The New York Board of Rabbis says it was not invited to a closed-door meeting that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani held with rabbis on Monday.
The board represents more than 750 rabbis from different Jewish denominations throughout the New York area. A spokesman for the organization told JNS that the board had no involvement in arranging the meeting and was not contacted by the mayor’s office.
“I don’t know who he went through," a board representative told JNS. “He didn’t go through us. We had nothing to do with it."
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, a Modern Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, also said he was not invited.
“My initial reaction is it’s classic Mamdani," Steinmetz told JNS, accusing the mayor of focusing on how his administration is portrayed publicly rather than rebuilding relations with the Jewish community.
“He wants to feign interest in the Jewish community, but is only ready to meet with Jews who he picks and chooses as ideologically comfortable," Steinmetz said.
Rabbi Etan Tokayer, president of the Rabbinic Council of America, likewise told the Jewish media outlet that he did not receive an invitation. He said he could not determine whether he would have attended without knowing more about the meeting.
Tokayer also said he had previously written to Mamdani’s Jewish liaison after reports that the mayor’s wife, Rama Duwaji, had made antisemitic comments. According to Tokayer, the letter was “strong but thoughtfully balanced," but he received no response.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of tensions between Mamdani and Jewish community leaders over his criticism of Israel and his response to antisemitism in New York.
Ten rabbis representing different streams of American Judaism participated in the meeting with Mamdani and raised concerns about his public opposition to Israel, his pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his calls for protests during Netanyahu’s visits to New York.
The rabbis warned that such statements were contributing to a sense of insecurity among Jewish New Yorkers and making cooperation with the mayor’s administration more difficult. Reform and Conservative representatives at the meeting reportedly also expressed concern that Mamdani’s rhetoric could contribute to rising antisemitism.
The discussion took place as New York Police Department data showed an 8.5% increase in reported hate incidents targeting Jews during the first seven months of Mamdani’s tenure. The incidents represented approximately 57% of all reported hate crimes in the city, while anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by 53% in July compared with the same month last year.
Several participants said they believed Mamdani had not acknowledged a connection between his rhetoric and the increase in antisemitism, leading them to raise the issue directly during the meeting.