Millions of dollars in New York City funding earmarked for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new antisemitism strategy could flow to organizations with records of anti-Israel advocacy, financial filings indicate.
Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled what he described as the first municipal strategy of its kind in the United States to combat antisemitism, announcing investments in hate-crime prevention, security coordination and Jewish cultural institutions.
The strategy outlines a $7.4 million package of measures to combat antisemitism, including $6.4m. in grants for hate-crime prevention and survivor support, $1m. for security upgrades at synagogues and other houses of worship, expanded Holocaust education, investment in Jewish cultural and historical institutions, and renewed coordination between city agencies and Jewish institutions.
However, the 30-page strategy does not adopt a formal definition of antisemitism, saying that New York City can combat antisemitism without adopting a single definition.
The omission has drawn criticism from Jewish organizations, which say that the strategy also fails to address the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism or the forms of anti-Jewish hostility Jewish New Yorkers are currently encountering.
The words Zionism, Zionist, or even anti-Zionist do not appear even once in the entire document. Israel is only mentioned a couple of times.
Breaking down the funding of Mamdani's plan
Part of the strategy involves doubling funding for Partners Against the Hate (PATH) grants to community-based organizations aligned to the prevention framework with a renewed focus on countering online hate speech, data collection, restorative justice and survivor support. This is now set at $6.4m.
One of the top advocacy groups involved in PATH is the Arab American Association of New York, an anti-Israel organization previously run by pro-Palestine activist Linda Sarsour.
According to the Arab American Association of New York’s (AAANY) 2025 Form 990, the association gave a grant of $57,779 to Council on American-Islamic Relations, New York (CAIR-NY) as part of PATH, and a $58,084 grant to Jews For Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), also as part of PATH.
In fact, AAANY has given over $223,000 to CAIR-NY since 2021.
CAIR was founded 30 years ago as an organization dedicated to fighting anti-Muslim hate. It has, however, become known for its extreme anti-Israel and antisemitic messaging.
CAIR co-founders scrutinized for terrorist ties
Co-founders of CAIR, Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad, and Rafiq Jaber have all faced government scrutiny over their ties to Islamist terrorism.
Ahmad, according to the FBI, led a pro-Hamas conference in Philadelphia in 1993, where he and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and Islamic Association of Palestine members discussed how to best support Hamas while concealing their true beliefs, such as support for Hamas conquering all of Israel, from the US.
Recently, the New Jersey branch of CAIR came into the headlines for teaching students that the 9/11 terror attacks were due to “America’s support of Israel” and said, “terrorism is defined differently by different groups of people.”
CAIR has not been designated as a terrorist organization by the US federal government, but it has faced state-level terrorist designations by Republican governors in Texas and Florida.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations in 2025, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted to designate CAIR as a domestic terrorist group in September 2026.
JFREJ is a progressive Jewish organization that strongly opposes the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. It deems Israel’s actions “occupation and apartheid.”
Figures online such as David Kelsey have noted the irony of city anti-hate money being passed through AAANY to groups like CAIR.
It is also relevant as CAIR was one of the largest backers of Zohran Mamdani’s winning mayoral campaign.
In the lead-up to the November New York City mayoral election, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Mamdani’s campaign received $100,000 from a CAIR-affiliated PAC.
CEO and Director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center Mark Goldfeder pointed out on X/Twitter that most of Mamdani’s “first-ever” antisemitism strategy is just the plan of his predecessor, former mayor Eric Adams’ plan “but with every page that touches Israel torn out.”
And the funding designed to combat hate will likely end up bolstering the very organizations fueling it.
The Jerusalem Post reached out to CAIR for comment.