{"id":93573,"date":"2026-08-10T18:31:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=93573"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:31:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:31:53","slug":"mamdani-didnt-invite-us-to-meeting-with-rabbis-ny-board-of-rabbis-rabbinic-council-of-america-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/mamdani-didnt-invite-us-to-meeting-with-rabbis-ny-board-of-rabbis-rabbinic-council-of-america-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani didn\u2019t invite us to meeting with rabbis, NY Board of Rabbis, Rabbinic Council of America say"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By RIKKI ZIGELBAUM<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div class=\"ArticlePage-dateAndSource\">(<em>JNS.org<\/em>)&nbsp; \u2013&nbsp; The New York Board of Rabbis was not invited to a roundtable discussion that Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, held with rabbis on Monday, a spokesman for the board told JNS.<\/div>\n<p>The board represents more than 750 rabbis across religious denominations in the New York area.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor\u2019s office told reporters on Monday afternoon that the closed press meeting was slated for 3:45 p.m.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_93574\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93574\" class=\"wp-image-93574 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani.webp 1000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93574\" class=\"wp-image-93574 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani-300x169.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Rabbi_Mamdani.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-93574\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, and Rabbi David Niederman, executive director of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, at Gracie Mansion in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month on May 18, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know who he went through,\u201d a board representative told JNS, of the mayor, who has drawn widespread criticism from New York rabbis and Jewish organizations for his criticism of Israel and response to Jew-hatred in the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe didn\u2019t go through us,\u201d the New York Board of Rabbis told JNS. \u201cWe had nothing to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Etan Tokayer, president of the Rabbinic Council of America, told JNS that he too had not received an invitation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsent any context, I cannot say whether I would attend had I been invited,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tokayer told JNS that he wrote a letter several months ago to the mayor\u2019s Jewish liaison after it was reported that Mamdani\u2019s wife, Rama Duwaji, had made \u201cvenomous antisemitic comments,\u201d in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a strong but thoughtfully balanced note,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cI received no reply.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Mamdani%20didn%E2%80%99t%20invite%20us%20to%20meeting%20with%20rabbis%2C%20NY%20Board%20of%20Rabbis%2C%20Rabbinic%20Council%20of%20America%20say\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":93574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[8790,8795,8788,14708],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93575,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93573\/revisions\/93575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}