Mayor Mamdani is facing a new controversy with New York's Jewish community after appointing a City Hall advisory committee to recommend judicial appointments that does not include a single Jewish member. The mayor has repeatedly insisted he will govern as a mayor for all New Yorkers, but the makeup of the panel has drawn sharp criticism and renewed a running tension between his administration and Jewish organizations.
The panel is an 18-member advisory committee that the mayor's office has described as reflecting the broad diversity of New York. Critics counter that, whatever its other credentials, the committee does not have a single Jewish member, a gap they say is glaring in a city with one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. The exclusion, they argue, sends a troubling signal about who has a seat at the table when judges are chosen.
The city's Jewish Bar Association sent the mayor a letter in protest. Excluding Jewish representation from this committee is neither reflective nor inclusive, the group wrote, adding that it follows a troubling pattern that has left many Jewish New Yorkers feeling increasingly marginalized. The letter framed the issue not as a single oversight but as part of a broader concern about how the community is being treated by the administration.
Chairing the committee is Ali Najmi, the mayor's election lawyer, who appeared alongside Mamdani in a lighthearted video during the campaign. His role at the head of the panel has drawn attention as the dispute has grown, placing a close ally of the mayor at the center of a fight over representation and fairness in the selection of judges.
According to the account, the Mamdani team did consider one retired Jewish judge, John Leventhal, but ultimately rejected him. The mayor's spokesman said that when the administration was informed that Leventhal had served on Ghislaine Maxwell's legal team, it chose not to move forward with his appointment. Any suggestion that the decision was motivated by religion is false, the spokesman said, pushing back on the criticism directly.
The dispute lands amid a series of flashpoints between Mamdani and the Jewish community. Critics pointed to the mayor's threats to arrest the Israeli prime minister and to the recent stabbing of a Jewish man on the Upper West Side as part of a climate that has left many on edge. One critic said the mayor needed to take a hard look at his actions and to do something tangible to show he is responsive to the community's concerns.
Both the ADL and Jewish bar associations are urging the mayor to reconsider the committee's composition, but that appeared unlikely for now. The standoff leaves the advisory panel intact even as the calls for change continue, and it keeps the relationship between the new administration and Jewish New Yorkers under strain at a moment when both sides say trust is already fragile.