Zohran Mamdani is sworn as mayor of New York City at Old City Hall Station, New York, U.S., Thursday, Jan 1st 2026. Amir Hamja/Pool via REUTERS
(New York, New York) – The New York City Council moved Thursday to establish a bipartisan Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, acting ahead of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has yet to appoint leadership for his own Office to Combat Antisemitism.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced that Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov and Democratic Councilmember Eric Dinowitz will co-chair the task force, which is being formed amid a rise in antisemitic incidents across the city.
The announcement came the same day authorities arrested a New Jersey man accused of repeatedly ramming his vehicle into the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn. The incident is the latest in a series of antisemitic acts reported in early 2026, including swastikas drawn at a Borough Park playground, an assault on a Queens rabbi on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and demonstrations featuring chants supporting Hamas outside synagogues.
“It’s now cool to be antisemitic — to attack Jews, to harass Jews, to create a hostile environment,” Vernikov said, criticizing what she described as leadership failures that have emboldened hostility toward Jewish New Yorkers.
Dinowitz said many incidents never make headlines, pointing to children who feel unsafe wearing religious attire in public. “Kids are afraid of being Jewish in our city,” he said.
In addition to the task force, Menin introduced legislation Thursday that would establish buffer zones around houses of worship, aimed at protecting congregants from protests like those seen outside Park East Synagogue and in Queens.
Mayor Mamdani, who visited the Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights following the attack, said he plans to announce his own antisemitism task force and pledged to make New York “a city where Jewish New Yorkers are not just safe, but celebrated and cherished.”
Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, expressed skepticism, warning that recent policy shifts — including changes to definitions of antisemitism and support for boycott initiatives against Israel — have coincided with an increase in attacks.
The competing efforts highlight growing political pressure on City Hall as antisemitism becomes a central public safety and leadership issue in New York City.
