NEW YORK CITY (JTA) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office is pushing back against criticism that its newly inaugurated Jewish Advisory Council is not diverse enough.
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That charge was aired in a New York Times story published Thursday that quoted liberal rabbis and U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler saying the council had too few women and too many Orthodox members. The Times noted that 23 of the 37 members of the council are Orthodox and that only 9 are women.
Mayor Adams failed to “adequately represent the demographic diversity of Jewish New Yorkers,” Nadler, the Upper West Side Democrat, said in a letter provided to the Times. “I encourage the mayor to work to better account for that diversity with changes to the council’s membership so that it can be balanced appropriately to properly reflect the community’s full range of views and needs.”
Ruth Messinger, the former president of the American Jewish World Service and former Manhattan Borough President, backed Nadler’s statement.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Adams pushed back on the assertion that the council isn’t diverse enough. The spokesperson said that the council “comprises a diverse assembly of Jewish men and women hailing from various religious and cultural backgrounds, including Chabad, Conservative, Hasidic, Non-Denominational, Modern Orthodox, Reform, Sephardic, and Yeshiva Orthodox affiliations.”
The spokesperson added that “lumping these groups together to insinuate that there is either ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’ is a dog whistle that unfortunately resonates with the Jewish people all too well and disrespects the uniqueness and cultural originality of these institutions.”
The city hall spokesperson said that the Jewish Advisory Council was designed to be inclusionary and the mayor is encouraging all who believe they can contribute to apply to join.
Last week, the 37 rabbis, Jewish activists and community leaders gathered at City Hall to meet with Adams for the first meeting of the council, which was assembled to address issues affecting Jewish New Yorkers, including rising anti-semitism and antisemitic hate crimes, education and quality of life.
I think I must have missed those NY Times articles about LGBTQ advisory committees being too LGBTQ.
Kudos to the mayor for calling out the antisemitism of liberal Jews.
What a waste! Another pr stunt for the guy sitting next to the so called Mayor
The whole jewish council is a joke
How many identifiable orthodox communities are there in NYC? Lets start with Boro Park, Williamsburg, Crown Hights, Flatbush/ Midwood, Far Rockaway Kew Gardens, Lower Est Side, Upper west Side YU / Breurs communities, Riverdale, Willowbrook K”eh. Now how many identifiable conservative or Reform communities are there? And by the way I don’t mind if there are 37 orthodox women on the council.
#Nadler #Ezra
the odious hate peddler who founded the anti frum hate group has an utterly insane piece online about how he can still call himself a charedi if he wants to [even though he has spent over a decade spreading lies, hate and incitement against the frum community!!! it as an utterly insane piece where he whines about supposed frum abusers getting aliyos despite the fact that his very own hate org mooched loads of of $$$$ off of accused abuser michael steinhardt!!!!!!!!!!!! is there a limit to this guy’s shameless hypocrisy!!] — so maybe these frum guys self identify as the typical jew in manhattan — happy now nyt haters
why waz theer no member of yaffed on this counsil. sinse he didnt let us jone we wil protest by holding up sines at the next meeting, plees feel soree for us