In an interview that aired on Wednesday, Errol Louis of Spectrum News NY1 asked Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, about the lessons of the day.
“This is going to air on Oct. 7, the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Second World War,” Louis said. “What do you think are the lessons from that day?”
“I think when we’re talking about the third anniversary of Oct. 7, we’re talking about the third anniversary of a horrific war crime, where Hamas killed more than 1,000 people, kidnapped hundreds more,” Mamdani responded. “We’re also talking about the anniversary of when the Israeli government responded to that by initiating a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza that has continued to this day.”
“It has killed tens of thousands of people, and we know that throughout its time, it has been one that has been financed by our tax dollars,” the mayor said.
“And the lesson of that is?” Louis said, according to a transcript that City Hall released. “I mean, that’s a description of what happened.” (JNS sought comment from Louis and NY1 about whether he was saying that Israel committed “genocide.”)
The mayor responded that “I think the lesson for all of us is that humanity has to be something that we believe in in its fullest sense.”
“We have to protect it, and we have to be able to call an atrocity what it is and fight for a future where everyone is protected, no matter who they are, where they come from,” Mamdani said. “As the mayor of our city, my job on Oct. 7, my job every day, is to ensure that we’re keeping people safe, and when it comes to Oct. 7 specifically, we are going to be increasing security at vulnerable sites across the city.”
Leaders of major Jewish organizations have said that the mayor’s rhetoric puts Jews in danger. Mamdani has long accused the Jewish state of “genocide,” and he campaigned on having the Israeli prime minister arrested. He later admitted he lacked the legal authority to do so.
Louis also asked Mamdani how he would know if his office to combat Jew-hatred—one which has drawn criticism from mainstream Jewish groups—was succeeding. Mamdani admitted that Jews, who make up about 10% of New Yorkers, are the targets of most of the city’s hate crimes.
“To me, a metric of that is how do we start to drive those numbers down and never be satisfied until the number of hate crimes across the city is zero,” the mayor said. “Our response to hate crimes—it’s not only a response where you condemn it after the fact. It’s that you’re doing the work to prevent that kind of a hate crime.”
Mamdani said that the way to change that is via education to ensure “that our youngest New Yorkers grow up in the city with an awareness of not only Jewish history in this city, but also the history of the Holocaust, which is something that we’ve seen lower and lower amounts of awareness of in recent years.”
Louis asked about criticism of Israel.
“I do not believe that any criticism of the Israeli government or of any prime minister is antisemitism,” Mamdani said. “What I believe is unacceptable in this city is acts of antisemitism that we have seen continue across the five boroughs, and we’re talking about a hatred of a people by virtue of them being a people.”
“That is something we will never have tolerance for here in the city,” he said.
Jew-hatred surged 182% in Mamdani’s first month in office, according to official city statistics. Leaders of major Jewish organizations said that the mayor’s Oct. 7 statement this year, in which he accused Israel of “genocide,” threatens the safety of Jews, and city officials have also decried the mayor’s statement.
