Overview
- City Hall said Mayor Zohran Mamdani met for about 45 minutes with a group of Orthodox and Haredi leaders to discuss public safety, antisemitism, childcare, housing, and community priorities.
- Attendees included figures such as Moshe Indig, David Niederman, and representatives from Satmar, Bobov, Agudath Israel of America, Crown Heights, and the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, according to attendee and local reports.
- The Anti-Defamation League and other major Jewish advocacy groups said they were not invited, and some critics labeled the outreach a selective photo opportunity despite the mayor’s office calling it a substantive roundtable.
- Earlier, Mamdani defended his wife, illustrator Rama Duwaji, saying she was hired through a third party for work associated with author Susan Abulhawa and that he found Abulhawa’s rhetoric reprehensible.
- On Tuesday, Mamdani hosted former Irish President Mary Robinson at a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast and referenced a “genocide” in Palestine while decrying what he called a deafening silence on the Israel–Hamas war before planning to march in the parade.