Outgoing Manhattan borough president Mark Levine, who is Jewish, was sworn in as New York City comptroller on Jan. 1.
Levine, who welcomed attendees in his inaugural address in Spanish, Hebrew and Greek, told those assembled that he knew what they were thinking—what is a comptroller?
“Excellent question,” he said. “This job is about ensuring that people who have spent their lives working for this city can retire with dignity, that our budget reflects our values and that our government inspires the trust of its people.”
“A comptroller also understands the consequences for working-class families when they are excluded from our economic system,” the Democrat said.
“We will use the powers of oversight in the comptroller’s office to ensure that the city keeps its promises, that it delivers the highest quality city services, that every non-profit with a city contract actually gets paid on time,” he added.
“We will seek to understand each other. Though we will not always see the world the same way, we can and must ensure that all New Yorkers feel safe and respected, whether they are entering a house of worship, lighting a menorah in public or saying the salah prayer anywhere in this city,” he said.
On his first day on the job, Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor, revoked 15 months of his predecessor’s executive orders, including one calling for protest-free zones outside synagogues and other houses of worship.
A former chair of the New York City Council’s Jewish Caucus, Levine noted the new mayor Mamdani and public advocate Jumaane Williams.
“How remarkable is it that on these steps today we are swearing in our first Muslim mayor together with a Christian public advocate and a Jewish comptroller?” he said. “I am proud to live in a city where this is possible.”
Per an official bio, Levine “speaks Spanish and Hebrew fluently and is currently studying Greek and French.”
In a Nov. 7 interview with Brigid Bergin on “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC, Levine told a caller that the city has some $300 million “invested in equities and, to some extent, in real estate in Israel.”
“The current comptroller, Brad Lander, has maintained that investment, roughly as it has been. There’s a little more of a debate on the question of Israel bonds, which is a smaller investment, but an important part of our portfolio,” Levine said. “I take the fiduciary responsibility of this job extremely seriously. In fact, really, the number one responsibility of a comptroller is to maintain a healthy pension fund that gets good returns and protects the finances of our retirees and future retirees.”
“Israel bonds have been an extremely solid investment, a part of a diverse global portfolio for New York City’s pension funds,” Levine said. “Paying good returns, never missing a payment. They’ve been part of our portfolio since the 1970s.”
More broadly, Levine told the caller, “Look, I have criticisms of the Israeli government as I have criticisms of my own government. I’ve been open about that.”
“I’ve also been open about the fact that I have very deep personal ties to Israel through family and friends and language, and more,” he said. “At the end of the day, our investments aren’t primarily about that. They’re about what’s good for retirees and what’s good for our overall portfolio. On that measure, I think it’s pretty clear that Israel bonds are a good investment.”
In response to other questions, Levine said the city has “thousands of investments in almost every country on earth.”
“Israel bonds are a particularly unique instrument. There’s really not something exactly like that in other countries, but we certainly have investments in other countries and with exceptions of places where there’s an international sanctions regime in place,” he said. “As I said, you want a globally diversified portfolio. That’s how you mitigate risk. That’s how you ensure you have good returns long term. This is one part of a globally diversified portfolio.”
In the past, Levine has defended Israel extensively, been very outspoken on Jew-hatred and said there has been “starvation” in Gaza. The United Nations and others have repeatedly accused the Jewish state, without evidence, of creating a famine in Gaza.
