By: Assemblyman Michael Novakhov

New York’s Jewish community has lived with a simple reality for generations: Antisemitism never disappears — it only goes underground for a time until the right circumstances permit it to resurface. In recent years, Jew-hatred has grown exponentially. Antisemitic assaults on the subway, harassment outside synagogues and schools, and violent attacks in Brooklyn’s Jewish neighborhoods have become grim, near-daily occurrences.

In these moments, the NYPD is not a mere construct — it is the first line of defense. The Hate Crimes Task Force, patrol cars stationed outside synagogues on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and quick police responses to antisemitic attacks enable Jewish New Yorkers to live with some measure of safety. Remove that protection, and our communities are left exposed to the haters.

Democratic Mayoral candidate Mamdani’s anti-NYPD agenda would do exactly that. By stripping police from hate crime units and replacing them with community organizers and social workers, Mamdani puts a target on the back of the Jewish community. His calls to defund, shrink, and sideline the police may thrill his activist, Socialist base, but they ignore the most basic fact: Jews in New York are being attacked today — on the streets, in their neighborhoods, and even during pro-Palestinian riots outside their houses of worship. The headline in the New York Post’s February 18, 2025, edition screamed, “Anti-Israel protest erupts into mayhem in Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in NYC as agitators chant ‘Zionists go to hell.” Replacing the NYPD with community organizers to defend the Jewish community against hate crimes, does not prevent them. It invites more of them.

Mamdani’s NYPD plan defunds the police by shifting hate-crime enforcement to his newly created Department of Community Safety — a shadow force staffed by loyal activists, siphoning money and manpower away from the NYPD, while consolidating power in his own hands. In practice, it would be less a safeguard against hate crimes than a political army under City Hall’s control.

Equally alarming is his vow to disband the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG) — the unit trained for riots, terrorism, and hate crime threats. This is the same task force that has protected New Yorkers from violent flare-ups at pro-Palestinian marches across the city and prevented Hamas sympathizers from “globalizing the intifada” on our streets. Mamdani refuses to condemn that antisemitic slogan or the protests — and yet, he wants to eliminate the very unit that stops them.

Since his election to the New York State Assembly in 2021, Mamdani has built his political brand on attacking the NYPD from the outside. Now, at just 33, the Democratic Socialist could soon find himself in charge of running it. He has mocked a crying police officer on social media, and he has repeatedly and openly called for defunding and dismantling the department. This is not a youthful misstep or a passing slogan. As far back as 2020, Mamdani tweeted: “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, a major threat to public safety….” That wasn’t a mistake. That was — and remains — the core of his politics.

How Mamdani’s Recklessness Will Make Crime Worse for All New Yorkers

Mamdani’s radical, pro-criminal agenda would tie the city’s hands in the fight against crime. He opposes any changes to New York’s failed no-bail law, ensuring repeat offenders’ cycle in-and-out of custody without consequence. He rejects giving judges the power to institutionalize the dangerously mentally ill, leaving violent individuals to roam the streets and subways unchecked. Mamdani wants to end all misdemeanor charges, theft, drugs, assault, and even DWI. No penalties, no deterrent. Giving criminals a free pass would be disastrous for our safety. And he wants to close Rikers Island, which now holds about 7,000 inmates, and replace it with “community jails” that can house only 4,000. Where, then, will the other 3,000 criminals go? Mamdani’s policies don’t make New Yorkers safer — they guarantee more crime, more fear, and more victims.

Yet when it came to his own luxury wedding in Uganda, Mamdani demanded the very protections he wants to strip from New Yorkers. Guests partied under the watchful eyes of military-style armed guards, shielded by phone jammers and top-tier security. He made sure his inner circle felt safer in Kampala than New Yorkers feel riding the subway or going to synagogue. Mamdani’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. If his own family and friends deserved such protection to feel safe, why does he insist on stripping NYPD protections from New Yorkers, especially some of the most vulnerable, such as the Jewish community? Do Jews walking to synagogue, children leaving Hebrew school, and seniors heading to the grocery store not deserve the same safety his wedding guests enjoyed?

Mamdani’s war on the NYPD isn’t political theater — it is a direct threat to Jewish safety in this city. And it leaves a chilling question: in Mamdani’s New York, when hate comes calling, who will stand between Jewish families and the violent antisemitic mobs?

Michael Novakhov is a New York State Assemblyman serving the 45th District, which includes the neighborhoods of Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, Gravesend, Manhattan, and Brighton Beach