NYC Mayor Adams signs orders to combat antisemitism, bar city funds from BDS movement

NEW YORK — Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams signed two executive orders Wednesday intended to counter antisemitism and prohibit New York City agencies and pension funds from making investment or procurement decisions that boycott or discriminate against Israel.

The orders come less than a month before Adams leaves office and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, is sworn in on Jan. 1. Mamdani will have the authority to rescind the orders once he takes office.

One order directs city agencies to ensure that business and pension investment decisions do not discriminate against Israel. The city’s five public pension systems manage roughly $300 billion in assets, including hundreds of millions invested in Israeli securities.

The second order requires the New York Police Department to increase enforcement against harassment and threats targeting synagogues and other houses of worship.

Adams announced the measures while attending the North American Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism in New Orleans.

“We are putting in safeguards that protect New Yorkers’ tax dollars and protect their right to practice their religion without harassment,” Adams said in a statement.

The moves intensify an ideological divide between Adams, a moderate Democrat, and Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has defended BDS as a nonviolent way to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

In a Nov. 4 MSNBC interview, Mamdani said he would support “non-violent movements to bring about compliance with international law” and pledged to be mayor for all Jewish New Yorkers.

The executive orders were signed one week after protesters outside a Manhattan synagogue chanted slogans including “globalize the intifada,” according to police and media reports.

 

Adams has repeatedly warned of rising antisemitism in the city since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Last month, while in Israel, he told a Jewish audience that “everything is not fine” in New York following Mamdani’s election victory.

--REAL AMERICAS VOICE

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