Mamdani sidesteps question on NYPD’s Israel training

JTA – New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked on Wednesday by City & State reporter Fariha Rahman whether the New York Police Department (NYPD) would continue with its plans to visit Israel in the coming months to meet with the Israeli national police for training. 

 “I don’t know what the city council’s plans are,” Mamdani replied. “They’re an independent body, and I’ll leave it to the speaker to answer that question.”  

Senior NYPD officials have previously travelled to Israel for counterterrorism and antisemitism training. 

Rabbis who attended a closed door meeting with Mamdani on Monday said that they had conveyed their concerns about how his rhetoric was impacting Jewish safety. Rabbi Jon Leener said that he would judge Mamdani and his administration by the “results they deliver around making Jewish New Yorkers feel safe.” Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, who was not invited to the roundtable, told JTA that the mayor should have coordinated with the New York Board of Rabbis to set up the representatives. Steinmetz claimed the mayor was “trying to just pick a group of people that he thought might be more congenial to his particular politics.” 

At the same time, a new poll from Siena University has found that just 26% of Jewish New Yorkers have a favourable view of Mamdani, while 66% hold an unfavourable view of the mayor.  

The poll was conducted from 3 to 6 August and surveyed 811 New York likely voters.