There’s something deeply broken when a city’s plan to protect Jewish residents ends up writing checks to organizations that spent years undermining the Jewish state. Yet here we are in New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani thinks he can combat antisemitism with a $30 million strategy that includes funding for a group previously led by Linda Sarsour. Yes, that Linda Sarsour.
The mayor’s approach funnels $6.4 million through Partners Against Hate, which partners with the Arab American Association of New York. That’s the same organization Sarsour used to run before her reputation collapsed under the weight of her anti-Israel activism and Women’s March scandal. The logic here is hard to follow, and honestly, it shouldn’t make sense to anyone paying attention.
Mamdani became New York’s first Muslim mayor, and he’s facing reasonable scrutiny about whether his administration takes antisemitism seriously. The numbers tell a grim story. In just the first eight months of 2026, hate crimes against Jews reached 181 incidents. That’s not a typo. One hundred thirty-one of those were felonies. Compare that to 29 incidents targeting gay New Yorkers and 21 targeting Muslims, and you start to see why the Jewish community might feel singled out.
Antisemitic attacks make up roughly 9% of all tracked hate crimes in the city, representing the largest single category. Hate crimes overall jumped 16% compared to last year. These aren’t abstract statistics on a spreadsheet somewhere. They’re grandmothers afraid to walk to synagogue. They’re kids pulling off yarmulkes before getting on the subway. They’re families wondering if New York still wants them.
So Mamdani unveiled his $30 million plan this month, promising that Jewish New Yorkers could “walk down the street, enter their houses of worship and build their lives knowing that this city will stand with them.” Strong words. But actions speak louder, and the Arab American Association of New York has a track record that conflicts directly with supporting Jewish safety and dignity.
The connection between City Hall and AAANY isn’t new, which somehow makes this worse. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio set up this arrangement back in 2021 with a $3 million grant. He proclaimed that New York doesn’t tolerate hate or bigotry in any form, that the city would eliminate hate once and for all. Big promises from a politician who’s no longer around to answer for them.
But AAANY has spent years advocating against Israel, a position that many Jewish New Yorkers see as inseparable from antisemitism itself. When you dedicate yourself to delegitimizing the world’s only Jewish state, you can’t credibly claim you’re fighting hatred of Jews. The two positions clash at a fundamental level.
There’s a broader principle at stake here beyond just one organization’s checkered past. Government should protect citizens without contradicting itself in the process. You don’t fight racism by funding racial separatists. You don’t combat violence against women by partnering with groups that excuse domestic abuse. And you don’t protect Jews by sending money to people who spent their careers attacking the Jewish homeland.
This isn’t complicated conservative ideology. It’s basic common sense, the kind that seems increasingly rare in urban politics dominated by progressive pieties and identity politics gymnastics. Limited government means government that works efficiently when it does act. When City Hall decides to spend $30 million of taxpayer money, it should at least ensure those dollars don’t fund the very problem they’re supposed to solve.
The free market would never tolerate this kind of contradiction. No business could survive by hiring consultants actively working against their stated mission. But government operates under different rules, insulated from accountability by bureaucratic layers and political spin.
Mamdani’s administration faces a choice. Either take Jewish safety seriously by cutting ties with organizations hostile to Jewish interests, or admit this whole effort is performative nonsense designed to check boxes and quiet critics. There’s no middle ground where you fight antisemitism while bankrolling people who made careers out of Israel hatred.
New York used to be a city where Jews could thrive without apology, where they built communities and businesses and cultural institutions that defined the American experience. That legacy deserves better than a mayor who thinks fighting Jew hatred means keeping Linda Sarsour’s old group on the payroll.
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