NYC Mayor Mamdani Visits Two Crown Heights Sukkahs During Tuesday Night Visit
by CrownHeights.info
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Crown Heights Tuesday night for a Sukkos visit that included stops at two local sukkahs, meeting with community figures as well as a number of senior city officials and political appointees.
The visit came just hours after Mamdani unveiled the city’s first municipal Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, a sweeping plan that includes increased funding for hate-crime prevention, additional security funding for synagogues and other houses of worship, expanded Holocaust and Jewish-history education, and renewed coordination among city agencies.
Mamdani’s first stop was the sukkah of Mrs. Devorah Halberstam, whose son Ari was murdered in the 1994 Brooklyn Bridge terrorist attack. Halberstam has long been active in Jewish communal affairs and has regularly hosted elected officials, law-enforcement leaders and other public figures in her sukkah during Sukkos.
The mayor arrived at the location through an alleyway rather than from the public-facing street, keeping his arrival largely out of view of the surrounding street. The gathering itself included a sizable contingent of city officials and political figures. Among those present were Governor Kathy Hochul, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and City Council Speaker Julie Menin, according to reporting from Israel Hayom.
The visit also came amid increased attention to Mamdani’s relationship with New York’s Jewish community. Earlier in the day, his administration announced its antisemitism strategy, which the city described as a “whole-of-government” effort to prevent hate violence, combat antisemitism, support victims, protect Jewish institutions and engage Jewish New Yorkers across the ideological spectrum.
From Halberstam’s sukkah, Mamdani continued to a second Crown Heights sukkah, that of Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, a local community activist and Chabad-Lubavitch media liaison.
Behrman subsequently told JNS that he hosted Mamdani in his sukkah in his personal capacity, emphasizing that the mayor had been in the neighborhood for an event and that he and his family invited him afterward to share the holiday experience. Behrman said the conversation focused on Sukkos, family and the lessons of the sukkah. His children also spoke with the mayor about the ushpizin, the spiritual guests traditionally welcomed into the sukkah.
Behrman said the family blessed the mayor that he should be “a uniter and bring New Yorkers together.” He also clarified that the visit was a personal interaction and not undertaken in his official capacity as a Chabad media liaison.
Mamdani’s appearance in Crown Heights comes against the backdrop of significant disagreement within the Jewish community over his policies and positions, particularly regarding Israel and antisemitism. Major Jewish organizations have raised concerns that the city’s new antisemitism strategy does not directly address anti-Israel rhetoric, while other Jewish organizations and leaders have welcomed the administration’s increased investment in security, hate-crime prevention and Jewish community engagement.
Photos: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
