NEW YORK (JTA) – After attending a mayors’ gathering in Athens Wednesday to discuss solutions to antisemitism, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he wants to build “a pipeline” of young people from all walks of life to fight back against hate.
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“When you see these interactions that are negative, it’s involving young people,” Adams told the New York Jewish Week in a brief phone interview from Greece. “We have to go and build up that pipeline. We have not done that, and that is where I think we made a mistake.”
Adam’s reply came in response to a question about the controversy surrounding Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who was suspended after tweeting an endorsement of a film that features Holocaust denial and other antisemitic tropes. Adams appeared to agree that the incident threatened to further cool an already lukewarm relationship between Blacks and Jews.
“The error that I believe we’ve made is that we didn’t continue to build out the pipeline, because many of those who had strong relationships between communities, some have transitioned and may have passed on,” Adams said. “Some of us are still here.”
In a virtual press conference that followed his one-on-one with the New York Jewish Week, Adams continued with this idea, saying that the communities that value relationships between the Black and Jewish communities “must now expand and recruit and bring in other young people.”
“We have an obligation to bring those young people together and start being creative in how we foster those relationships,” Adams said. “That is what I’ve heard my mayors across the entire entire participant group in this workshop and seminar.”
In the same press conference, Adams called on federal lawmakers to take on more of a role in looking at social media’s influence on hate, adding that he wants to “convene together leaders of the social media industry.”
He also said that “it is troubling to find that many people who commit these hate crimes are not going to jail” and that he wants to hold people committing hate crimes more accountable for their actions.
The two-day summit, which began Wednesday, is a gathering of more than 50 mayors and municipal leaders from across the globe. It was created in partnership with the Combat Antisemitism Movement, a global coalition of 65 Jewish and interfaith organizations; the Center for Jewish Impact, an Israeli relationship-building organization, and the Jewish Federations of North America.
On Thursday, Adams was scheduled to visit the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Athens, lay a wreath at a Holocaust memorial and meet with the city’s Chief Rabbi, Gabriel Negrin.
During the first day of the conference, Adams was presented with the organizers’ Civic Leadership Award for “his dedicated commitment to fighting antisemitism and religious bigotry of all forms,” according to a press release.
Adams reflected on that relationship, telling the New York Jewish Week that he’s “not trying to tell them everything is alright when they don’t feel alright.”
“I notice the antisemitic acts that are happening,” Adams told the New York Jewish Week. “I’m clear that we must stop them. This is not something that started as mayor. This is how I’ve been as a state senator, as a borough president and now I’m continuing that as mayor.”
After Greece, the mayor will head to Qatar for the World Cup, which his team has described as a research trip ahead of 2026, when the global soccer tournament will include games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
I thought all the attacks were by white supremacists, at least that what we have been told for years.
All African-American students must be taught about the Lubavitcher Rebbeh shlit”a.
Is that dollars bills sticking out of his jacket pocket?
First the blacks should stop blaming Jews for their problems. It’s a new style for them to blame their black violent culture on the fact that black rappers create violent songs and celebrities are promoting immorality because of their “Jewish” handlers…They blame everything on the Jews including their violent culture, and the immoral culture of the word at large, on Jews.
And for those Jews here claiming that the “Jews do own Hollywood” stop repeating the lies that you heard without seeing the proof. You are repeating anti-Semitic tropes which are absolutely false. What proof do you have that Jews own Hollywood?
In any case, regardless of the producers, or “handlers” as they are currently being called, every person is responsible for their own actions so stop excusing these rappers and “celebrities” for their part in promoting garbage.
Nyc is not hosting a SINGLE game of the 2026 world cup. His election is in 2025 so pompous of him. Who’s the “we” he keeps referring to? In this world Salad of no condemnation
agreed. we must not le farakhan and moster create hate btwn blacks and jews