Mark Levine, New York City comptroller, recently told The New York Times that the city would stop investing in Israel Bonds and later clarified that he was bound by his predecessor’s decisions. Still, he has been dropped as a Shabbat dinner speaker at the Altneu Synagogue.
The Shabbat dinner at the Orthodox congregation on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is still slated to feature Tom DiNapoli, the New York state comptroller, who has pledged to maintain the state’s investment in Israel Bonds.
JNS sought comment from Levine and from the synagogue. A source, who is not part of the Altneu leadership but who goes to the synagogue regularly, told JNS that he heard the parting was “mutual.”
Levine “was gonna get grilled” and “would have been raked across the coals,” the source, who spoke anonymously, told JNS. “Neither side wanted an uneasy dinner,” he said that he heard.
The event was originally titled “Shabbat dinner comptrollers: Off the record.” It is now billed as “Shabbat Dinner with Tom DiNapoli.”
Levine, who speaks Hebrew and often talks about his ties to Israel, had campaigned for the office of the city’s top finance executive on a promise to reinstate the Big Apple’s significant investment in Israel Bonds.
That investment had lapsed under his predecessor, Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for what is considered a safe Democratic congressional seat.
In an interview when he was sworn in as comptroller in January, Levine said that “Israel Bonds have been an extremely solid investment, a part of a diverse global portfolio for New York City’s pension funds.”
“Paying good returns, never missing a payment,” he said. “They’ve been part of our portfolio since the 1970s.”
Yet on Oct. 14, Levine said he would not renew the city’s Israel Bonds investment, based in part on Israel’s economic outlook.
Some $300 million in New York City pension funds reportedly remains invested in Israeli equities, along with a smaller amount in Israeli real estate.
Public pension investment decisions are subject to fiduciary duties, requiring officials and trustees to act in the interests of beneficiaries. Levine’s office serves as investment adviser to the city’s five pension systems, whose boards make asset allocation decisions with input from investment professionals.
Craig McCarthy, City Hall bureau chief at the New York Post, first reported that Levine had been dropped from the synagogue dinner.
Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt and his wife, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, a journalist, founded the Altneu in February 2022 after he was fired from nearby Park East Synagogue.
Goldschmidt had been working as assistant rabbi at Park East, and he was expected to inherit the pulpit from longtime synagogue leader Rabbi Arthur Schneier, 96. Schneier, a Holocaust survivor, maintains his position at the Modern Orthodox congregation, which has since created a partnership with Chabad.
