NEW YORK CITY (VINnews) – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered what many Jewish leaders are calling empty platitudes in response to a new Anti-Defamation League report showing the state led the nation in antisemitic incidents for another year, even as he defended protesters who targeted a Manhattan synagogue over an event promoting Jewish real estate in Judea and Samaria.

In comments, Mamdani stated there is “no tolerance for antisemitism in our city” and pledged to “root out” the scourge from every borough while ensuring Jewish New Yorkers “are celebrated and cherished just as any other New Yorker is.”

However, the mayor’s actions and words regarding a recent protest outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan tell a different story, raising serious doubts about his commitment to Jewish safety amid record levels of Jew-hatred.

The ADL’s 2025 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents documented 1,160 cases in New York, the highest in the country, with nearly three-quarters occurring in New York City. While overall incidents declined slightly, antisemitic assaults increased by 10 percent, according to the report.

Mamdani’s response came as pro-Palestinian activists protested outside the historic Park East Synagogue over the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” which featured properties available for purchase in Israel and the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.

Rather than unequivocally condemning the targeting of a Jewish house of worship, Mamdani drew what critics describe as a false distinction between policy critique and antisemitism.

“I think that critique of the policies of a government are very much separate from bigotry towards a people of a specific religious faith,” Mamdani said. “When we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land, which includes the sale of land in occupied West Bank, in settlements that are a violation of international law, that that is something that I firmly disagree with, and that I also believe that many New Yorkers firmly disagree with.”

Jewish advocates slammed Mamdani’s remarks, noting that framing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria — the ancestral Jewish homeland — as “illegal settlements” in “occupied” territory echoes classic antisemitic tropes that deny Jewish rights to their biblical land. Protesters besieging a synagogue simply for hosting an event celebrating Jewish life and connection to Israel, they argue, crosses the line into bigotry against the Jewish people.

Critics say Mamdani’s stance reveals a troubling pattern: mouthing opposition to antisemitism while aligning with forces that harass Jewish institutions and delegitimize the Jewish state. With antisemitic assaults on the rise, many in New York’s large Jewish community question whether the mayor’s words will translate into meaningful action to protect them.