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2 of NYC’s 5 public pension funds are vulnerable to a mayor-backed Israel divestment push
The man who is likely to be New York City’s top finance watchdog under Zohran Mamdani — assuming they both win their races on Tuesday — has said he does not believe Mamdani could divest the city’s pension funds of their investments in Israel.
“Just doesn’t have the votes for that,” Mark Levine, the likely next comptroller, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in September.
But in fact, Mamdani would be able to stack the boards of two of the city’s five pension funds such that divestment from Israel could be on the table, according to a JTA analysis — and some of Mamdani’s supporters say they are optimistic.
“We have hope in a Mamdani administration,” said Leah Plasse, a school-based social worker who has been lobbying for two years for the Teachers’ Retirement System to divest from Israeli assets.
As the election draws close and Mamdani maintains his lead in the polls, Jewish New Yorkers are wondering about how a mayor who is a longstanding supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel could enact his vision in New York City.
Mamdani has stated his intention not to invest city funds in Israel bonds, in keeping with the current comptroller’s decision not to reinvest when $39 million in bonds matured in 2023.
But the city’s pension funds hold Israel investments beyond Israel bonds, which are issued by the Israeli government. The BDS movement calls for divesting from “all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid” — expanding targets to include most Israeli companies as well as non-Israeli companies that do business with the Israeli government.
The Teachers’ Retirement System’s Israeli investments include military technology companies — which Plasse and the group NYC Educators for Palestine have honed in on — as well as a variety of businesses like energy companies, food manufacturers and fuel companies.
Altogether, the city’s five public pension funds contain approximately $315 million in Israeli assets, according to the comptroller’s office. Mamdani has not indicated an intention to push for full divestment, but he also has not denied the possibility when asked.
Asked about doing so in a JTA questionnaire last week, Mamdani responded, “I support the approach of the current comptroller, Brad Lander, to end the practice of purchasing Israel bonds in our pension funds, which we do not do for any other nation.” He also did not specifically respond to part of that question which asked how else he might advance the cause of BDS as mayor.
What’s clear is that if Mamdani chose to make divestment a priority, pathways exist within the city’s pension fund management where headway could be possible.
For each of the city’s five pension funds to make any investment decisions, its board of trustees must vote in favor. Those boards vary in size, but typically consist of the comptroller, an appointee by the mayor and a number of labor representatives. Recommendations are made to those boards by the comptroller’s in-house Bureau of Asset Management.
Levine emphasized that a mayor could not “singlehandedly” overrule the comptroller’s recommendations to divest from Israel. But on boards where the mayor has more influence over the makeup of the trustees, the mayor could do so with the help of his or her appointees.
The Board of Education Retirement System, for example, has a 28-person board of trustees — a 15-person majority of whom are appointed by the mayor. Of those 15 mayoral appointees, one is the schools chancellor, one is an independent appointee, and the other 13 are the mayoral appointees on the city’s Panel for Educational Policy. (Mamdani has said he wants to reduce the influence of the mayor on the PEP.) The number of votes required to pass a resolution in the BERS is 15, though that figure must include one of the board’s two employee-elected members.
The board of the Teachers’ Retirement System, meanwhile, consists of seven members, and requires four votes to pass a resolution. Three of the members are mayoral appointees, one represents the city comptroller, and the other three are elected by the teachers on staggered three-year terms.
The three teacher members on the board now are all drawn from the teachers union’s leadership caucus. The union, the United Federation of Teachers, endorsed Mamdani.
The other three pension funds — for police, firefighters and city employees — are less susceptible to mayoral influence because the mayor appoints a smaller proportion of members.
While the movement to boycott Israel has called for divestment since 2005, advocacy has ramped up in many places in the last two years during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In New York City, pro-Palestinian advocacy groups have gained little traction under an Eric Adams mayoral administration that is not sympathetic to their activism.
In fact, the Teachers’ Retirement System board has been resistant to advocacy for divestment, according to Plasse, who noted that the board “voted to close the public comment period after 1.5 years of us coming to speak about divesting our pension.”
Plasse said she was told this change was made for the sake of consistency, as no other pension funds’ board meetings include public comment periods. But she said it felt “quite clear” the real reasoning was to stifle her and her group’s “continued advocacy.”
Indeed, groups such as NYC Educators for Palestine and Workers for Palestine have regularly sent representatives to the public meetings of the pension boards. In public comments, the activists have pointed to examples like the city’s divestment from South African businesses in the 1980s, and more recently, the funds’ unilateral decision to divest from Russian securities in 2022, to show a precedent.
