New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s interagency task force to combat antisemitism held its inaugural meeting on Thursday at City Hall in Manhattan.

Adams signed Executive Order 51 in May that created the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, the first office of its kind in a major city in the US. Moshe Davis is the executive director of the mayoral office and is also the head of the interagency task force. The task force’s main partners include the New York Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force, Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, and New York City Commission on Human Rights.

Representatives from nearly all New York City agencies attended the task force’s first meeting on Thursday, including members from the departments and offices of sanitation, education, family justice, environmental protection, small business services, health and mental hygiene, and correction. There were also representatives from the Fire Department and City Parks, and the Jewish community’s liaison for the city’s Commission on Human Rights attended as well.

During the meeting, the group collaborated and discussed ways to tackle antisemitism as it relates to their various fields, for example antisemitic crimes targeting small businesses, ensuring street entrances to synagogues are safe with the help of the Department of Transportation, and responding to hate crimes happening in parks such as antisemitic swastika graffiti. Around 4 percent of antisemitic hate crimes take place in the city’s parks, according to Davis.

“Our agencies are really excited to be doing this work,” Davis said. “They are saying, ‘Hey if there is a problem, we want to be a part of the solution. We are in. We want to do this.’ And there is really a diverse group of people.”

The Algemeiner sat in for the meeting’s opening remarks, but then members of the press were ushered out so representatives from the city agencies could speak openly and privately.

“We are all here to make sure that we become a shining example in city government of what to do, of what not to do, and of what will be tolerated,” First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said at the start of the meeting. “We are a city that welcomes diversity – diversity of race, background, socio-economic status … [we have to make sure] that our brothers and sisters in every religious community feel embraced and safe … we will be a better city. A city with a bigger heart.”

After the meeting, Davis told The Algemeiner that similar meetings with all members of the task force will take place in-person at least quarterly, but he will also meet one-on-one with task force members and teams on a regular basis.

Davis shared that during the meeting, attendees discussed the mission of the task force, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism – which New York City adopted in June – antisemitism training, how to keep synagogues safe, and other similar topics. He said the group also talked at length about specific measures that can be taken to combat antisemitism in “hot spots” throughout New York – most notably the Brooklyn areas of Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Midwood – where there are large Jewish populations and have been a number of recent hate crimes targeting Jews. Davis said the task force is focused on addressing antisemitism in these communities.

“Antisemitism is a pervasive, ugly disease that has sadly infiltrated so many sectors of our city, but we will never allow that to stand unanswered under our administration,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner. “Today, we continue to tackle this crisis head on by rooting out hateful rhetoric and ensuring it has no place in even the most remote corners of our city government. From schools to sanitation to police, our administration will never allow antisemitism — or any other form of hate — to persist. We will continue to build a future in which every New Yorker can live without any fear of hatred.”

After creating the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism in May, Adams signed Executive Order No. 52 in June officially recognizing the IHRA definition of antisemitism and encouraging all city agencies to use it as a tool to help identify and response to antisemitic behavior in New York.

The city’s mayoral election is in November, and Adams — a strong supporter of Israel and the Jewish community – is running for another term as an independent. New York City Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a staunch advocate of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and a fierce critic of the Jewish state, won the Democratic Party primary in June and is a frontrunner to win the general election.

Adams did not attend the task force meeting on Thursday and instead showed face at a reelection rally that took place outside City Hall at the same time. During the start of the meeting, participants could hear rally goers chanting “four more years” outside the building.

Davis told press on Thursday that any future administration that wants to disband the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism would need to create an executive order to rescind Executive Order 51.

Many Jewish community members have expressed concern that antisemitism might increase under Mandani if he is elected in November because of his anti-Israel views. The Algemeiner asked Mastro about those concerns on Thursday, and in his response, he turned the focus to Adams, describing him as a uniter. “This mayor unites. He brings people from all races, background and faiths together,” Mastro said. “He stands up for all of that.”

Earlier this month, Mastro sent a letter to New York City Comptroller Brad Lander demanding documentation that explains the latter’s decision to withdraw tens of millions of dollars in city pension funds from bonds issued by Israel. Mastro’s deadline for Lander was Thursday. The deputy mayor told The Algemeiner he has yet to receive the requested documentation and does not expect to. He also hinted that he might be pursing legal action against the comptroller.

