A progressive Jewish group that’s closely allied with Zohran Mamdani took part in a rally outside City Hall on Thursday, calling for the mayor to veto a “buffer zone” bill that could limit where protests can take place.
“Jews are literally ‘people of the book’ — our teachings tell us that open debate and discussion should be celebrated, not silenced,” said Rabbi Barat Ellman, a member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. “I urge Mayor Mamdani to veto the bill.”
The bill in question is one of two passed by the City Council last month that were championed by Jewish lawmakers and leaders who were unnerved by pro-Palestinian protests targeting synagogues. A bill proposed by Speaker Julie Menin that applies to protests outside houses of worship passed with a veto-proof supermajority, but a second bill that applies to protests near “educational facilities” passed with enough “no” votes for Mamdani to be able to strike it down.
Mamdani has indicated concerns about the legislation but not his plans about whether to sign it.
If Mamdani vetoes the bill, it would put him at odds with major Jewish organizations that support the legislation like UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the local branch of the Anti-Defamation League, as well as a number of Jewish leaders.
But if Mamdani chooses not to veto the legislation by the end of next week, the bill will pass. And that would mark the first major breach since he became mayor with his progressive Jewish allies.
Now, progressive organizations including JFREJ are ratcheting up pressure on their ally in City Hall to reject the legislation, which they oppose on free speech and overpolicing grounds.
About 100 attendees showed up to City Hall Park, representing a number of education and other labor rights groups including the United Federation of Teachers, the CUNY staff-faculty union, Democratic Socialists of America and United Auto Workers. A handful of progressive City Council members joined and advocated for a veto as well.
“Zohran, Zohran, veto now! Protect our youth, we won’t bow,” rallygoers chanted in the 90-degree heat.
“It’s hot,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif, as people fanned themselves. “And we need to keep the fire going.”
Council members Lincoln Restler, Alexa Aviles and Tiffany Caban spoke as well.
“I don’t just hope — I am calling on the mayor of New York to veto this anti-democratic bill,” said Caban, who added that she prefers JFREJ’s recent proposal to combat hate crimes without policing.
A veto would not mark the end of the legislation. If Mamdani rejects the bill, 17 of the 19 council members who opposed it will have to choose to sustain his veto.
“We can stop this bill from becoming law, but we have to keep the pressure up,” said Restler, who is Jewish. “We have to make sure that the mayor does the right thing, and we have to make sure that every Council member who voted the right way last week, votes the right way again.”
JFREJ has supported Mamdani since well before his election, first endorsing him for State Assembly in 2020 and maintaining a close relationship since. The group honored him with its annual “Mazals” award last fall and hosted him at its “Seder in the Streets” earlier this month. Mamdani has even credited some of his policy ideas, such as free buses, to conversations with JFREJ members.
But Mamdani has kept his cards close to his chest on “buffer zone” legislation, which was introduced in response to pro-Palestinian protests outside a pair of synagogues, including one where demonstraters chanted “We support Hamas here.” Mamdani’s own response to the protests was scrutinized by Jewish groups.
The bill he must decide about, Intro 175-B, instructs the police commissioner to submit a plan regarding “whether and when to use a security perimeter” at the entrances and exits of educational facilities, to determine the size of the perimeter, and to ensure that it “neither curtails the rights to free speech and assembly, or protest.”
“I will continue to consider the options that we have,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference on Thursday, when asked about his upcoming deadline to veto the bill. “I’ve heard from a number of New Yorkers about their concerns about aspects of this legislation, and I will be making a decision on that shortly.”
Mamdani added that he is “incorporating those concerns in the discussion we’re having internally, and then coming to a decision on the basis of that.”
At the rally on Thursday, a dozen or so speakers blasted the proposed legislation. Some said it would infringe on free speech and target pro-Palestinian protesters, while others said the proposal defined the term “educational facilities” too vaguely or would add unnecessary police presence near schools.
Of all the speakers, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was the only one to elaborate on the specific protests that prompted the bill’s introduction, saying the “protest in front of a synagogue, some of the things I heard, really did go too far.”
“There are folks who are concerned, and who are afraid, and we can’t ignore that. Ignoring fear, whether we believe it is real or not, doesn’t work,” Williams said. “And so even the sponsor of this bill, I understand, is trying to get at a concern that people have.”
Dinowitz said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the language of the bill did, in fact, address protesters’ concerns about protecting the right to protest.
“Our students deserve to enter their school buildings free from harassment and intimidation,” he said. “Intro 175-B delivers that protection while safeguarding the right to peaceful protest by requiring clear, public NYPD guidelines and accountability. This bill ensures transparency, consistency, accountability, and safety at the same time.”
But Williams said he worries that the bill will cause “overreach” and “additional harm,” and also said he was more angered by the events occurring inside the synagogues than by the protests.
“What was going on in the synagogue was even more damaging and more harmful and more violent than anything else,” he said. Pro-Hamas chants were being lobbed at Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills, which was hosting a real estate sale for Maale Adumim, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Other speakers on Thursday were more skeptical of the intentions behind the bill.
James Davis, president of CUNY’s faculty-staff union, brought up when Council Member Inna Vernikov — a supporter of Dinowitz’s bill — took a gun to a pro-Palestinian rally on a college campus.
“So some of these same City Council members are now urging an abundance of caution and extreme safety near our college campuses,” Davis said. “I’m sorry if I cannot be moved to feel that that’s sincere, and that I cannot take the stated intent of this bill at face value.”
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