B’nai B’rith International condemns in the strongest terms New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s disgraceful and extremely offensive statement marking the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, in which he distorted and erased the experiences of the victims and the brutality Hamas inflicted upon them.

B’nai B’rith CEO Evan R. Bernstein said: “As mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel, Mamdani has a profound responsibility to recognize the weight this day carries for New York’s Jewish community.”

Instead, on the anniversary of the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust, he used his platform to promote inflammatory accusations against Israel while shifting the focus to deceptive accusations that Israel is committing genocide and apartheid.

That choice is particularly reckless in a city where anti-Jewish incidents have accounted for 52.9% of all confirmed hate crimes so far in 2026, though Jews make up roughly 10% of the city’s population.

More than 1,200 people were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, including 49 Americans, and 251 were taken hostage, including 12 Americans. New Yorkers were among those murdered and abducted. Yet rather than remembering the people whose lives were destroyed by Hamas terrorists that day, Mamdani made accusations against Israel the focus of his message.

Bernstein added: “This is especially troubling coming just days after Mamdani announced his administration’s new plan to combat antisemitism, and less than a month after the 25th anniversary of 9/11. A mayor cannot credibly claim to fight antisemitism and terrorism while using the anniversary of a terror attack to promote disinformation.”

New York’s Jewish community deserves a mayor who understands that the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks is not simply a political issue. It is the day Jews were massacred, families were torn apart and hundreds were taken hostage, fellow New Yorkers among them. That history must not be rewritten, minimized or erased.