‘Everything Is Not Fine’: Eric Adams Warns Jewish New Yorkers During Trip to Israel
New York Mayor Eric Adams visits the Western Wall, the holiest spot where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem, Aug. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams stoked the rising fears of Jewish residents of his city on Sunday, answering a question about the safety of Jews under soon-to-be mayor Zohran Mamdani by declaring that “everything is not fine” for the Jewish community.
Adams traveled to Israel on Friday to meet with business and political leaders during his last few months in office. At an event hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement in Tel Aviv, held in his honor, Adams spoke about the rising rates of antisemitism.
“I think this is a period where they need to be very conscious that there’s a level of global hostility towards the Jewish community. If I were a Jewish New Yorker, I’d be concerned about my children,” said Adams. “There is something to be worried about.”
In response to another question on the same topic, Adams said that “the [Jewish] community must prepare itself” because “everything is not fine.”
Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec told The New York Times in response to Adams’s remarks that “Zohran Mamdani was proud to earn the support of hundreds of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers and looks forward to both protecting and celebrating all Jewish New Yorkers as the next mayor of this city.”
Adams’ remarks and his choice of location for his final trip while in office echo his and others’ previous criticisms of Mamdani on the topic of antisemitism.
During the mayoral race, many called out Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” as antisemitic, despite his change of opinion about the phrase and repeated condemnation of antisemitism.
Adams, who dropped out of the mayoral race in September, took a veiled swipe at Mamdani on the issue in October, saying in a speech that “[w]e will never surrender our city to hate, or to those who want to say they want to globalize the intifada, or to choose and believe and not refuse to condemn it, because it is literally a phrase that means death to Jews all over the world.”
Mamdani addressed the concerns of Jewish New Yorkers in his victory speech in November, telling his cheering supporters: “We will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism.”
Rates of antisemitism continue to rise across the globe, with the Anti-Defamation League reporting a 227% increase in antiseptic incidents in the United States from 2021-2023. New York City, the city with the largest population of Jews outside of Israel, has seen an uptick in incidents.
In 2024, the ADL reported that New York City had the highest number of incidents in any U.S. city since the organization began tracking such occurrences, with almost 1,000 antisemitic incidents, including harassment, vandalism, and physical violence.
