The Media Line: Who Really Governs New York Under Mayor Mamdani? 

Who Really Governs New York Under Mayor Mamdani? 

Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare project, says Mamdani’s appointees “can use their institutional power to mainstream positions” that are “hostile or exclusionary or even discriminatory towards Jews” and “erode democratic norms” 

By Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line 

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been in office for just six weeks, and concern continues mounting among Jewish leaders.  

Many are warning that he may not only fail to be a good mayor for the city’s Jewish community, but also struggle to serve New Yorkers more broadly. 

Those concerns stem from a series of controversial appointments widely viewed as anti-Israel and antisemitic, which have raised early red flags. While these figures may not ultimately succeed in pushing their agendas through City Hall, the developments warrant close attention. Jewish New Yorkers, some community leaders argue, should be watching carefully and prepared to respond if necessary. 

Sacha Roytman, CEO of Combat Antisemitism, said that while Mamdani may be vocal, he remains constrained by a system of checks and balances, most notably the New York City Council, which Speaker Julie Menin leads. 

“He can say what he wants, but the opposition against him is well organized,” Roytman told The Media Line. “Mamdani cannot change the city so fast.” 

According to Roytman, the City Council largely opposes many of Mamdani’s ideas. It is expected to counter him legislatively, including by advancing policies at the council level that reverse or offset the mayor’s executive actions. 

“The City Council has enormous power, and Julie is exceptionally good on these [Jewish] issues,” Roytman explained. “We will work with the City Council to do the same work that we used to do with the mayors before Mamdani.” 

Under New York City law, much of a mayor’s agenda must pass through the City Council. The council introduces and votes on legislation, controls the city budget, and has the authority to override mayoral vetoes, limiting how quickly or unilaterally a mayor can enact policy changes. 

Beyond the City Council, Roytman pointed to additional layers of opposition. New York’s borough presidents, who represent the city’s five boroughs, have also expressed resistance to many of Mamdani’s proposals. In addition, the city comptroller, Mark D. Levine, a Jewish communal leader, has publicly pledged to challenge the mayor’s investment policies. The New York Police Department is led by Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a member of a prominent Jewish family who is openly pro-Israel. 

“New York will not die because of the mayor,” Roytman said. “There is leadership on the district level that will rise, and the opposition will be so strong that he will not be able to deploy almost any of his policies. He will make bad statements and take bad positions, but the opposition will not let the city collapse.” 

Roytman also noted that elections will take place later this year, including a special election for City Council District 3 in Manhattan and the gubernatorial election. If the right candidates are selected, he said, the opposition to Mamdani could grow even stronger. 

“He will not be a good mayor for New York,” Roytman said. 

Nonetheless, Mamdani has been carefully selecting a cabinet that reflects his ideology, including figures who are anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and pro-Marxist. Among the most controversial appointments is lawyer Ramzi Kassem, who was named chief counsel. 

“Kassem, who defended an al Qaida member, has an outsized role in shaping the city’s legal strategies on everything from civil rights to policing to defending the government in litigation,” warned Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at The Lawfare Project. “His decisions on legal interpretations involving these issues could reflect his stance on Israel-Palestine, on Jewish civil rights, and on what seems to be an anti police bent.” 

Filitti said Kassem’s position is central to defining policy and described it as “a very important role.” In the past, Filitti noted, individuals who held similar positions were “fairly neutral when it comes to politics and politics. They’ve been more focused on even-handed application of the law.” 

He explained that decisions related to policing and civil rights directly affect Jewish New Yorkers, including how and where protests against Israel, for example, are permitted to take place. 

According to Filitti, Kassem’s public record dates back to his time as a student at Columbia University, where he wrote that Israel was committing acts of ethnic cleansing. Kassem accused Israel of intending to conquer the land it was occupying and argued that a two-state solution was not credible. After becoming an attorney, Filitti said, Kassem took on several high-profile cases, including the defense of a terrorist linked to al Qaida who was convicted of conspiring to blow up a French oil tanker off Yemen’s coast. Kassem sought to have the terrorist repatriated outside the United States to serve his sentence in his home country. 

Another appointment drawing scrutiny is Phylisa Wisdom, selected to lead New York City’s Office to Combat Antisemitism. Wisdom has opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which was developed as a tool to combat contemporary antisemitism. 

Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and senior founding rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue, described Wisdom as antisemitic. In a statement, he said that “the leader of the Office to Combat Antisemitism must understand a basic truth. Israel cannot be bifurcated from Judaism. Ms. Wisdom’s opposition to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, adopted by 50 nations worldwide and 37 of 50 states in America, calls that understanding into question.” 

Schneier added that many Jewish New Yorkers view anti-Zionism as antisemitism. 

“Eighty-one years after the liberation of Auschwitz, honoring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust demands vigilance, moral clarity, and the courage to speak out against those who choose to define and reformulate the definition of antisemitism in our day,” he said. 

Last week, in an exclusive report, the New York Post revealed that Mamdani’s Department of Health created a “working group” that accused Israel of committing genocide during its first meeting, which took place last Tuesday. The group, called the “Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group,” convened in Long Island City and via Zoom. 

According to the New York Post, one presenter said the group was specifically developed “in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” 

Yael Halaas, president of the American Jewish Medical Association, told the Post that “this is a meeting using New York City Department of Health resources that promote libel against the Jewish people.” 

Filitti said there is already a widespread feeling among Jewish New Yorkers that the law is not being enforced sufficiently to protect their community. With Mamdani’s recent appointments, he added, those concerns have only intensified. 

“People know or should know that when you look at all of the appointments that Mamdani has made so far, they represent a complete transformation of what most New Yorkers understand their city government looked like,” Filitti told The Media Line. “The people that he is appointing to office and that he’s using as consultants or staff have very radical views that most New Yorkers do not traditionally share. So this election was not just about electing Zohran Mamdani. It was about bringing into office people who share his views.” 

In contrast to Roytman’s more measured assessment of the mayor’s early moves, Filitti argued that many New Yorkers are underestimating the long-term impact of these appointments. 

“These positions will become increasingly entrenched in city agencies and in city government, making it harder to change them by the next mayor,” Filitti warned. 

He said that The Lawfare Project and other organizations aim to raise awareness among individuals in leadership roles and to ensure that the public is closely watching which policies they pursue and what is motivating those decisions. 

“With Kassem specifically, the concern is that like Mamdani, these are not fringe actors,” Filitti said. “These are people who can use their institutional power to mainstream positions that many New Yorkers and civil rights advocates see as hostile or exclusionary or even discriminatory towards Jews, and that corrodes democratic norms. It’s important for people to be aware of the backgrounds of these individuals and to be more watchful of the policies that are implemented.” 

Will New York’s system of checks and balances limit how far Mamdani can go? Or will the appointments he is making today quietly shape the city for years to come?  

As both leaders stressed, vigilance will be critical in determining which path New York ultimately takes.