Former White House senior adviser David Axelrod on Friday said the Anti-Defamation League’s response to Zohran Mamdani’s (D) mayoral win was “shockingly gratuitous.”
“As a Jew & son of a Jewish refugee, I’m alarmed by the rise of antisemitism. The ADL’s mission is to call it out when they see it,” Axelrod wrote in a statement on X.
“But I found their response to Mamdani’s election shockingly gratuitous, inflammatory and deeply irresponsible,” he added.
Following Mamdani’s Tuesday win, the ADL launched the “Mamdani Monitor,” a public facing tracker to monitor policies, appointments and actions from his administration that they consider potentially harmful to the safety of the Jewish community.
“Mayor-Elect Mamdani has promoted antisemitic narratives, associated with individuals who have a history of antisemitism, and demonstrated intense animosity toward the Jewish state that is counter to the views of the overwhelming majority of Jewish New Yorkers,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director said in a statement.
“We are deeply concerned that those individuals and principles will influence his administration at a time when we are tracking a brazen surge of harassment, vandalism and violence targeting Jewish residents and institutions in recent years,” he added.