Lander “made a conscious decision to allow investments in Israel Bonds to run their course and not reinvest at all,” Mastro said. “He is the first comptroller in 50 years [ to do so]. But he said it’s not divesting … Today I do not expect to get any documentation from the comptroller … In the bond portfolio, Israel Bonds have performed better than the rest of the bonds. So why would you get rid of Israel Bonds? You have a fiduciary duty to maximum the return for the city … and certainly you have an obligation to provide documentation to show how this decision was made.”

The post NYC Mayor’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism Holds First Meeting With Reps From Nearly All City Agencies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

The British band Massive Attack announced on Thursday an alliance for musicians who are facing alleged “intimidations from within” the music industry and legal profession as well as “organized censorship” for accusing Israel of committing genocide during its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

“We write as artists who’ve chosen to use our public platforms to speak out against the genocide occurring [in Gaza] & the role of the UK government in facilitating it,” the band, who are ardent critics of Israel, wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. “Because of our expression of conscience, we’ve been subject to various intimidations from within our industry (live & recorded) and legally.”

The English trip hop collective said it is aware of “aggressive, vexatious campaigns” by the group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and “multiple individual incidences of intimidation within the music industry itself; designed solely to censor & silence artists from speaking their hearts & minds.”

“We won’t standby & allow other artists … to be threatened into silence or career cancellation,” the band added.

Similar versions of the statement were shared on Instagram Stories by the Irish bands Kneecap and Fontaines DC. Musician and producer Brian Eno shared the statement in a post on his Instagram page and the British duo Bob Vylan voiced support for the statement in a comment on Massive Attack’s Instagram post. British singer Paloma Faith expressed solidarity with the new alliance in a comment on Kneecap’s Instagram page. “I’ve been shadow banned for some time !!!” she wrote. “Keep going everyone it’s going to eventually change! Hang in there.”

The musicians in the newly formed alliance encouraged other artists who wish to speak up in support of “Palestine” but are “concerned about industrial or legal repercussions” to contact them. The post announcing the creation of the alliance also called for the “immediate, unfettered access” of international aid to Gaza; a ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war; the end of UK arms sales and licenses to Israel; and a “free Palestine.”

Massive Attack additionally highlighted a documentary film about the actions of UKLFI screened on Wednesday night by the British activist group Led By Donkeys.

Massive Attack said in a statement on Friday that the new alliance offers solidarity to artists who “are living day after day in a screen-time genocide, but are worried about using their platforms to express their horror at that” because of censorship in the industry or from legal bodies “terrifying them & their management teams with aggressive legal actions.”

UKLFI responded to Massive’ Attacks accusations against the organization, and detailed its history with the band, in a statement shared with The Algemeiner on Friday.

“Massive Attack has launched an attack on our organization, which helps to protect victims of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel racism,” said Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI. “Unfortunately, antisemitism has become an everyday part of life in the UK,  and those trying to protect its victims are now subject to vicious attacks by the perpetrators.”

During Massive Attack’s performance at the Lido Festival in London on June 6, they invited an anti-Israel activist on stage who accused Israel of genocide, apartheid, and a “brutal occupation.” He also compared Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the atrocities Jews faced in the Holocaust. During their set, Massive Attack additionally called  for the release of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti and projected images of Yahyah Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who masterminded the deadly terrorist in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Massive Attack later denied support for Sinwar.

UKLFI was contacted by several Jewish and Israeli audience members at the Lido festival “who were deeply distressed and traumatized by what they saw,” Turner told The Algemeiner on Friday.

“Several of the Israelis attending the performance had friends and relatives who were murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7,b2023, at the Nova festival and were extremely upset by what they saw at the concert,” Turner added. “The band exploited the vulnerability of concertgoers who had come seeking musical unity, instead delivering divisive political theatre. The scenes were reminiscent of history’s darkest chapters — like a Nazi era rally, with crowds chanting in unison, manipulated by carefully crafted messaging. We wrote to Massive Attack to convey this, and requested that future performances do not repeat these actions. We believe in free speech and artistic expression; however we felt this performance crossed a line and made audience members feel deeply traumatized.”

