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As anti-Israel agitators take to the streets in New York City, a councilwoman is calling out the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, saying that it lacks public-facing resources.
“Mayor Mamdani continues to gaslight the Jewish community in New York City by creating a black hole of an office — the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism — an office that has no website, no phone number, no resources,” New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, R-District 48, told Fox News Digital. “There’s nobody to reach out to, there’s nobody to talk to. The public has no sense of how this office can help Jewish New Yorkers.”
The councilwoman said that after a recent hearing, she feels that “the office does nothing to combat antisemitism.”
However, Vernikov said that the issue was not merely a matter of access and stated that even those who reach out to the mayor’s office “really don’t get a response that makes them feel safer or their children feel safer.”
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Vernikov, a Jewish Republican, serves as a co-chair of a bipartisan task force aimed at combatting antisemitism alongside Councilman Eric Dinowitz, D-District 11. The task force, which was formed earlier this year, is separate from the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.
An online search for the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism leads to a page on the New York City government’s website that includes a press release announcing the office, a description of its goals and a list of “recent events and services.” One of the items on the events and services list is a “listening tour,” the findings of which will be used to “inform a report and a subsequent strategy on combatting antisemitism in New York City.”
Other events and services include Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s visit to the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights, Passover Seders, Food Distribution with Chasdei Lev and an Orthodox Community Leaders Roundtable.
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In recent weeks, New York City has seen a slew of antisemitic incidents, including swastika graffiti in Queens and protests outside a Manhattan synagogue and in a Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn. Following the protest outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, Mamdani said that his administration was committed to ensuring New Yorkers could safely enter or exit a house of worship. However, he said that he “firmly” disagreed with the event taking place inside the synagogue, a statement that critics interpreted as support for the protesters.
“When we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land which includes the sale of land in the occupied West Bank, in settlements that are a violation of international law, that is something that I firmly disagree with,” Mamdani said in response to a reporter’s question. The mayor added that he saw the land sales as something that “has been at the heart of an ongoing effort to displace Palestinians from their homes.”
The proximity of the protests to Jewish institutions has many Jewish New Yorkers concerned for their safety, something Vernikov said she has heard from her constituents. Vernikov argued that the debate over where protests take place is not about restricting freedoms, but preventing intimidation.
“This has nothing to do with the First Amendment. It has everything to do with trying to intimidate and harass Jews, and that’s all these protesters are fighting for,” Vernikov said.
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Amid the protests and vandalism, Mamdani has faced criticism for his decision to veto a bill that would have created a “buffer zone” around educational institutions to protect them from protests. The City Council also passed a version of the bill aimed at protecting houses of worship, which Mamdani did not veto.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment.
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