New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office has no codified definition for antisemitism and has no plans to introduce one, Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism (MOCA), said Wednesday.
She made her comments during the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism’s first hearing, which was led by City Council Members Inna Vernikov and Eric Dinowitz.
During the four-hour hearing, council members grilled Wisdom about the office’s operations and efforts to protect Jewish New Yorkers, including how it defines anti-Jewish hate, how the public can reach it, and how it plans to grow.
The office was still hiring staff, Wisdom said. Its mandate is to coordinate non-law-enforcement responses to antisemitic incidents, liaising with the Jewish community, law enforcement, and other agencies, and improving reporting and victim services, she added.
When asked how the Mamdani administration defines antisemitism, Wisdom said: “Across city government, there is not a definition codified for any form of hate at all.”
The mayor’s administration will “continue to not have any codified definition of any form of hate,” she added.
Wisdom said her office might create “a statement of sorts, of principles and values about what antisemitism is without using a specific definition.”
Inna Vernikov speaks to 'Post'
On Thursday, Vernikov told The Jerusalem Post: “It’s unacceptable. How could you combat antisemitism effectively if you can’t define what it is?”
“What we generally got out of it is that the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism is basically a non-functioning, non-operational office without any public-facing infrastructure,” she said. “They don’t have a website. They don’t have a phone number. They don’t have any ways to communicate with the public. They don’t have a social-media page.”
Given that Mamdani is a “very effective communicator through his social media,” Vernikov said she expected him to use that talent to combat antisemitism.
“But obviously that hasn’t been done,” Vernikov told the Post. “It’s a nonexistent entity that uses taxpayer dollars.”
Moshe Davis, a former MOCA executive director, told the council: “Antisemitism cannot be fought with nice statements and snippy videos,” and it is “a public safety crisis that demands municipal action.”
He said under his oversight, the office had established the MOCA Interagency Task Force, spanning more than 35 city agencies, to address incidents within city government and to develop agency-specific policies.
It also advanced a legislative agenda to protect New Yorkers from unruly demonstrations of hate, Davis said, adding that former mayor Eric Adams signed four executive orders to protect Jewish New Yorkers.
In his testimony, Davis said he was disappointed that the current mayoral administration had revoked two of those executive orders meant to protect the Jewish community, “the first, defining antisemitism, and the second, prohibiting the discriminatory boycotting of NYC companies because of their ties, or perceived ties, to Israel.”
“You cannot ensure the safety of Jewish New Yorkers while remaining willfully blind to the sources of the hatred directed at them,” Davis said.
Mamdani rescinded Adams’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism on his first day in office. Wisdom also opposes the IHRA definition and has called on universities not to adopt it.
Prior to her appointment by Mamdani, Wisdom led the advocacy group New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA).
On its website, NYJA says it is made up of “liberal and progressive Zionists” and is “committed to the idea of Jewish self-determination and to the right of all people to live in free and just societies.”
NYJA says it opposes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
Vernikov said she plans to follow up on the first task force.
“It’s not just important to have a hearing and let the public hear from the representatives,” she said. “What is crucial is follow-up and advocating and pushing for change and holding all the agencies accountable.”
“We’re definitely going to watch very closely, and we’re going to be in contact with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism to make sure that they’re not like a black hole forever,” Vernikov said.