Kneecap shared on Thursday that police in the UK will not pursue legal charges and have dropped their criminal investigation into the group’s controversial Glastonbury Festival performance in late June, where they lead the crowd in several chants of “f–k Keir Starmer” against the UK’s prime minister, as well as “free Palestine.” A member of Kneecap was charged with a terrorism offense in June for allegedly expressing support for the US and UK-designated terrorist group Hezbollah. He is due in court on Friday.

Police also launched a formal investigation into Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury, during which lead singer Pascal Robinson-Foster led the crowd in chants of “Death, death, to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces. UKLFI said it reported Robinson-Foser to Avon and Somerset Police in the UK for a possible breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, which prohibits threatening and abusive words and behavior within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm, or distress. UKLFI also reported the British Broadcasting Corporation to police for live streaming Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set.

The US State Department has revoked Bob Vylan’s US visa because of their controversial comments at Glastonbury.

Many Jewish bands and musicians who have visited Israel are being boycotted by venues and festivals, having their concerts canceled, or facing intimidation and threats from supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

The post British Band Forms Alliance for Musicians Facing ‘Intimidations’ for Accusing Israel of ‘Genocide’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

In late March 1144, in the English town of Norwich, the body of a young boy named William was discovered in a wooded area just outside the city. He had been missing for several days when a group of nuns stumbled upon his corpse, hanging from a tree. 

There was no sign of who had killed him. It might have been a group of bandits, or perhaps a passing vagrant, or – as some have suggested – possibly suicide. At the time, there was no investigation and no drama. Just a tragic, unexplained death. And life moved on.

William’s unexplained death might have faded into obscurity were it not for a man named Thomas of Monmouth – a zealous Benedictine monk with a cause, and, unfortunately, a flair for storytelling.

In his book, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich, Thomas claimed that William hadn’t been the victim of some random act of violence. Instead, he insisted the boy had been ritually murdered by the Jews of Norwich, in a gruesome reenactment of the crucifixion, as part of a sinister Jewish plot. 

Thomas offered no evidence and no witness testimony, nor even a remotely plausible theory as to how or why the Jews of Norwich – who were by all accounts well integrated into local society – would have committed such a crime. But Thomas was persuasive, and his tale found eager listeners. And so, William became the first ever “victim” of a Jewish ritual murder –the prototype for every blood libel that followed.

Six years later, in 1150, the blood libel turned lethal. A local knight, Sir Simon of Novers, murdered a Jew, Eleazar of Norwich, to whom he owed a considerable sum of money. In a calculated attempt to cover up both the killing and the debt, Sir Simon accused Eleazar – again, with no evidence whatsoever – of being part of a Jewish conspiracy to murder Christian children. 

The accusation ignited a fuse. Soon after, a rabbi traveling from England back to Cologne was set upon and killed by a mob. One baseless claim led to another, and what began as a fabricated tale became a campaign of incitement and violence.

And so it went on, with one fabricated blood libel after another. Eventually, in 1255, there was the infamous case of “Little Saint Hugh” of Lincoln — an eight-year-old boy who went missing, and whose death was swiftly blamed on the local Jews. 

But this time, the accusation wasn’t just gossip – it was endorsed by the Crown. King Henry III personally intervened, ordering the arrest of ninety Jews and the execution of eighteen. There was no trial and no evidence, just frenzy and fury – all dressed up in religious zealotry and moral posturing.

But here’s an interesting fact that rarely gets mentioned – going all the way back to that very first blood libel, the case of William of Norwich. The local Christians — the ones who actually knew the Jews, lived alongside them, worked with them, and traded with them — never believed a word of it. 

They didn’t revere William as a saint or martyr, and they certainly didn’t riot or attack their Jewish neighbors. They simply rolled their eyes and got on with their lives. Because they knew the Jewish community. Critically, they also knew Thomas of Monmouth, and that he was spinning a self-serving tale — one part fantasy, two parts ambition.

They understood, as people close to the facts often do, that truth is almost always far less dramatic than myth and legend.

