By: Fern Sidman – Jewish Voice News

When Benjamin Tisch, the younger brother of New York City’s police commissioner, strode to the podium at the Met Council’s annual holiday dinner on Wednesday night, attendees expected an evening of philanthropic warmth and communal uplift. Instead, they were met with a speech that crackled with political urgency — a somber and fiery appraisal of a city at what he described as an “existential crossroads.” As The New York Post reported on Thursday, Tisch’s remarks quickly veered into blunt alarm: mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, he warned, represents nothing less than an “enemy” to the Jewish people.

Delivered at the Mandarin Oriental overlooking Columbus Circle — a symbol of New York affluence and multiculturalism — Tisch’s indictment landed with a jolt. The Met Council, one of America’s largest Jewish charities dedicated to fighting poverty, is not typically the site of political escalations. Yet the tenor of the night reflected a shifting landscape that The New York Post has covered extensively: growing communal anxiety, fears of radical policy shifts, and the contentious question of what New York’s future will look like under a mayor whose public positions have long alarmed the city’s Jewish community.

According to the information provided in the The New York Post report, Tisch’s remarks came as he presented an award, but the acknowledgments were quickly overshadowed by what he perceived as a clear and present danger. Mamdani, he charged, was a politician whose rhetoric and campaign tactics had “normalized antisemitism,” emboldened extremist ideologies, and sent a shiver of uncertainty through Jewish neighborhoods already on edge from global tensions linked to the Gaza war.

Though Tisch serves in a private corporate role — as an executive at the Loews Corporation — his familial connection to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch gave his statements additional resonance and complication. His admonitions against Mamdani were not cloaked in euphemism. Calling the future mayor an “enemy,” Tisch spoke for a segment of Jewish New Yorkers who now feel, as The New York Post put it, “deeply unsettled about the direction of the city.”

Tisch’s outrage is rooted in Mamdani’s record. During his campaign, Mamdani emerged as one of the most aggressive critics of Israel in American municipal politics. He openly advocated for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit New York City — a position that many Jewish leaders described to The New York Post as inflammatory, legally incoherent, and dripping with ideological hostility. For Tisch and others, such rhetoric was not simply political, but existentially threatening.

Jessica Tisch, widely respected across the city’s political spectrum for her competence and no-nonsense style, suddenly found herself caught between two worlds: the professional obligation to serve a newly elected mayor, and the emotional turbulence within her own family and community.

Just days before her brother’s remarks, she had publicly accepted Mamdani’s offer to continue serving as police commissioner — an offer many observers saw as strategic, even symbolic. Mamdani, who campaigned against aggressive policing, bail laws, and most law-enforcement-backed reforms, decided to retain one of the city’s strongest institutional figures of the outgoing administration.

Benjamin Tisch is right. His sister is a turncoat to her people, associating with that awful man Zohran Mamdani.

— Joe Arrow (@joearrow1) December 4, 2025

Following the uproar created by her brother’s remarks, Commissioner Tisch released a cautiously worded statement, quoted prominently in The New York Post: “I understand the fear in the Jewish community. My sincere belief is that the mayor-elect will live up to the commitment he’s made to be a mayor for all New Yorkers, including the Jewish community.”

Her statement reflected both professional loyalty and personal concern — a balancing act necessitated by a city teetering between competing visions of leadership.

Ben Tisch is a private citizen who has only said what many leading Rabbis have already said. So Bravo Ben

— Peter Lawrence (@Hoodview) December 4, 2025

Benjamin Tisch’s remarks were not an isolated flare. As The New York Post report noted, only 48 hours earlier, another titanic figure of New York’s business and philanthropic world — Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management — delivered nearly identical warnings. Speaking at a UJA-Federation dinner packed with Wall Street heavyweights, Rowan described Mamdani as someone who had “used antisemitism in his campaign” and therefore constituted an “enemy.”

The term “enemy,” used now twice in public forums, captures the unprecedented nature of the rift between parts of New York’s Jewish establishment and the incoming mayoral administration. The Post, in its ongoing coverage, has chronicled how Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist affiliations, his repeated denunciations of Israeli military action, and his vocal support for the “globalize the intifada” movement have triggered widespread fear.

Unlike traditional progressive criticisms of Israel, Mamdani’s positions  veer into hard-line territory: calls for full BDS support, demands for ending cooperation with Israeli institutions, and assertions that Israel has committed war crimes. For many Jewish New Yorkers, such claims represent not only a political divergence but an assault on identity, belonging, and safety.

The Tisch family — among Manhattan’s most prominent philanthropic dynasties — did not hide their political preferences during the election. As The New York Post reported, family members (with the notable exception of Commissioner Tisch) donated millions to support Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid in hopes of blocking Mamdani’s rise. Their efforts failed — but their resistance continues.

Tisch’s speech at the Met Council gala was thus both personal and emblematic. It embodied a growing sentiment within New York’s Jewish population: that Mamdani’s election represents a pivot the community neither wanted nor expected, and that vigilance is now required.

Faced with escalating criticism from high-profile figures, Mamdani moved to quell the controversy on Thursday. As The New York Post reported, he told journalists that Commissioner Tisch had reached out to apologize for her brother’s comments.

The mayor-elect offered no visible anger in his response, instead projecting a tone of conciliation and calm. Those close to the incoming administration say Mamdani recognizes the political necessity of reducing tensions ahead of his January 1, 2026 inauguration.

Yet critics are unconvinced. Mamdani’s attempt to pivot from ideological activist to citywide leader may face insurmountable obstacles. His record is long, public, and polarizing — and many Jewish New Yorkers believe his campaign crossed lines that cannot be walked back.

The New York Post has charted the rising polarization surrounding Israel in New York over the past two years, particularly in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre. Jewish neighborhoods have reported an alarming surge in antisemitic incidents, hate crimes, and social media vitriol. University campuses — from Columbia to CUNY — have become battlegrounds for anti-Israel activism.

Against that backdrop, the election of a mayor who repeatedly criticized Israel during wartime has struck many as destabilizing. Tisch’s warning that the community now faces “an enemy” is tied to a broader fear: that political power in New York may be shifting toward coalitions indifferent — or hostile — to Jewish security.

As Mamdani prepares to assume office in 2026, his relationship with New York’s Jewish community will be under a microscope. Every appointment, every policy proposal, every public statement will be examined for signs of reassurance or provocation.

Meanwhile, figures like Benjamin Tisch and Marc Rowan are unlikely to temper their vigilance. As The New York Post report observed, New York’s Jewish leadership is mobilizing, fundraising, and bracing for what they expect will be a contentious period in city governance.

Whether Mamdani can transcend his past rhetoric and govern inclusively — or whether the divisions exposed this week harden into political fault lines — will shape the city’s future.

For now, the message from the Met Council gala remains unambiguous: the stakes have changed, the guardrails feel uncertain, and New York’s Jewish community is watching with profound and uneasy attention.