“And just on a personal note, before the holidays, as a Jew, before Hanukkah begins, I truly believe in tikkun olam, which is the repairing of the world,” Plasse said in the public comment period of a December 2024 board meeting of the Teachers’ Retirement System, according to meeting minutes. “We are funding genocide. That is against my faith.”
Any effort to divest from Israel would likely butt up against Levine, who is expected to win the race for comptroller. Levine, who is Jewish, endorsed Mamdani but has said he wants the city to resume investing in Israel bonds. NYC Educators for Palestine joined the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace outside Levine’s office last week for a protest they named “Break the Bonds,” calling his intention to invest in Israel bonds one that puts “deadly politics over the interests of working New Yorkers.”
Levine, however, says he isn’t motivated by pro-Israel sentiment. The investments, he notes, have always been sound for the city. (Levine’s campaign did not respond to requests for a follow-up interview.)
That means the issue of Israeli investments — which, according to Levine, are a sturdy piece of an investment portfolio that serves more than 750,000 New Yorkers — could bring some of Mamdani’s deeply held values into conflict. In response to JTA’s question on divestment, he emphasized the central promises of his campaign.
“My priority as mayor will be to deliver on the affordability agenda I ran on: freezing the rent, universal childcare, and fast and free buses,” Mamdani answered. “That will always be the core of my administration.”
And advocates for divestment say they won’t stop pushing the case before the pension boards. At October’s Teachers’ Retirement System board meeting, Plasse handed out a written statement calling for an investment analysis and declaring that her group would be undeterred by the board’s repeated denials.
“I am more than open to meet with anyone about anything that has been discussed here today,” the statement read. “But please know, we are only becoming more embolden [sic] to demand this change. This is our money and the time will come.”
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The three responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer
After two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens more, the world is asking urgent questions: Could this be the first of many such attacks? Who might be behind it? And how can we prevent the next tragedy?
Was Iran involved?
Iran, with its long history of using proxies and terrorism, naturally comes to mind. Israeli intelligence has publicly warned that Tehran remains highly motivated to target Israeli and Jewish interests abroad.
Reports suggest that Israeli agencies have assessed not only that Iran has the intent, but that it also possesses the capability to use its networks — through Hezbollah, Hamas, and other proxy groups — to strike outside the Middle East. Western governments, including Australia, the U.S., and members of the EU, have acknowledged Iranian intelligence activity on their soil.
The motivation is clear: Israel’s military strike damaged Iranian infrastructure and positions in June, followed shortly by U.S. attacks that compounded the damage and were widely celebrated in Israel and by Jewish communities. To Iran’s benighted regime, they were provocations that demanded a response. Certainly some of the investigation into the Bondi Beach attack will look in that direction.
But focusing solely on Iran risks missing a more immediate and pervasive danger: Violence against Jews does not require orchestration by a foreign state. The conditions that make it possible — and increasingly thinkable — are already everywhere.
Terrorism against Jews has gone global
Terrorism is tragically easy to carry out. Only two months ago, two Jews were killed by a Muslim attacker on Yom Kippur who rammed a car into a crowd outside a synagogue in England and attacked people with knives.
And while the UK and Australia severely restrict access to weapons, nowhere in the developed world is mad violence easier to orchestrate than in the United States. Firearms are cheap, accessible, and legal for virtually anyone, and the sheer size of the country makes monitoring and security far more difficult than in smaller, more centralized nations. Lone actors can wreak destruction on a scale that would be unthinkable elsewhere. If one wanted to locate the most vulnerable place for ideologically motivated attacks, the United States sits uncomfortably near the top.
Motivation for such violence has been growing steadily. Antisemitic attacks have increased across the Western world, and the way the Gaza war unfolded has only accelerated the trend. The narrative of “genocide” has become increasingly entrenched, making it harder for Jews to occupy the once-unquestioned moral space: I still defend Israel and should not be attacked for it. That space is collapsing.
“The idea that Jews collectively bear responsibility for Israel’s actions is seeping into public consciousness in ways that make massacres like Bondi Beach more thinkable, if not inevitable.”
Dan Perry
Polls now show that roughly half of Americans believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Substantial minorities go further, rationalizing recent attacks against Jews as “understandable” or even “justified.” These numbers do not indicate majority support for violence, but they are significant enough to suggest that moral restraints are weakening.
This shift is particularly pronounced among younger generations, where hostility toward Israel has become a moral baseline. It does not automatically translate into action, but it lowers the social cost of excusing violence. The idea that Jews collectively bear responsibility for Israel’s actions is seeping into public consciousness in ways that make massacres like Bondi Beach more thinkable, if not inevitable.
