NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new antisemitism czar has an extended historical past of spewing anti-Israel venom — as soon as saying she was “floored” by a social media publish condemning Hamas terrorists firing a whole lot of rockets at civilian areas within the Jewish state.
Phylisa Knowledge, the manager director of the Mayor’s Workplace to Fight Antisemitism, ripped remarks made in 2021 by then-mayoral candidate Andrew Yang condemning Hamas for the assaults.
Yang wrote that he and the “folks of NYC will all the time stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.”
Knowledge responded: “As an American Jew and a New Yorker, I’m floored by this tweet (though by no means stunned).” Her tweet got here on Might 10, 2021, as Hamas started what could be an 11-day onslaught that killed at the very least 13 Israeli civilians.
“NYC deserves a mayor who will rise up for Palestinians within the face of state-sanctioned violence,” she posted.
Knowledge additionally boasted about blowing off the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur.
“I completely missed Yom Kippur this yr,” the 39-year-old posted in September 2009. “Oh properly, I’ll repent subsequent yr??? (What sort of Jew flakes on YOM KIPPUR).”
Knowledge — who describes herself as a “liberal Zionist” who helps a two-state resolution for Israel and Palestine — is the previous govt director of the lefty group New York Jewish Agenda, which has criticized Israel’s army actions in Gaza.
It receives funding from far-left kingmaker George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, United Jewish Enchantment-Federation of New York and different nonprofits.
Mamdani, a staunch Israel critic, tapped Knowledge Wednesday to guide the MOCA as his first month as mayor was marred by a mind-blowing 182% improve in anti-Jewish hate crimes in comparison with January 2025 (31 vs. 11).
Critics concern the numbers will get even worse after Knowledge’s appointment.
“At a second when antisemitic hate crimes are at document ranges and disproportionately concentrating on Jewish New Yorkers, this workplace calls for management that unites, not divides,” mentioned a metropolis official who requested to stay nameless.
“There are literally thousands of revered, completed Jewish leaders on this metropolis who convey credibility and consensus to the desk. Selecting somebody surrounded by controversy undermines this disaster and weakens public belief in an workplace meant to fight hate”
State Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, a Brooklyn Democrat who’s Jewish, mentioned Mamdani “ought to have” made a more sensible choice however “doubts” the socialist mayor “might have.”
“Who of their proper thoughts takes a job to supposedly battle antisemitism for a mayor who markets in antisemitism?” he mentioned.
Knowledge changed Moshe Davis, who former Mayor Eric Adams named govt director when creating MOCA in Might.
The Publish revealed final week that Davis, in a Dec. 30 report, warned the incoming Mamdani administration to put in bollards and take different safety measures at homes of worship practically a month earlier than maniac Dan Sohail allegedly rammed his automobile into the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn.
Davis mentioned he’s troubled by the Knowledge choose.
“Liberal Zionists usually give an excessive amount of house to anti-Israel rhetoric, believing their progressive values require them to carry their very own folks at arm’s size,” he informed The Publish.
“They’ll say it’s as a result of they care about everybody equally. However caring for everybody equally whereas refusing to care to your circle of relatives first isn’t kindness — it’s self-erasure.”
The mayor in an announcement referred to as Knowledge a “principled and efficient chief within the work to confront antisemitism in New York Metropolis and past.”
“I look ahead to working alongside her to each construct a metropolis the place Jewish New Yorkers are protected, seen, and capable of thrive and to construct a crew that displays the range and power of our Jewish communities throughout New York,” he mentioned.
