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Mamdani’s antisemitism chief pledges trust-building amid early skepticism
Phylisa Wisdom, the progressive Jewish leader chosen to head New York City’s Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, says she is preparing to take a broad view of her mandate as she steps into the role under intense scrutiny.
In an exclusive interview with the Forward, her first since Mayor Zohran Mamdani named her last week, Wisdom laid out an ambitious early agenda focused on building trust across the city’s diverse Jewish communities and developing a comprehensive strategy modeled in part on the Biden White House’s national plan to counter antisemitism.
She described her overall approach as “being creative and committing resources to doing what we can to turn the tide.”
Wisdom, who is 39 and lives in Brooklyn, said Friday that one of her first steps when she assumes the role later this month will be launching a citywide “listening tour” spanning five borough-based hubs, including homes, schools and community centers. The goal is to understand the concerns and experiences of a broad cross-section of Jewish New Yorkers and build a sustainable relationship.
Her appointment comes as the city grapples with a sharp rise in antisemitic attacks and as the Mamdani administration faces scrutiny from the Jewish leaders after a divisive election shaped in part by his positions in opposition to Israel.
Wisdom acknowledged she faces a “challenging task” confronting rising antisemitism while serving a mayor whose anti-Zionist posture has left some questioning his commitment to the city’s prevention and response efforts.
Nonetheless, she stressed that the Mamdani administration is taking its commitment “very seriously,” and is prepared to deploy other city agencies to the work. Wisdom didn’t elaborate on how that cooperation would be structured. Mamdani outlined a broad framework for the office in his Day One executive order.
Serving as Mamdani’s point person on this issue, she said she aims to outline a framework to define antisemitism to help determine which incidents to investigate or pursue. The office, established by former Mayor Eric Adams last year through an executive order, initially adopted the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which considers most forms of anti-Zionism as antisemitic. Mamdani revoked the IHRA definition on his first day in office, prompting swift backlash from mainstream Jewish organizations.
To address the need for a working definition of antisemitism, Wisdom said she is looking to craft a city plan similar to the Biden White House’s national plan, which was released in 2022. Rather than adopting a single codified definition of antisemitism, Wisdom said the office will draw from the multiple established working definitions, including IHRA, the Nexus Document — which states that most criticism of Israel and Zionism is not antisemitic — and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which was released in 2021 as a progressive alternative to IHRA.
“We want to ensure that it’s really focused on policy, practice and investment, and not getting caught up in the definitional fight,” Wisdom said. “I think the best practice is to use myriad resources, including those three definitions.”
Wisdom said she hopes to release the plan before the High Holidays in the fall, when Jewish communal life is most visible.
She added that the office will work closely with both the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the New York State Division of Human Rights to coordinate enforcement and education efforts. Wisdom said she is also considering reviving the previous administration’s interagency task force on antisemitism to ensure cross-agency collaboration, including the New York Police Department and the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes.
Orthodox backlash
Wisdom’s appointment drew immediate backlash from Orthodox leaders and activists over her past work at an advocacy group that has pushed for enforcement of state secular education standards in yeshivas.
Wisdom, who had been the executive director of the progressive and pro-Zionist New York Jewish Agenda since 2023, was previously director of development and government affairs at Yaffed, which scrutinized yeshivas in Brooklyn over inadequate secular education. That history was not mentioned in City Hall’s official bio for Wisdom, an omission that immediately fueled suspicion.
The backlash also sharpened a political contradiction Mamdani himself has cultivated. During the campaign, he promised Satmar and other Hasidic sects that he would protect yeshivas from government intervention.
In the interview, Wisdom indicated that she has moved past her prior activism to focus on the office’s singular task: combating antisemitism in all its forms. She said she’s “acutely aware” that Orthodox New Yorkers “face the lion’s share” of antisemitic incidents in the city and that protecting visibly Jewish communities would be a top priority. Questions about yeshiva curriculum policy, she added, fall under the purview of the Department of Education.
Wisdom also pointed to her work at NYJA advancing a state hate crimes bill and helping implement the Stop Hiding Hate social media reporting law as evidence of her experience translating advocacy into enforceable policy.