The situation is compounded by Israel’s current government. Its policies and rhetoric have alienated large swathes of the global community, including non-orthodox Jews in the United States. The government’s posture — contemptuous, dismissive, and occasionally openly sneering — makes the work of diplomats, community leaders, and advocates far more difficult. Israel’s failure to convey a nuanced understanding abroad of the delicacy of its own situation, nor give any inkling of introspection about its conduct in Gaza, feeds perceptions of illegitimacy and exacerbates antisemitism.
So, what can be done?
The 3 ways to make Jewish communities safer
First, Jewish communities must assume that maximal security at every event, and certainly on holidays and around landmarks, is essential not optional. Every public event, school, and institution should be protected at the highest feasible level. Prudence demands it. Governments that claim to protect minorities must fund and sustain this protection, not treat it as an emergency add-on after tragedy strikes.
Second, political leadership matters. World leaders must speak clearly and forcefully against antisemitic violence. Silence or hedging is read as permission. Muslim leaders, in particular, should speak plainly: Condemning attacks on Jews is not an endorsement of Israel, nor a betrayal of Palestinian suffering — it is an assertion of basic moral boundaries. President Donald Trump, despite his many failings, has a unique capacity to apply pressure. If he insisted publicly that major figures in the Muslim world denounce antisemitic violence, he could secure statements and commitments that might otherwise be unattainable. That could save lives.
Finally, Israel itself must confront its role. The current government has become a strategic liability — not just for Israel’s security, but for Jews worldwide. Its policies, tone, and posture have helped create the conditions in which antisemitism flourishes abroad. This in no way justifies attacks on Jews, but we must live in the real world that can be cruel, indifferent, superficial and unfair.
A government that understands the global stakes, communicates openness to the world, respects the diversity of the Jewish diaspora, and approaches foreign and domestic policy with nuance and restraint would do enormous good. It would not eliminate the threat overnight, but it would drastically reduce the conditions that allow such hatred to grow. Replacing the current government with one capable of such diplomacy and moral awareness could, in a sense, be the most effective preventive measure of all.
The Bondi Beach massacre is a devastating warning. It is a tragedy that could have happened anywhere and serves as a grim reminder that antisemitic violence is an urgent threat to Jews everywhere.
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U.S. leaders condemn ‘vile act of antisemitic terror’ after deadly Hanukkah attack in Australia
American politicians responded early Sunday to devastating reports from Sydney, Australia, where at least 11 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at the popular Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the terror attack an “act of evil antisemitism” that targeted Australia’s Jewish community.
Some elected officials struck a somber tone, while others drew political conclusions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a brief statement condemning the attack and said that “antisemitism has no place in this world.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Australian government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state earlier this year encouraged “the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, tied the attack to the Israel-Hamas war, sending a warning to governments that support the unilateral recognition of an independent Palestinian state before Hamas is disarmed. “When you appease those who kill Jews, you get more killing of Jews,” Graham said in an interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
Sen. John Fetterman, a pro-Israel Democrat from Pennsylvania, echoed that sentiment on the same program, saying that anti-Israel protests in recent years have “penetrated” into violent attacks on Jews. “Just call it what it is,” Fetterman said. “Antisemitism is a worldwide scourge, and it’s constantly demonstrated to be deadly.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, posted on X that the attack is a “shocking reminder that antisemitism and hate is not only toxic and far too present and widespread around the world, it is deadly. It must be vigorously condemned, confronted and overcome.”
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani issued a statement, posted on his social media accounts, calling the attack a “vile act of antisemitic terror” and “the latest, most horrifying iteration in a growing pattern of violence targeted at Jewish people across the world.”
Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel whose statements on the conflict and refusal to disavow the “globalize the Intifada” slogan have roiled and divided the Jewish community, said the deadly attack should be met with urgent action to counter antisemitism. He also reiterated his pledge to “work every day to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe — on our streets, our subways, at shul, in every moment of every day.” New York City is home to the largest concentration of Jews in the United States.
Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the police department will provide additional security at public menorah lightings across the city. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state police will assist with protection. “New York will always stand against the scourge of antisemitism and confront violence head-on,” Hochul added.
Brad Lander, the outgoing New York City Comptroller who is Jewish, and also running for Congress, also highlighted the heroism of a local man, Ahmed al-Ahmed, who put his own life at risk by running behind one of the gunmen and tackling and disarming him. Lander mourned the killing of a Chabad of Bondi’s Rabbi Eli Schlanger.
“Our menorahs tonight will also be yahrzeit candles — with grief for this grievous loss and rededication to shine brighter than slaughter and hate,” Lander wrote on X.
