New York City has been waiting nine months to find out what would happen to the hatred directed against the Jewish residents of the city by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It received a response of about 30 pages Tuesday. The plan is committed to protecting the security money and school programs. It's quiet on the issue that has plagued his relationship with the city's Jewish institutions since before he was elected.

The numbers tell us why the argument is important. Though Jews represent nearly 10% of the city's population, antisemitic incidents accounted for nearly 60% of NYPD reported hate crimes last year. Antisemitic hate crimes are up about 8 percent since Mamdani took office. In comparison, the premiums are relatively low. It's $7.4 million the administration is spending today. That's from a $26 million bump for the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, which was announced in May and nearly a ninefold increase.

The $7.4 million includes $6.4 million for Partners Against the Hate grants, which are double last year's amount. The other $1 million is for cameras, lighting, locks and risk assessments at synagogues and other sensitive buildings. In addition, separate grants fund a Queens Holocaust Memorial ($2 million) and a Brooklyn Jewish culture center ($2.5 million). The new hate-prevention dollars are a drop in the bucket in a city budget that exceeds $100 billion, but it's a big deal to the small nonprofits that receive them.

The plan also relaunches an interagency working group to help synagogues get through city permitting for security upgrades. Moshe Davis, who had presided over the office under Eric Adams, attributed the protective measures to the "globalization of the intifada" threat and believed they will help protect from that attack. Even opponents of the mayor admit that a locked door and a functioning camera are not reliant on any politician's point of view.

The plan doesn't include the issue. Does not use the term Zionism. It ignores the attack on October 7, instead merely observing that incidents increased following this attack. Charlottesville, Pittsburgh and Poway are all examples of antisemitic violence perpetrated by white supremacy. Recent attacks in the name of hatred towards Israel do not feature, such as the Colorado firebombing during a hostage rally or the assassination of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington. Also, there's no definition for antisemitism. The IHRA working definition was axed by Mamdani on his first day and his office states a "singular definition" is not necessary and not useful.

A joint statement was signed by the city's three largest Jewish organizations - UJA-Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the local office of the American Jewish Committee and the New York Board of Rabbins. They embraced the security funding, and then demonized Israel, using rhetoric that targets Jewish New Yorkers. The Anti-Defamation League had requested a definition. Council member Eric Dinowitz, who co-chairs the antisemitism task force, said the strategy is a "missed opportunity" to address "how attacking or excluding 'Zionists' can serve as a smokescreen for prejudice. Rabbi Mark Goldfeder compared the plan to the Adams blueprint, which contained all the pages that don't relate to Israel.

There is a case on the other side and it's not frivolous. The plan was supported by Bend the Arc in New York, the Jewish Democratic Council of America and various progressive groups. But the chief executive of Bend the Arc said a definition is not needed and sometimes a hindrance. The mayor's office points to other models as being followed in the Biden administration's 2023 national plan, which it says has implemented multiple frameworks instead of just one, as being a good idea for the city to follow. There is a legitimate civil liberties concern under that, and many times, Mamdani has said that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are two distinct concepts. A city that makes its political opinion part of an anti-discrimination rule is inviting lawsuits and a chilling effect on protests.

Both of these positions are strong and neither resolves the issue of practice. The distinction between the two types of people is not as apparent to ordinary New Yorkers as it is to a policy paper. The person walking into the synagogue to pray is a Jewish neighbor, not a foreign government, when outside protesters chanted slogans calling the synagogue's members “baby killers” and a picture of a foreign leader was displayed in a noose. A definition isn't a philosophy seminar. It tells a school principal what to do about a teacher's lesson, it tells the police when a demonstration has become harassment and it tells a grants officer what counts. If there is none, these calls are made case-by-case, and case-by-case decisions go to the pushers.

The rest of the world doesn't wait for New York to figure it out! This week, the Community Security Trust (CST), which is Britain's national charity dedicated to tackling antisemitism, revealed that there had been a 14 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents at UK campuses in the 2025-26 school year. Dozen governments have accepted the IHRA text, and the others are making it up. Everywhere, city halls are discovering that it is possible to establish a security budget in a session of an afternoon, but not a question about what to call and how to identify a person.

The distance between politics and the policy won't close without being heard. Speaker Julie Menin (D) had no input, and House Republicans are already exploiting the issue against the New York Democrats. At a Sukkot event Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul pledged to "fight like hell" for the community, a clear rebuttal to the mayor's tone. When asked why the plan does not include a definition, Mamdani told Israel Hayom it is not necessary, and that the city would fight against all forms of antisemitism.