“We are really going to be thinking about, rather than a sledgehammer approach, a scalpel approach to combating antisemitism,” Wisdom said. “One that will ensure all Jewish New Yorkers can feel safe and belong in the city.”
The post Mamdani’s antisemitism chief pledges trust-building amid early skepticism appeared first on The Forward.
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Trump Wants Say on Iran’s Next Leader, Claims Tehran Calling US About a Deal
US President Donald Trump speaks on the day he honors reigning Major League Soccer (MLS) champion Inter Miami CF players and team officials with an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
US President Donald Trump claimed the right to join Iran in deciding its next leader as the war escalated on Thursday, with US and Israeli jets hitting areas across the country and Gulf cities coming under renewed bombardment.
In a phone interview with Reuters, Trump said Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – a hardliner who has been considered a favorite to succeed his father – was an unlikely choice.
“We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future,” he said.
Trump also encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces to go on the offensive.
“I’d be all for it,” said Trump, whose administration has had contact with Iranian Kurdish groups since the US-Israeli strikes began. He would not say whether the United States would provide air cover for any Kurdish offensive.
The attack is a major political gamble for the Republican president, with opinion polls showing little public support and Americans concerned about the rise in gasoline prices caused by disruption to energy supplies. Trump dismissed that concern.
He said later in the day that Tehran was reaching out to the United States about making a deal amid US and Israeli strikes on Iran, adding that further action to reduce pressure on oil was imminent.
“They’re calling, they’re saying ‘how do we make a deal?’ I said you’re being a little bit late,” said Trump, speaking at an event with the Inter Miami soccer team at the White House.
Trump touted the US military actions in Iran, saying they were destroying Tehran’s missile and drone capability and that “their navy is gone – 24 ships in three days,” as he called on Iranian diplomats to request asylum and help shape a better country.
“We also urge Iranian diplomats around the world to request asylum and to help us shape a new and better Iran,” he said.
ISRAELIS WARN TEHRAN RESIDENTS
On the war’s sixth day, Iran launched a series of attacks on Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Fire crews in Bahrain extinguished a blaze at a refinery following a missile strike.
Two drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as an oil field operated by an American firm, security sources said.
The Israeli military warned residents to evacuate areas including eastern Tehran, while Iranian media reported blasts were heard in various parts of the capital. An air attack killed 17 people in a guest house on a road northwest of the capital, Iranian state television said.
MANY MUNITIONS, IRAN‘S ATTACKS DROPPED
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads US forces in the Middle East, said that the US has enough munitions to continue its bombardment indefinitely.
“Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation,” Hegseth told reporters at Central Command headquarters in Florida. “Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad.”
Cooper said the US had now hit at least 30 Iranian ships, including a large drone carrier that he said was the size of a World War Two aircraft carrier. He added that B-2 bombers had in the past few hours dropped dozens of 2,000 penetrator bombs targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers, and that bombings were also targeting Iran‘s missile production facilities.
Iran‘s ballistic missile attacks had decreased by 90% since the first day of the war, while drone attacks had decreased by 83% in that time frame, he said.
WARNING SIRENS BLARE IN MULTIPLE NATIONS
Azerbaijan on Thursday became the latest country drawn in, as it accused Iran of firing drones at its territory and ordered its southern airspace closed for 12 hours. Iran, which has a significant Azeri minority, denied it had targeted its neighbor, but the episode underlined how rapidly the war has spread since the surprise US and Israeli airstrikes that killed Khamenei on Saturday.
Along with the gleaming cities of the Gulf, in easy range of Iranian drones and missiles, Cyprus and Turkey have both been targeted. European nations have pledged to deploy ships to the eastern Mediterranean and hostilities have been seen as far afield as waters off Sri Lanka, where a US submarine sank an Iranian warship on Tuesday, killing 80 crew members.
In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at a primary school in Minab in the country’s south on the first day of the war. Another 77 have been killed in Lebanon, its Health Ministry says. Thousands fled southern Beirut on Thursday after Israel warned residents to leave.
