u2019 apparent ham-fisted election-year move<\/a> to push a mask ban that goes farther than a watered-down restriction passed by Albany lawmakers in the recent state budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u201ds frustrating that they did it this way because the Jewish community wants a mask ban,\u201d one City Council source said.<\/p>\n

The push to side-step Albany \u2014 spearheaded by First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, a controversial veteran of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani\u2019s administration \u2014 first ran into trouble when he brushed aside concerns raised by a pair of influential Jewish groups that the ban went too far, sources said.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League and United Jewish Appeal \u2014 which have been supportive of banning masks favored by often-antisemitic protesters \u2014 sounded the alarm over the drafted bill\u2019s vagueness and lack of exemptions for religious garb, such as burqas, or medical reasons. <\/p>\n

Pro-Palestine protesters and Jewish students rallied at Columbia University, with some chaining themselves to a gate while demanding the release of Mahmoud Khalil on Wednesday, April 2, 2025 in New York, N.Y. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are just a couple people standing on the street wearing a mask, this applies to them, unlike the Albany bill, which is specific to protest,\u201d one source said.<\/p>\n

Sources said the Jewish groups also raised concerns that the bill included one year of potential jail time for repeat offenders.<\/p>\n

After The Post first reported<\/a> on the potential jail time Tuesday, Adams administration officials reversed course on the penalty, sources said.<\/p>\n

They first dropped it from a year to three months, then scuttled jail time altogether, the sources said.<\/p>\n

NYC Mayor Eric Adams held his weekly presser and media availability inside the Blue Room at City Hall on June 10, 2025. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

The troubles were compounded by Mastro, who had tried to get lawmakers to sign on by falsely touting the backing of the pair of influential Jewish groups<\/a>, infuriating members of a council where the Adams administration has few friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe groups were not on board. It wasn\u2019t like they were giving themselves some plausible deniability in talking to these groups; they just said \u2018Yes, they are in,’\u201d one of the sources recalled. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were so eager to get something out, this is how Randy Mastro was under Giuliani, he would rush things out to box people in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another railed, \u201cThey are their own worst enemies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mastro insisted the back-and-forth was all part of \u201ccontinuing dialogue\u201d around the ban. <\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League and United Jewish Appeal sounded the alarm over the bill\u2019s vagueness. rfaraino<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept being considered here is to reinstate the mask ban that existed in this state for 100 years,\u201d Mastro said, noting deviating from the prior state legislation would leave it open to legal and operational challenges.<\/p>\n

Mastro also added that there would now be an exemption for medical reasons, highlighting the need for masks in a post-COVID city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Press Secretary Kayla Mamelak downplayed the canned events as merely placeholders on the schedule, which were scratched when realized the legislation hadn\u2019t gotten across the finish line. <\/p>\n

Both claimed to have support from numerous council members, but wouldn\u2019t not name them, saying they wouldn\u2019t discuss private conversations. <\/p>\n

Even if the admin manages to cajole a councilmember to launder the mayor\u2019s legislation \u2014\u00a0which insiders say is highly unlikely \u2014 the ban faces a potential technical legislation problem with a bill banning masks already active in the legislative body. <\/p>\n

The Adams administration insists the ban is still very much in play as they work to make certain modifications. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

Minority leader Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who sponsored the current mask ban bill in the council, accused Adams of putting on a \u201cwhole dog and pony show\u201d to \u201cchase headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than collaborate and work with me on my properly vetted and already introduced bill, however, the Mayor rushed out this knockoff in a poor attempt to make noise,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear to me that this isn\u2019t about actually solving problems and making New York safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastro shot back that \u201cher ski mask ban with a number of exemptions isn\u2019t even comparable\u201d to the drafts being pushed by City Hall.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the\u00a0UJA\u00a0said it supports the ban in its current form, but said they could not get into details on negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to Mayor Adams for exploring all possible avenues to help keep New Yorkers safe against masked intimidation and harassment,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fate of Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 fledgling mask ban is up in the air after a bungled rollout…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12648,5310,13239,5289,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-52679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-city-council","11":"tag-city-hall","12":"tag-eric-adams","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114826009108469439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}