Mamdani says meeting with rabbis was ‘candid and productive’

A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

What you need to know today

• New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters Thursday that his closed-door meeting with rabbis on Monday, which reportedly covered areas of deep difference, was “candid and productive.” “My door will always be open to every Jewish New Yorker, and that is a door that is open not only to a conversation but also to a commitment of what it actually looks like to deliver on the ideal of a city where not only is everyone safe, but everyone belongs,” Mamdani said during the press conference when asked about the meeting.
  
• Satmar Defense: Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg, decried criticism of Mamdani in a speech earlier this month, local documentarian Frieda Vizel reports. Mamdani also met with Satmar leaders, including Rabbi Moishe Indig, a Satmar Hasidic leader who endorsed Mamdani during the mayoral race, last week. 

• Columbia Lawsuit: A group of Palestinian students, faculty and alumni of Columbia University are suing the school, alleging that it fostered a “hostile campus climate” and unfairly targeted them in its disciplinary process post-Oct. 7. “Columbia has discriminated against its students, faculty, and staff who are of Palestinian origin through its failure to adequately protect its community members from harassment by others, and indeed, actively encouraged such harassment,” the lawsuit, which was filed Monday, reads. In 2024, Columbia settled a lawsuit brought against it by a Jewish student alleging a hostile environment as a result of the pro-Palestinian encampment movement.
  
• Columbia pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who is still facing potential deportation by the Trump administration, sat down for an hour-long interview with Adam Friedland, a Jewish comedian, in which the pair discussed the protest movement at his alma mater. “Antisemitism is real and is rising, but it’s not because of the Palestinian movement,” Khalil told Friedland. “It’s not because of these protests. It’s because of, first, the weaponization of antisemitism.”