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Timeline: How attacks on Jews in Australia have been growing since Oct. 7
The mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday marked a grim new chapter in a pattern Australian officials have been tracking for more than two years: the steady escalation of antisemitic threats, from harassment and vandalism to arson, attempted attacks on synagogues and, now, mass-casualty violence at a public Jewish gathering.
Police said at least 11 people were killed, including a rabbi, when a gunman opened fire on families celebrating the first night of Hanukkah at the Chabad event, known as “Chanukah by the Sea.” Federal and state leaders swiftly condemned the attack as antisemitic terrorism and pledged a full national security response.
For Australia’s Jewish community, which numbers around 100,000, the shooting shattered any remaining sense that the country’s recent antisemitic incidents — alarming as they were — remained largely isolated and contained. Some of those attacks, including the Dec. 2024 firebombing of a kosher restaurant and a firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue that same month, were linked to potential Iran involvement.
Sunday’s attack followed mounting warnings from law enforcement and Jewish organizations that antisemitism in Australia had entered a more dangerous phase since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and the war in Gaza ensued.
Below is a timeline of major recent antisemitic incidents in Australia, as authorities and Jewish groups charted an intensifying threat.
July 2025
Australia’s antisemitism envoy reported a dramatic rise in attacks against Jews, citing more than 2,000 cases in the year following Oct. 7 — an increase of more than 300% compared with the previous year.
July 2025
A man set fire to the front door of a synagogue in Melbourne while congregants were inside for Shabbat dinner, as a separate group of protesters stormed an Israeli restaurant nearby. No one was injured in either attack, police said, adding that the synagogue fire was quickly extinguished and that one person was arrested after demonstrators chanting anti-Israel slogans disrupted the restaurant.
Feb. 2025
Two nurses at a Sydney hospital were arrested after they threatened to kill Israeli patients in a video that went viral. It was an episode officials described as emblematic of how antisemitic rhetoric had seeped into workplaces and public institutions.
Feb. 2025
Police in Melbourne arrested a man accused of scrawling antisemitic graffiti in a park and throwing a packet of bacon at a passerby who confronted him.
Feb. 2025
A cluster of incidents in Sydney’s southeast suburbs, home to a large Jewish community, raised alarm among authorities. Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on cars, homes and on a Jewish elementary school.
Jan. 2025
Police discovered explosives in a camper van in Sydney, saying the device may have been intended for a mass-casualty attack targeting Jews. Police later revealed that the plot was an elaborate hoax masterminded by a crime boss.
Jan. 2025
Two synagogues in Sydney were vandalized on successive days with swastikas and other antisemitic slogans. The attacks also included a nearby home that was defaced with an anti-Jewish slur.
Dec. 2024
The Australian government formed a national antisemitism task force, signaling a shift toward treating antisemitic violence as a coordinated security threat rather than isolated hate crimes.
Dec. 2024
Arsonists firebombed an historic synagogue in Melbourne, causing congregants gathered for morning services to flee. At least one person was injured and the building suffered extensive damage.
In Aug. 2025, federal authorities announced charges in the case and said intelligence agencies were examining evidence of foreign-linked coordination. Officials publicly alleged Iranian involvement, escalating the case into a matter of international security, and expelled from the country Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other Iranian officials.
October 2024
On Bondi Beach, where the Dec. 2025 shooting took place, arsonists first attacked a brewery which they had incorrectly identified as a kosher caterer. They went back and set fire to the caterer’s building a few days later. Authorities eventually revealed they thought the attacks were done at the behest of Iran. That same month, antisemitic graffiti appeared on a Jewish bakery in Sydney.
May 2024
Vandals sprayed antisemitic graffiti on a Jewish school in Melbourne. School officials increased security amid concerns about copycat attacks.
Feb. 2024
Pro-Palestinian activists made public the personal details of hundreds of Jewish academics, artists and professionals who had participated in a private WhatsApp group. The leak triggered a wave of harassment, prompting at least one family to go into hiding. The episode drew condemnation from federal leaders and warnings from police that online targeting could translate into real-world violence.
Dec. 2023
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported a sharp spike in antisemitic incidents in the weeks following Oct. 7, including threats, harassment, vandalism and intimidation. The increase prompted expanded security at synagogues, schools and community centers across major cities.
Nov. 2023
A Melbourne synagogue was ordered to evacuate during Friday night Shabbat services as police responded to nearby pro-Palestinian demonstrations. About 150 congregants had gathered at Central Shul in Caulfield when authorities advised them to leave as a precaution.
Oct. 2023
Two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Sydney Opera House was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag and was expected to draw Jews looking for a public space to mourn. Instead, it drew more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom spewed antisemitic slogans and rhetoric.
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