{"id":901826,"date":"2026-06-29T23:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/901826\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:36:27","slug":"nyc-ny-state-politics-live-updates-on-city-budget-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/901826\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC, NY state politics: Live updates on city budget, more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phylisa Wisdom<\/a>, the head of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office to combat antisemitism, abruptly left an event to honor Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn Sunday after Israel supporters heckled her and refused to let her speak.<\/p>\n

She spoke briefly before departing when the heckling subsided in what had become\u00a0an ugly spectacle, video shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to leave to honor the survivors. I, too, have Holocaust survivor family and I wish I could be here with you today to do this remembrance for all our families,” Wisdom said.<\/p>\n

“I hope survivors get more respect than this,” Wisdom said, before leaving Holocaust Memorial Park in Sheepshead Bay.<\/p>\n

There were about a dozen Holocaust survivors and one was crying amid the chaos, an eyewitness said.<\/p>\n

\"\"She spoke briefly before departing when the heckling subsided in what had become\u00a0an ugly spectacle. Facebook\/Alexander Sirotin<\/p>\n

“Phylisa Wisdom, shame on you! These are holocaust survivors,” said Stephanie Neta Benshimal, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, who heckled Wisdom throughout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is sacred ground. You’re on Hitler’s side! Shame on you!”<\/p>\n

Organizers tried to stop the heckling of Wisdom \u2014 to no avail.<\/p>\n

“She is an invited guest. How about showing some respect,” one organizer said, according to a four-minute video of the encounter.<\/p>\n

But an attendee shot back sarcastically, “Why don’t you invite Nazis? Why don’t you invite Hamas? She works for Mamdani!”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani is a staunch critic of Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic state assembly candidate Joey Saban, who was at the Sunday event, said Wisdom should not have been invited.<\/p>\n

But he added, “It was wrong to take the focus off Holocaust survivors. This is sacred ground.\u00a0 Haven’t they been through enough? We have to do better.”<\/p>\n

Elected officials, including Councilwoman Inna Vernikov and Assemblyman Michael Novakhov, boycotted the event.<\/p>\n

\"\"Phyllisa Wisdom, heckled by pro-Israel activists, abruptly leaves ceremony on June 28, 2026. Facebook\/Alexander Sirotin<\/p>\n

“I don’t\u00a0think Wisdom is representative of the Jewish community. I think she is a self-hating Jew and Mamdani is an antisemite,” Novakhov \u2014 whom Saban is challenging in the general election \u2014 claimed.<\/p>\n

A Mamdani spokesperson said of the chaos: “It’s sad and unfortunate that a handful of hecklers chose to disrupt a Holocaust memorial event and prevent Phylisa \u2014 whose own family came to New York after fleeing war-torn Europe \u2014 from delivering remarks by shouting hateful and deeply offensive insults.<\/p>\n

“That behavior, at an event dedicated to remembering the victims of the Holocaust, does not reflect who we are as a city, nor the views of the overwhelming majority of those who gathered to honor their memory. The Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism will continue its essential work every day to ensure Jewish New Yorkers are safe, supported, and able to thrive in across the five boroughs.”<\/p>\n

The mayor’s office provided a draft of the remarks Wisdom intended to deliver. She said her objective was to increase “intergroup cohesion and decrease anti-Jewish bias.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Phylisa Wisdom and Brad Lander at a protest against Israel’s war with Gaza. Instagram\/@nyjewishagenda<\/p>\n

“As long as there have been Jews in New York, there has also been antisemitism. This is a complicated reality,” Wisdom’s speech said.<\/p>\n

“Despite this painful history, New York City has been, and will remain, the greatest place to be Jewish in the diaspora. Like many Jewish New Yorkers, my family\u2019s American story started in this city, as one branch of my family fled Salonika, Greece, where more Jews per capita ultimately died than any other European city. My great grandmother and her sister came here, but their two sisters who remained, as well as their children, were killed in the camps,” the speech said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Phylisa Wisdom, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick to combat antisemitism, pictured to the right of the Mayor in a photo posted to Instagram on Dec. 21. IInstagram\/@holme.wellness<\/p>\n

“My office is in the midst of a listening tour with members of the Jewish community across the five boroughs, and that sentiment rings true no matter who we speak to. We\u2019ve heard universal appreciation for the diversity of this city, its rich Jewish culture, and the ability to observe your Judaism in any way that feels right to you \u2026and we\u2019ve even heard much appreciation for how much holy disagreement can exist in a place with such immense jewish diversity! \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are so fortunate to live in a city that prioritizes places like this, where we can mourn the friends and families we never got to meet, remember the horrors we have faced, and teach future generations about the resilience of the Jewish people.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phylisa Wisdom, the head of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office to combat antisemitism, abruptly left an event to honor…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":901827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[20184,5229,13237,40896,6687,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-901826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany","tag-america","tag-city-budget","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-live-blogs","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116836028061854362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901826","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=901826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}