Mamdani condemns ICE at interfaith event, with fewer Jewish sponsors

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made condemnation of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency the cornerstone of the city’s annual interfaith prayer breakfast on Friday.

Several Jewish groups did not sponsor this year’s event as they had done in years past, though some nonetheless attended the gathering with the mayor who has been a deeply divisive figure among New York’s Jews.

Scott Richman, New York and New Jersey regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, told JNS that the nation’s oldest anti-hate group was not invited to attend this year’s gathering.

“While a breakfast itself does not ultimately matter, protecting every Jewish New Yorker does,” Richman said. “We call on Mayor Mamdani to serve the entire Jewish community, especially in this time when violent antisemitism is surging.”

A spokesperson for the ADL told JNS that the group declined to sponsor this year’s breakfast and subsequently did not receive an invitation to attend.

In October, the ADL called Mamdani’s views “antisemitism” after video from a 2023 conference showed him accusing the Israel Defense Forces of responsibility for American police violence.

Friday’s breakfast featured leaders from some of New York’s largest religious communities, including two Muslim clerics, a Christian pastor, a Buddhist lama and a Hindu priest.

Jews were represented by Rabbi Emily Cohen of West Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation, who described her arrest in January at a Hilton Garden Inn as part of a protest against ICE.

“I hadn’t decided until that day whether or not to risk arrest,” Cohen said. “Then I messaged a friend who’s a staffer at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.”

Cohen described Jews for Racial and Economic Justice as her “political home.” The group says it is part of the “Jews for Ceasefire” movement and that it partners with Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, two left-wing, anti-Israel groups.

“My friend told me that she was risking arrest because she felt she needed to on a spiritual level, and I realized that I felt the same way,” Cohen said of joining the anti-ICE protests. “Religion is often characterized as a home for the right, but I’m continually inspired by the religious left.”

Mamdani’s Jewish outreach efforts during his election campaign were mostly limited to left-wing, anti- or non-Zionist groups like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

More mainstream Jewish organizations like the ADL frequently condemned Mamdani for his refusal to criticize slogans like “globalize the intifada,” which many understand as a call for violence against Jews.

Beyond the ADL, two of New York’s most prominent Jewish organizations, UJA-Federation of New York and the New York Board of Rabbis, told JNS that they did not sponsor this year’s interfaith prayer gathering as they have in past years.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis, said that the board did not sponsor the prayer breakfast this year, but had also declined to do so in previous years.

Potasnik, who was one of five rabbis selected for Mamdani’s transition team, attended the breakfast, and the group said it “had members in attendance.”

UJA-Federation told JNS that it did not sponsor this year’s breakfast, but also did not answer questions about whether anyone from Federation was in attendance.

‘The heart of a stranger’

Mamdani’s 20-minute speech at the gathering focused on criticism of ICE, including biblical denunciations of the federal law enforcement agency.

“They arrive as if atop a pale horse, and they leave a path of wreckage in their wake,” he said, alluding to the Book of Revelation. “Masked agents paid by our own tax dollars violate the Constitution and visit terror upon our neighbors.”

Mamdani repeatedly referenced the Hebrew Bible’s teachings on caring for foreigners.

“I think of Exodus 23:9, the words of the Torah: ‘Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt,’” Mamdani said. “Few have stood so steadfast alongside the persecuted as Jewish New Yorkers.”

He also joked about his upbringing as a Muslim in a city with New York City’s religious diversity.

“I still remember coming home from a friend’s bar mitzvah at Ansche Chesed demanding an explanation from my father,” Mamdani said. “‘Baba,’ I asked, ‘why don’t Muslim kids have bar mitzvahs, too?’ I’m still yet to receive a satisfactory answer.”

Mamdani, who is facing congressional scrutiny for rescinding executive orders designed to combat Jew-hatred, signed an executive order during his speech to reaffirm New York City’s “sanctuary city” laws intended to shield illegal immigrants from deportation.

© JNS