NYC won’t adopt a new definition of antisemitism, Mamdani’s antisemitism czar says

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🗣 Mamdani won’t codify a definition of antisemitism

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism czar, Phylisa Wisdom, said the city will not codify a definition of antisemitism during the first hearing of the City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism on Wednesday.

• “Across city government there is not a definition codified for any form of hate at all,” said Wisdom, head of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. “We don’t believe that there needs to be a codified definition at all.”

• Mamdani scrapped the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which his predecessor adopted, on his first day in office. Critics of that definition say it conflates some forms of Israel criticism with antisemitism.

• Wisdom’s testimony prompted Councilmember Simcha Felder, an Orthodox Jewish Democrat, to storm out of the hearing. “That’s crazy, unconscionable,” he told The Times of Israel. “In the history of New York City, there was never a problem figuring out what hate is. We will have to define each time whether an incident was hateful or not?”

• The task force also grilled NYPD brass about its new method of reporting antisemitic hate crimes, a source of controversy among some Jewish leaders. Michael Gerber, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, said Mamdani’s team had no input on the reporting shift toward confirmed hate crimes, which appeared to lower the number of incidents in February.

💼 New York Jewish Agenda picks a rabbi as new leader

Margo Hughes-Robinson is the new head of New York Jewish Agenda. (Courtesy)

• The progressive advocacy group New York Jewish Agenda has appointed Margo Hughes-Robinson as its new leader, replacing Wisdom after she left to join Mamdani’s administration.

• We spoke with Hughes-Robinson, a Conservative rabbi who is currently the executive director of Partners for Progressive Israel. She said that she hopes to provide a “big tent” for Jewish New Yorkers.

🎙 Jewish politician booed after defending Mamdani

Julie Menin, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Mark Levine and Seth Pinsky during a panel discussion at 92NY, New York, New York, Apr. 22, 2026. (Joseph Strauss)

• Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Jewish progressive, was booed by an Upper East Side crowd after he defended Mamdani during a discussion at a 92NY event about being Jewish in New York, reports our Joseph Strauss.

• Hoylman-Sigal faced groans and boos after saying that Mamdani’s “heart is in the right place” and that he represents a generation “much more skeptical about the current State of Israel.” The event featured the city’s leading Jewish officials, including Council Speaker Julie Menin and Comptroller Mark Levine.

• Hoylman-Sigal said that Jews should “educate” Mamdani on “the history and the centrality and the importance” of Israel for them. Levine issued a firmer response, saying the “deep connection” that many Jewish New Yorkers feel toward Israel is often brushed aside.

• Menin urged Mamdani to allow the passage of a bill creating “buffer zones” that limit protests around educational facilities, introduced after a pair of pro-Palestinian demonstrations outside synagogues. A mayoral veto would “create much more division at a time when we need unity,” said Menin.

✍ Interfaith school leaders urge Mamdani to sign ‘buffer zone’ bill

• A coalition of 21 interfaith school leaders joined Menin in pressing Mamdani to sign the bill restricting protests around schools, reports The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh.

• “Failing to do so would send the wrong message at a time when school communities need clarity and support,” the group said in a letter. Meanwhile, Mamdani’s progressive Jewish allies have called on him to veto it. He must decide by Saturday.

🇮🇱 An Israel Independence Day dance party

Attendees celebrating Israel’s Independence Day in front of Orthodox anti-Zionist protesters, New York, New York, Apr. 22, 2026. (Grace Gilson)

• Roughly 80 people gathered in Washington Square Park on Wednesday afternoon for an Israel Independence Day dance party put on by the NYU chapters of Jewish on Campus, Hillel and Students Supporting Israel.

• Amid a sea of Israeli flags and a performance by Israeli-American rapper Kosha Dillz, attendees encountered roughly two dozen Orthodox anti-Zionist protesters, joined by some park-goers who chanted that Israel is a “terrorist state.”

• “We just want to show that we can come together peacefully, we can have fun. We aren’t damaged,” Mera Skoblo, a 21-year-old NYU student and the president of SSI NYU, told our Grace Gilson. “We’re a good people that just want to party. We want to celebrate our Independence Day, and we all just want to show how much we love each other.”

🚨 NYPD searching for keffiyeh-clad drivers

• Police are investigating a street takeover in the Maspeth residential community in Queens, where video captured over 100 vehicles speeding in circles around an intersection. Some participants wore keffiyehs and one car waved a Palestinian flag.

• Mamdani said it was “unacceptable for drivers to be acting in this manner” and confirmed the “active investigation” during a press conference on Tuesday.