On a visit to Israel, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams made some jarring statements over the weekend related to his soon-to-be successor, Zohran Mamdani.
- "If I were a Jewish New Yorker, I'd be concerned about my children," said Adams at an event in Tel Aviv hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, per the New York Times.
- Adams added that the city's Jewish community—the largest outside of Israel—should "prepare itself" because "everything is not fine."
These comments echoed warnings Adams made during his losing reelection campaign, in which he suggested New York could see a rise in "Islamic extremism" if Mamdani were elected as the city's first Muslim mayor. Mamdani's spokesperson, Dora Pekec, responded by emphasizing the mayor-elect's support from "hundreds of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers" during the election and his commitment to "protecting and celebrating" the community. Phylisa Wisdom of the New York Jewish Agenda, a liberal group, accused Adams of "fearmongering."
In an interview with 7 Israel, Adams made clear that he is not advising Jewish people to leave New York. "They should remain, but they should have situational awareness," he said, adding that "there are far too many people out there who are spewing hate, and they have actually contributed to the antisemitic sentiment that's out there."