From the moment Zohran Mamdani entered the New York City mayoral election, people were warned about his past antisemitic behavior and associations.
Not long after he won the election, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced it was setting up a special project to monitor Mamdani on this front.
He has since appointed at least one felon, and several people with antisemitic pasts, one of whom was just forced to resign over past comments.
The ADL’s Mamdani tracker was announced as an "initiative to track and monitor Mamdani administration policies and appointments."
The goal was to track actions or appointments "that impact Jewish community safety and security."
After Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL's CEO and national director, discussed the initiative on NPR, Mamdani responded. "I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously."
He then added, “I think anyone is free to catalog the actions of our administration. I have some doubts about Jonathan's ability to do so honestly, given that he previously said I had not visited any synagogues, only to have to correct himself."
Mamdani has made several questionable appointments since winning the election, the most recent being Mysonne Linen, who spent seven years in prison for a violent crime.
Linen was joining the transition team as an adviser for the criminal justice system.
When Mamdani was questioned about the appointment, he responded, "We put together a team of more than 400 New Yorkers who are on 17 different committees, and these are New Yorkers who bring with them both a fluency of the policies and politics of the city, the places that they've succeeded, the places that they've failed, and we will take all of their experiences and their analysis into account as we build a city for each and every person.”
This is a man who once had a promising entertainment career, having already been signed by Def Jam, yet he chose to break a bottle over someone’s head and rob them, holding a second person at gunpoint to rob them. That sounds exactly like the person who should be leading the criminal justice system transition team.
Among Mamdani’s other questionable appointments was Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who was just forced to resign in disgrace over antisemitic comments on social media.
Da Costa just found out that the internet is forever, as numerous posts she made between 2011 and 2012 resurfaced after her appointment, where she posted slurs such as "money hungry Jews" and "rich Jewish peeps" and called a Far Rockaway train "the Jew train."
And yes, this was uncovered by the ADL tracking initiative. The organization stated, "Her social media footprint includes posts from more than a decade ago that echo classic antisemitic tropes and otherwise demean Jewish people.”
Da Costa resigned her position and issued the obligatory apology but to me, that is worthless. If she were sincerely sorry about her comments, she would have brought them up on her own, addressed them, and asked for forgiveness. Trust me, this will not be the last person tied to Mamdani who has a similar past.