Fast forward nearly 900 years. Once again, Jews are being accused of ritual murder. Not literally, perhaps, but the accusations are eerily similar in form and function. Israel defends itself against an unprovoked massacre on October 7th – and tries to root out those who murdered them, and openly threaten to do it again. 

But instead of sympathy, Israel is subjected to a torrent of accusations. Israel, we are told, is committing “genocide.” The IDF is “targeting babies.” Food, water, and medical aid are being deliberately withheld from innocent civilians so that children will die – because, apparently, Jews are cruel by nature. 

The rhetoric is breathless and furious. It is also unmistakably familiar. We are told that Jews are killing with calculated malice, as part of some twisted Jewish plot.

Just like the blood libels of medieval England, these accusations have no basis in fact. They ignore every detail that doesn’t fit the script. Hamas’ culture of martyrdom — its glorification of death, its deliberate use of human shields, its strategy of weaponizing suffering – is waved away as irrelevant. The story is simple: The Jews are guilty. The Jews are evil. The Jews must be stopped.

And just like in Norwich, the loudest voices are not the locals. The blood libel wasn’t born in a Norwich tavern. It was concocted by a Welsh monk who wanted to make a name for himself, then picked up by powerful outsiders with axes to grind. Similarly, today’s most impassioned anti-Israel narratives are not coming from people in the region. 

The Saudis – who, if anyone has cause to stoke the flames, it’s them – are not buying into the hysteria. They’re watching and waiting – preparing to join the Abraham Accords when the dust settles. 

The voices calling for boycotts, sanctions, and diplomatic “punishment” of Israel are coming from thousands of miles away – college campuses in America, city councils in Europe, and self-appointed “truth-tellers” on social media. 

But they don’t know the facts. Because they don’t want to know the facts. Like Sir Simon of Novers inventing a conspiracy to erase a debt, or King Henry III scapegoating Jews to consolidate power, these voices have pre-written their script and are just looking for a way to act it out.

And, just like in 13th-century England, once officials get involved, the damage multiplies. French President Emmanuel Macron recently declared that France would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. There’s no plan, no borders for this “state,” no Palestinian leadership, and no peace partner. But none of that matters, because this isn’t about building a future. It’s about punishing the Jews – sorry, Israel – for its “crimes.”

But here’s the hopeful part. The people closest to the situation – those who actually live in the region — know the truth. They may not be cheering for Israel, but they see what’s really happening. They know that Hamas is a terrorist organization, hellbent on death and destruction, with no interest in peace or progress. They know that Israel isn’t waging war for conquest or cruelty. They want Hamas gone, and they want the hatefest to end. And, most of all, they want to move on.

Which brings us to the prophet Jeremiah, whose words open the Haftorah for the first Shabbat of the period we call the Three Weeks, when Jews around the world mourn the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Temple that once stood at the center of Jewish life. 

Jeremiah lived in a time of chaos and collapse – foreign empires were rising, Jerusalem was under siege, and truth had become an endangered species. And yet, in Jeremiah’s very first prophecy, God reassures him: “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you – for I am with you to save you” (Jer. 1:19). 

Not just you, Jeremiah. But you, Israel. Yes, you will suffer. Yes, you will be vilified. But the nations that rise against you won’t last. Time and again, Jeremiah returns to the same message: the nations that rise against Israel will eventually disappear, but Israel itself will endure.

Israel’s enemies – loud, arrogant, fiery outsiders – are passing actors in a much longer story. They make a lot of noise, and they may cause harm – but they are not the authors of history. As Jeremiah says, power doesn’t mean permanence, and popularity doesn’t mean truth. When the dust settles, those who are grounded in reality are the ones who remain standing. The others fade away. 

Today’s blood libelists may sound powerful. But in the end, they are just the Sir Simon of Novers of today. And just as the Jews of Norwich survived that storm, so too will the Jews of Israel survive this one. Because the people of Israel are home, and that’s not negotiable – no matter how loudly the libelists shriek. 

Both history and prophecy agree: The shriekers come and go, but Israel always remains.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

The post The Blood Libels Come and Go, But We Will — and Must — Survive first appeared on Algemeiner.com.