NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander at a campaign stop in Manhattan on Feb. 28. Courtesy of Brad Lander for Mayor
By Jacob Kornbluh
March 3, 2025
Brad Lander, one of two Jewish candidates in New York City’s crowded mayoral race, drew on his background and the city’s status as the largest Jewish community outside Israel, in unveiling a public safety plan that includes measures to curb the rise in antisemitism.
Though the two-page section in the 17-page proposal is dedicated to combating all hate crimes, Lander – a lifelong progressive and Jewish activist – said it connects his social justice values with the safety concerns of the Jewish community.
According to NYPD statistics, Jews – who make up 12% of the city’s population – accounted for 54% of reported hate crime victims last year. Antisemitism spiked since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, which prompted Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Reported incidents include physical assaults, death threats and verbal harassment, particularly in Jewish neighborhoods and on college campuses.
In an interview, Lander said he feels a sense of urgency in his bid to be the leader of the heavily-Democratic city that many fear may no longer serve as the haven it has long been, particularly for Jews escaping centuries of discrimination and violence. “I want this to continue to be the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known and one of the greatest Jewish cities too,” he said.
Recent polls show Lander, 55, running third after disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and besieged Mayor Eric Adams. That puts Lander among the top four candidates in the June 24 ranked-choice Democratic primary. Scott Stringer, the former city comptroller who is also Jewish, is also in contention for a top spot. Voters can delineate up to five choices on their ballots, a new voting system that was implemented in 2021 to avoid runoff elections if one candidate fails to get a majority of the vote.
Who is Brad Lander?
Lander grew up in a Reform Jewish family in Creve Coeur, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Rabbi Susan Talve, the founding rabbi of Central Reform Congregation who lit the menorah at the Obama White House Hanukkah party in 2015, officiated his bar mitzvah.
From a young age, Lander was deeply involved in social activism, serving as the social action vice president of the Reform Jewish youth movement, formerly known as the North American Federation for Temple Youth, now simply NFTY. The night before the 1987 mass rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of Soviet Jewry, he organized an event with Jewish activists at Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C.
In college, Lander was an active member of Hillel at University of Chicago and worked as a Sunday school music teacher and youth group advisor at KAM Isaiah Israel, the city’s oldest Jewish congregation. After a brief period at University College London, he moved to New York at age 24 and began volunteering with Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) on the Upper West Side. He later became co-chair of the organization, leading campaigns for tenants’ rights and affordable housing. His participation at social justice protests led to numerous arrests for civil disobedience. He remains active in JFREJ, which now advocates for an arms embargo on Israel, and formerly a member of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives, a Brooklyn-based congregation.
Lander transitioned into politics in 2009, launching his first campaign for City Council. For twelve years he represented the 39th Council District in Brooklyn, which includes the neighborhoods of Park Slope and Borough Park, which are both home to significant populations of Orthodox and Reform Jews. In 2021, he ran successfully for comptroller, the city’s chief accountability officer and independent watchdog, becoming the highest-ranking Jewish city official.
In recent years, Lander forged close relationships with progressive Jewish and liberal Israeli groups, becoming more vocal about Palestinian rights and a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though Lander opposes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, he supported Ben & Jerry’s decision to end sales in the occupied West Bank in 2021. Since Oct. 7, Lander has regularly attended a weekly rally against the Israeli government’s handling of the war in Gaza, has backed calls for a permanent ceasefire and met with families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Lander’s antisemitism plan
In an interview, Lander said his goal is “to build a very broad coalition” for his campaign that reflects the full diversity of New Yorkers across all five boroughs and to deepen his relationships, even with Jews who are more conservative than he is.
Lander’s plan to fight antisemitism calls for strengthening the existing police hate crimes task force by enhancing its ability to investigate incidents, providing specialized training for officers and increasing community-police partnerships. He said the mayor’s office for the prevention of hate crimes, an agency created in 2019 to counter rising antisemitism, would coordinate all the efforts.
He would also work with the Citizens Crime Commission, a criminal justice nonprofit, mandate training for all city employees on recognizing and addressing hate crimes, and facilitate educational trips for school kids and students to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan.
Lander said he supports the allocation of financial resources to religious institutions and houses of worship to have visible NYPD presence or other security measures as needed. And he pledged to keep Jessica Tisch, who was appointed in November as police commissioner, quipping that it’s “not only because she’s Jewish.”
The right to peaceful protest
A firm believer in free speech rights, Lander said he would allow the pro-Palestinian protests to continue if they remain nonviolent and avoid hateful rhetoric. “The First Amendment protects the right to say hateful things, as long as they don’t involve direct harassment, targeting of individuals, or criminal activity — and that’s not easy to watch,” he acknowledged. However, he said that when protests include offensive displays or antisemitic statements, it is important for elected officials to unequivocally condemn them.
Earlier this month, clashes erupted in Borough Park, a heavily Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters outside an Israeli real estate expo. Some of the protesters called the Jewish onlookers “filthy” Zionists and “disgusting,” and chanted “settlers go back home.” Lander condemned that “in the strongest terms.”
Lander drew a parallel between the recent protests and the 1977 neo-Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois.
“We hated it, we condemned it,” he said. “But we recognized it as an important part of American democracy, that there are protections for civil liberties, and that those have protected Jews so many times.”
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