No Wisdom in Mamdani’s choice for office to combat Jew-hatred

Phylisa Wisdom, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick for running the mayor’s office to combat antisemitism, is a dangerous choice for a position that the city so desperately needs right now.

This is due to a number of factors. Among them are her vocal opposition to the widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism; her promotion of the weak Nexus definition of antisemitism that enables blood libels against the Jewish people and allows for extreme anti-Israel stances; her opposition to enforcing immigration laws; and her apparent support for actions by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Betar, a Jewish organization that works to fight antisemitism.

An extreme left-winger, Wisdom wrote in 2024: “I am calling upon every university to NOT adopt the IHRA definition but instead make like the Biden administration & adopt an approach that uses some of IHRA and @NexusProjectUS’s definitions.”

She supports the flawed Nexus definition that excuses major manifestations of Jew-hatred and renders her unable to combat the scourge of antisemitism that is wreaking havoc on the city’s Jewish community.

As the Zionist Organization of America wrote to former President Joe Biden when urging him to adopt only the IHRA definition, and again when ZOA strongly objected to Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism that “welcomed” the Nexus definition, which masks hatred for the Jewish state and Zionism.

ZOA wrote that the “Nexus Document [is] dangerous, wrongly shielding antisemites who try to mask their hatred of Jews by expressing it as hatred for the Jewish state. For example, it states that opposition to Zionism—i.e., the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and to live as a nation-state in their religious and ancestral homeland—is not necessarily antisemitic. The Nexus Document fails to appreciate that for many, if not most Jews, their connection to their religious and ancestral homeland is an essential part of their Jewish identity. The Nexus Document also states that ‘disproportionate focus on Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries cannot necessarily be considered antisemitic.’ But if Israel—the one and only Jewish state in the world—is singled out for criticism and punishment, then there can be no doubt that antisemitism is at play.”

The IHRA examples make it clear that antisemitism can be masked as singling out the State of Israel for attacks. A proponent of the Nexus definition has no place heading New York’s office to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Mamdani’s choice is not surprising. On the first day of his term, he revoked the executive order put into place by his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, in adopting the IHRA definition. Mamdani’s own blood libels against the Jewish state, coupled with his promotion of anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions, and his opposition to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, qualify these moves alone as antisemitic under the IHRA definition.

Wisdom is a terrible choice because she apparently believes that combating antisemitism includes or is allied with unrelated causes, such as opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations of illegal aliens. And yet, deporting illegal aliens who are Jew-hating terrorists, criminals or harassers of Jews and Jewish students will make New York safer for all.

On Jan. 31, anti-ICE advocate Wisdom reposted a tweet issued by the Nexus Project claiming that “xenophobia and antisemitism are intimately interwoven.” A week earlier, on Jan. 25, she posted a tweet that praises “fight[ing] back against ICE.”

On Jan. 13, she reposted a tweet claiming that ICE supportersare antisemitic and reposted another tweet issued by the far-left organization she has been heading, New York Jewish Agenda, thanking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other politicians for legislation to impede ICE’s ability to arrest illegal aliens in the city.

Also that day, Wisdom reposted two tweets (here and here) maligning the Jewish group Betar USA. She practically gloated about Attorney General Letitia James’ distorted, aggressive action against and settlement with Betar USA, which works to defend Jews attacked by anti-Jewish groups.

Hypocritically, James has failed to pursue the extremist groups that harass and attack Jews, and that call for the death of every Jew, such as Within Our Lifetime (WOL), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), PAL-Awda NY, Code Pink, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), etc.

Sadly, the list goes on.

The attorney general’s aggressive pursuit of Betar sends a terrible message: that defending Jews makes one an “extremist,” subject to state punishment. This will only encourage more attacks on Jews and discourage self-defense.

As Fern Sidman at The Jewish Voice recently wrote: “Perhaps the most dangerous consequence of James’ action is the signal it sends to Jewish New Yorkers: self-assertion will be punished; submission will be rewarded. The Betar settlement effectively criminalizes a posture of muscular Jewish advocacy while allowing pro-Hamas intimidation to flourish under the guise of ‘free expression.’”

A person worth their salt for a position to fight antisemitism should be demanding that James pursue the virulent groups that attack Jews, instead of celebrating legal action against a group that defends them. 

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