Azerbaijan’s Sephardic Jewish community slams Mamdani’s Armenian genocide comments

Plus, Brad Lander remains mum on buffer bill veto opposed by the Jewish group he founded.

 Mamdani draws ire of Jewish community in Azerbaijan

• The Sephardic Jewish Community of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, slammed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s comments marking the 111th anniversary of the Armenian genocide last week.

• After honoring the Armenians killed in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16, Mamdani noted on X the more recent clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2023, Azerbaijan took control of the territory and forced more than 100,000 Armenians to flee. Mamdani accused Azerbaijan of “continuing the genocidal campaign that had begun over 100 years prior.”

• Rabbi Zamir Isayev, a prominent leader representing Azerbaijani Sephardic Jews, responded that the community “strongly rejects” Mamdani’s comments. “Attempts to portray the restoration of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty as ‘genocide’ are false, inflammatory, and harmful to peace,” said Isayev. “At a time when Azerbaijan and Armenia are moving toward long-awaited peace, public officials must speak with accuracy, balance, and responsibility — not revive hostility.”

• Mamdani’s predecessor in City Hall, Eric Adams, was accused in a federal indictment of accepting bribes from Turkish officials not to address Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. (Turkey is the successor to the Ottoman Empire.) The indictment was dropped under pressure from the Trump administration and the allegations were not proven. Adams never made any proclamations to mark the day.

 Mamdani responds to Jews criticizing his veto of school safety bill

• Mamdani said he remains “deeply committed to protecting Jewish New Yorkers” when he was asked about Jewish criticism of his veto against a bill restricting protests around educational facilities during a press conference on Monday.

• The veto was panned by major Jewish organizations that have pushed for “buffer zone” legislation to insulate schools and houses of worship from pro-Palestinian protests.

• “I also believe that as we deliver that public safety, as we show an absolute rejection of antisemitism across the five boroughs, we can also do these things while protecting our fundamental constitutional rights,” said Mamdani. He added that labor union leaders had raised concerns about how the bill could be applied to infringe on free speech at schools along with museums, libraries and hospitals.

• A special election on Tuesday could give new life to the legislation, our Joseph Strauss reports.  Carl Wilson is one of four candidates vying for the District 3 City Council seat and the only one who says he would vote to override Mamdani’s veto. The bill’s supporters would need to convince four additional Council members to support it, reaching a two-thirds majority of 34, for an override. Wilson’s election would cut that number down to three.

• “I happen to be a member of the LGBTQ community,” Wilson said at a Shabbat service over the weekend, where he appeared with Jewish Council Speaker Julie Menin. “And if there was a scourge of homophobia, I would want this city to rally around me in the same way that it needs to rally around Jewish New Yorkers right now.”

 Brad Lander stays quiet

• Mamdani’s Jewish ally Brad Lander has refused to comment on the veto, even as the liberal Jewish group that he co-founded denounced the decision, reports Jewish Insider.

• Lander has Mamdani’s endorsement in his progressive bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman in NY-10. He co-founded New York Jewish Agenda, a group that has allied with Mamdani in the past but said it was “disappointed” by the veto and “hoped Mayor Mamdani would recognize that protecting these spaces and preserving civil liberties are not opposing values.”

• NYJA’s former leader Phylisa Wisdom now heads Mamdani’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.

 Blakeman’s money in Israel

• Gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, a Jewish, pro-Israel Republican, had investments in the state of Israel along with Canadian Pacific Railway and Exxon Mobil last year, according to tax returns seen by Politico. He did not give any money to charity.

 A conversation about American Jewish family

• My Jewish Learning will host an online conversation tomorrow with New Yorkers Leon Wieseltier and Nicholas Lemann, the author of “A Search for Home Across Three Centuries,” about his family’s rich history in New Orleans.