NETANYAHU SAYS ‘MUCH WORK STILL LIES AHEAD’
Shares on Wall Street fell on Thursday, weighed by surging oil prices, as the economic impact of the campaign intensified, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas and air transport still facing chaos and global logistics increasingly snarled.
On Thursday, Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit a US tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and the vessel was on fire, the latest of numerous reports of such attacks.
Visiting an air force base in the south of the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s achievements so far in Iran had been “great” but that “much work still lies ahead.”
Iran‘s foreign minister said Washington would “bitterly regret” the precedent it had set by sinking a ship in international waters without warning. A commander of the Revolutionary Guards, General Kioumars Heydari, told state TV: “We have decided to fight Americans wherever they are.”
The body of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the first hours of the US-Israeli air campaign in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike, had been due to lie in state in a Tehran prayer hall from Wednesday evening to launch three days of mourning.
But the memorial, expected to draw many thousands of mourners to the streets, was abruptly postponed.
Two sources familiar with Israel’s battle plans said that Israel, having killed many Iranian leaders, was now planning to enter a second phase when it would target underground bunkers where Iran stores its missiles.
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Israel Decided to Kill Khamenei in November, Defense Minister Says
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz and his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias make statements to the press, at the Ministry of Defense in Athens Greece, Jan. 20, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki
Israel took the decision to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November and was planning to carry out the operation around six months later, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.
Khamenei was killed in the first hours of the US-Israeli air campaign that began on Saturday in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike.
The joint air assault is nearing the end of its first week after opening salvos killed the country’s leaders and set off a regional war, with Iranian attacks in Israel, the Gulf and Iraq, and Israeli attacks against Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Already in November we were convened with the prime minister in a very tight forum and the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] set the goal of eliminating Khamenei,” Katz told Israel‘s N12 TV news. The timing was set for mid-2026, he said.
The plan was eventually shared with the Washington and brought forward around January after protests broke out Iran, when Israel was concerned its pressured clerical rulers might launch an attack against Israel and US assets in the Middle East, Katz said.
Israel has said its aim is to eliminate the existential threat it sees in Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile project, and to bring about regime change. Iran’s rulers have so far shown no sign of relinquishing power.
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China in Talks With Iran to Allow Safe Oil and Gas Passage Through Hormuz, Sources Say
An oil tanker unloads crude oil at a crude oil terminal in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, China, July 4, 2018. Picture taken July 4, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
China is in talks with Iran to allow crude oil and Qatari liquefied natural gas vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz as the US-Israeli war on Tehran intensifies, three diplomatic sources told Reuters.
The war, which entered its sixth day on Thursday, has left the critical shipping passageway all-but shut, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
China, which has friendly relations with Iran and relies heavily on Middle Eastern supplies, is unhappy about the Islamic Republic’s move to paralyze shipping through the Strait and is pressing Tehran to allow safe passage for the vessels, according to the sources.
The world’s second-largest economy gets about 45% of its oil from the Strait.
Ship tracking data showed a vessel called the Iron Maiden passed through the Strait overnight after changing its signaling to “China-owner,” but far more sailings will be needed to calm global markets.
Crude oil prices are up more than 15% since the conflict began amid production stoppages as Tehran attacks energy facilities in the Gulf as well as ships crossing the Strait.
Its missiles have also reached as far afield as Cyprus, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, destabilizing global markets and prompting major economies to warn about inflation risks.
Crude tanker transits through the strait fell to four vessels on March 1, the day after hostilities broke out, versus an average of 24 a day since January, Vortexa vessel-tracking data showed.
Around 300 oil tankers remain inside the Strait, according to Vortexa and ship tracker Kpler.
Sugar industry veteran Mike McDougall told Reuters that Middle East sugar executives say there are some ships transiting the Strait at the moment, all of which are either Chinese or Iranian-owned.
Jamal Al-Ghurair, the managing director of Dubai-based Al Khaleej Sugar, told Reuters some ships carrying sugar are currently allowed to pass through the Strait while others are not, without giving further details.
Iran‘s government said earlier in the week that no vessels belonging to the United States, Israel, European countries or their allies would be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but the statement made no mention of China.