Mamdani Marks Oct. 7, and New York's Rabbis Answer Back

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Wednesday with a statement posted to the official @NYCMayor account on X that mourned the Israeli dead in its opening lines and then turned to an indictment of the Israeli government, which he accused of an "ongoing genocide" in Gaza.

The reaction from New York's Jewish institutions came the same day. The Anti-Defamation League, in a public response, accused the mayor of "weaponizing a day meant for mourning" and noted that the statement never uses the word "Jews." Joe Potsanik of the New York Board of Rabbis called the statement insensitive. Israel's consul general in New York, Ofir Akunis, renewed his invitation for Mamdani to sit through the Israel Defense Forces' 47-minute film of the attack, which the consulate screened in the city that evening. Those responses were carried by local and Israeli outlets whose reports Patriot Daily Wire has not independently confirmed.

The episode matters beyond one post. The fight over how Mamdani talks about Oct. 7 followed him from the campaign into City Hall, and it now plays out on official city channels rather than a candidate's feed.

What the Statement Said

Mamdani wrote that the day "marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7," and cited his own figures of more than 1,100 Israelis killed and 251 people abducted, as Just the News reported. Most accounts of the attack put the death toll at roughly 1,200.

From there the statement pivoted to Gaza, condemning what Mamdani called "the Israeli government's devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza" along with occupation and apartheid, and closing on American complicity: "all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes."

He put the Palestinian death toll at more than 74,000, including more than 21,000 children, and said more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since what he termed the "so-called ceasefire." Those numbers are the mayor's own, and they trace back to Gaza health ministry counts that the outlets reprinting them did not independently verify. The genocide charge itself remains contested: South Africa's case against Israel is still pending at the International Court of Justice, and both the United States and Germany have rejected the label. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Invitation Mamdani Hasn't Answered

Akunis had been pressing the mayor since the start of the week. At a consulate memorial Monday evening attended by about 1,000 people, the consul general invited Mamdani to view "Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre," the 47-minute compilation the IDF assembled from GoPro footage recorded by the attackers themselves. Akunis put the invitation in a letter published Tuesday. After the mayor's statement went up, the consul general said he wanted Mamdani to "see with his own eyes, for the first time, what kind of human monsters he supports."

City Hall had not responded to the invitation as of Tuesday.

The friction predates the anniversary. Mamdani rescinded a set of his predecessor's executive orders, including the city's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Akunis said at the time that the move places the city's Jewish communities in immediate danger.

Not a New Position

None of this came out of nowhere. In 2025, as the Democratic nominee, Mamdani issued a second-anniversary statement that described Israel's war as "genocidal," prompting Israel's Foreign Ministry to call him a "mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda." What has changed is the letterhead. The words now go out on the mayor's official account.

Outside City Hall on Wednesday, by accounts in the Israeli press that remain single-sourced, more than 20 pro-Palestinian groups had organized a rally, facing a competing gathering on the other side.

The open questions are whether Mamdani ever accepts the consulate's invitation, whether City Hall answers the ADL directly, and whether Israel's Foreign Ministry weighs in as it did a year ago. For now, the mayor has said his piece, and New York's Jewish organizations have said theirs.