Four Jewish bar associations have called on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to address the absence of Jewish members from his 19-person judiciary advisory panel. The groups, including the Brandeis Association, Jewish Lawyers Guild, Brooklyn Brandeis Society, and Queens Brandeis Association, along with the Anti-Defamation League, have formally requested Mamdani rectify what they describe as a significant omission from a committee tasked with screening and recommending candidates for judgeships across the city.
City Hall announced the panel on July 22, touting it as a "truly representative cross-section of the legal profession in New York City." The executive order establishing the committee stated its membership "shall reflect the cosmopolitan population of the City of New York." Ramzi Kassem, Chief Counsel to the Mayor, stated that the appointments bring "a wide range of professional experience from all five boroughs to the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary" and reflect the administration’s commitment to a "fair, inclusive and transparent judicial selection process."
However, the bar associations argue that the exclusion of any Jewish members from this influential body contradicts the administration's stated goals. In a joint letter sent to Mayor Mamdani and other city and state officials, the groups stated, "At a time when antisemitism is rising and Jewish communities are increasingly under threat, excluding Jewish voices from this influential body is not only disheartening, it is dangerous." They added that the lack of representation "sends a deeply troubling message to the Jewish community and undermines the committee’s credibility and ability to serve all New Yorkers fairly."
The letter was sent to Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, and Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, among others. The concerns are amplified by recent events highlighting safety fears within the city's Jewish community. This past week, an intruder entered the grounds of the Jewish Institute of Queens and injured a child, and an Orthodox Jewish man was allegedly stabbed near a synagogue by an assailant who reportedly shouted anti-Islam sentiments.
Mamdani's press secretary, Joe Calvello, told NBC New York that any suggestion of religious motivation behind the appointments was "false." Calvello stated that Mamdani had appointed "a dozen qualified judges from a range of backgrounds, including Jewish judges," and noted that the administration declined to appoint retired Justice John Leventhal, who is Jewish, due to his prior service on Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team.
Gerard Filitti, a Jewish civil rights attorney, emphasized the significance of the omission in a city with the largest Jewish population in the United States. He noted the committee's role in selecting judges who will preside over cases, including hate crimes. "His own chief counsel called the slate a truly representative cross-section of the city's legal profession, in the city with the largest Jewish population in America, on the panel that will pick the judges who hear hate-crime cases," Filitti wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "City Hall did not deny the exclusion. It changed the subject to judges Mamdani appointed elsewhere. Jewish New Yorkers are owed the same representation as everyone else, and this mayor just seated a panel that gives them none."