In Move that Surprised No One, Mayor Vetoes Protection for Jewish Community
Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued his first veto in office last week, and of course, it was against a bill protecting the Jewish community. The bill was Intro 175-B, the NYC Council bill that would have required the NYPD to develop clear, public safety plans for buffer zones and protest management around schools and educational institutions.
The legislation wasn’t about banning speech. It was about ensuring kids could walk into class without being grabbed, screamed at, or pelted with racial epithets. Yet Mamdani cast it aside, claiming it went too far in protecting “educational institutions” that might include universities, museums, or teaching hospitals. His stated concern? It could “impact workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”
Behind the smarmy smile and the carefully worded defense of the First Amendment lies something uglier: Yet another calculated attack on the Jewish community in a city where antisemitic harassment has become disturbingly routine. This wasn’t a neutral policy disagreement. It was a deliberate choice to prioritize the “right” of pro-Palestinian and anti-ICE agitators to swarm school entrances over the safety of students—many of them Jewish children heading to yeshivas and day schools. The veto stings precisely because it comes wrapped in progressive rhetoric, the kind that lets Mamdani pose as a champion of the vulnerable while throwing Jewish New Yorkers under the bus.
The bill’s sponsor, Councilman Eric Dinowitz of the Bronx, had it right: “Should students be harassed on the way to school? I think the answer is no.” Passed 30–19, the measure simply asked the NYPD to outline coordinated plans for safe access during protests—nothing that would silence demonstrators, but everything to stop the kind of intimidation that has plagued New York since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. Think back to the heated protests outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan or Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, where chants of “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the IDF” echoed while Jewish children and families tried to enter buildings. Remember the viral videos of Jewish students at Cooper Union hiding from Palestinian protesters in the library? Those weren’t abstract free-speech exercises. They were targeted campaigns of fear, spilling over to nearby schools like Columbia and NYU.
Antisemitic incidents in New York City have skyrocketed in recent years, with Jewish targets accounting for a disproportionate share of hate crimes. Yet Mamdani’s veto signals that certain protests—those aligned with his ideological allies—get a free pass, even if they terrorize kids.
In a statement, Mamdani made his priorities crystal clear: The legislation “has alarmed much of the labor movement, reproductive rights groups, and immigration advocates.” Translation: The activists who fuel his base matter more than the parents pleading for their children to learn without dodging mobs. Council Speaker Julie Menin, the city’s first Jewish speaker, pushed back, insisting that “ensuring students can enter and exit their schools without fear of harassment or intimidation should not be controversial.” She’s already whipping votes for an override. But so are her opponents: The four stated members of the Democratic Socialists of America in the City Council are working with the unions to ensure that this bill does not survive a revote.
The Jewish community’s reaction has been swift and unified. Agudath Israel of America, which lobbied hard for both bills, issued a pointed statement that captures the pain: “When the New York City Council passed two bills giving the NYPD the authority to establish buffer zones around houses of worship and educational institutions to protect against unlawful harassment of people in or around the buildings, Agudath Israel of America made a strong push to get Mayor Mamdani to sign the bills. The Mayor has now vetoed the school buffer bill, thereby stymying an important initiative designed to protect students, staff and others in school buildings against unlawful harassment. In the Jewish community especially, where troubling incidents of such harassment have become all too commonplace, the Mayor’s veto stings deeply. This development is a setback, but we will not back down.”
A broader coalition—including UJA-Federation of New York, JCRC-NY, AJC New York, ADL New York/New Jersey, the New York Board of Rabbis, StandWithUs, the Orthodox Union, Rabbinical Assembly, Union for Reform Judaism, Teach NYS, and the Conference of Presidents—echoed the outrage in a joint statement: “We are deeply disappointed by Mayor Mamdani’s decision to veto Intro 175, legislation that would have required clear, coordinated safety plans around schools and learning institutions. At a time when Jewish and other communities across our city are facing heightened threats, this legislation represented a crucial step toward ensuring every school and community institution can be better protected. Measures like these importantly safeguard institutions against real and growing threats while maintaining people’s right to protest. Actions speak louder than words. This veto is a profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”
Even the Satmar Hasidic community, which has its own fraught history with city politics, expressed horror. Their official X account posted: “We’re horrified by @NYCMayor Mamdani’s decision to veto Intro 175, legislation that would have mandated clear safety plans around our schools and yeshivahs. Our children’s safety should always be a top priority! This veto clearly doesn’t defend rights! It puts the safety of every student in NYC in harm’s way.”
Mamdani takes every opportunity to remove protections from the Jewish community, a community that is targeted at rates never seen before in NYC. In his first days in office, he reversed several Eric Adams executive orders protecting religious institutions. He changed the way antisemitic hate crimes are reported so the statistics look better, even though they are not. Now he’s vetoing common-sense measures that even left-wing Democrats support.
Not that this needed confirmation, but Mamdani is a danger to this community. Antisemitism is in his political DNA, and he can smile and claim he’s protecting free speech all he wants; the mask is transparent. The only question is: Which other Democrats are on his side, and how quickly can we get all of them out of power?
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.