A cadre of local politicians are demanding Mayor Eric Adams increase diversity on his newly-created Jewish Advisory Council, claiming that the group’s composition “does not reflect the diversity of the Jewish community.”
The pols fired off a letter on Monday to the city’s chief executive, lamenting that the Council is too heavily skewed toward Orthodox men — leaving little room for non-Orthodox Jews, women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
“We urge you to take a second look at the Council and expand the membership to better represent the reality of Jewish demographics in the city,” reads the letter, signed by Comptroller Brad Lander, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and 8 local legislators.
Adams had formed the Jewish Advisory Council in response to rising anti-Semitism in the Big Apple, which saw a 39% increase in hate crimes targeting Jews in 2022, compared to the year prior, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“With anti-Semitic crimes up across the nation, our newly-formed Jewish Advisory Council will ensure that Jewish New Yorkers in every community have a seat at the table and have access to the support and resources the city offers,” Adams said in a statement announcing the Council’s formation on June 26.
The Council is also tasked with assisting the city’s government on dealing with sensitive issues like education in the Jewish community. New York’s Department of Education recently released their findings of a yearslong investigation in local yeshivas, which accused those institutions of systemically depriving students of adequate secular education in subjects like math and english.
The Jewish Advisory Council’s makeup
While the signatories of the letter praised the concept of the 37-member Jewish Advisory Council’s creation, they took aim at the overrepresentation of Orthodox Jews, noting they make up only a fraction of Jewish people in New York, which itself is the nation’s most Jewish city.
“At least 23 members and as many as 30 members are Orthodox while the majority of Jews in New York City are not Orthodox,” the letter reads. “The Jewish Advisory Council should not discount the views of Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, non-denominational, and non-religious Jews, who can all contribute valuable insights into their different traditions, culture, and worldview.”
On top of their gripes about lacking voices from other sects of Judaism, they also singled out that only 9 members are women.
“Jewish women experience many of the same struggles and have many of the same values of their male counterparts, but they also face unique challenges posed by the intersectionality of their gender and religion,” the pols wrote.
People of color and the LGBTQIA+ community are also in short supply on the Council, according to the letter’s 10 signatories.
“The Council appears to have no self-identified members of color or LGBTQ members. Jews of color and LGBTQ Jews are doubly at risk of suffering from discrimination and hate crimes in our communities, and their voices would be invaluable to the Council,” they said.
In addition to Lander and Levine, the letter was signed by state Senators Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Liz Krueger and Julia Salazar; along with Assembly members Linda Rosenthal, Deborah Glick, Andrew Hevesi and Harvey Epstein.
The final pol to add their name, City Council Member Lincoln Restler of northern Brooklyn, was the only member of his legislative body to sign.
All 10 of the pols on the letter are Jewish, and hold more progressive political beliefs — putting them at odds with Adams on many fronts.
In a statement in response to the pols’ letter, Adams pushed back on their claims, while adding that he would seek to expand the membership of the Council in the future.
“Hailing from all five boroughs, this esteemed council comprises a diverse assembly of Jewish men and women from various religious and cultural backgrounds,” Hizzoner wrote. “The Jewish Advisory Council was designed to be and will always be inclusionary, and as we continue to add more members, I am calling on all of those who believe they could make impactful change to apply to join.”
