NYC, NY state politics live updates: Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism director cowers under heckling by pro-Israel activists at Holocaust ceremony

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Keep up with the latest news in New York politics, from what’s happening in socialist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to state legislation in Albany, as it’s revealed that Hizzoner’s antisemitism director embarrassingly bowed out of a Holocaust ceremony shortly after taking the mic for a planned speech, as Israel supporters heckled her shouting, “You’re on Hitler’s side!”

And Mamdani the City Council are deadlocked on his proposed $124.7 billion city budget — all because the mayor broke a campaign promise regarding housing.

The city has until midnight Tuesday to pass a budget.

The Democratic Socialists of America likely chose not to run or endorse a single recent candidate on Long Island because it thought it could lose face — but a planned local takeover is coming, experts say.

The DSA’s leaders believe the ground work has now been laid for it to start targeting the massive suburban voter base after landslide primary wins in New York City last week, they said.

Three far-left candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the DSA blew out incumbent moderate Democrats to vie for their seats in Congress.

“New York City is the beating heart of the DSA movement, and they rightfully focused on their [congressional districts] of strength — and now would be the time to start expanding out into the suburbs,” political analyst John Tomlin told The Post.

The city is honoring the Knicks’ legendary championship clinch by installing temporary street signs feting them in Manhattan – but New Yorkers say it’s only a matter of time before the instant-classic markers are clinched by die-hard fans.

The 18 blue and orange signs, dispersed across Sixth and Seventh avenues Monday, will remain up for a month, with each honoring a member of the team.

“I probably would have been up attempting to” snag Jalen Brunson’s sign if people weren’t around, quipped fan Caleb Vasquez to The Post.

“It’s amazing,” he said of the street-sign gesture. “It’s been 53 years, it’s the least we could do to celebrate the team.”

Long Island voters in both parties are consumed by economic dread — but they can’t agree on which financial issues mean the most to them or who is to blame, a new Post poll shows.

While both sides agreed that the economy is far from thriving, 47% of Democrats named “affordability” as their top concern, while a majority of Republicans, 36%, deemed “taxes” as the main culprit squeezing their pockets, according to the survey conducted June 22 by Flashpoint Strategies and Convos.

“The cost of living is the single biggest concern in both parties — but Democrats and Republicans describe the same economic pressure in opposite words,” said Tom Carroll, CEO of the AI-powered texting and polling platform, which spoke to 1,115 of Nassau and Suffolk counties’ likely voters.

“Democrats overwhelmingly call it ‘affordability’ and ‘cost of living.’ Republicans blame ‘taxes’ for the squeeze,” Carroll said.

The Big Apple chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America added over 600 members after a surge of new comrades opted to join the left-wing group following last week's primary election.

The New York City DSA has gained 676 members since polls closed last Tuesday -- bringing the group's total head count to over 15,000 citywide, according to DSA data first reported by City & State.

The lefty group received the majority of the membership boost directly after a slate of DSA candidates -- many of whom were backed by member Mayor Zohran Mamdani -- swept the city's primaries on June 3rd.

The shocking election resulted in DSA control of two key congressional seats in NY-7 and NY-13 -- with 8 or the group's 9 insurgent candidates across local and federal offices claiming victory.

“The movement that powered Zohran Mamdani’s upset over Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral race last year has come full circle and elected its own organizers to Congress and Albany,” said Grace Mausser, NYC-DSA Co-Chair in a statement following the primaries.

The DSA now has over 110,000 members nationwide.

Phylisa Wisdom, the head of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office to combat antisemitism, abruptly left an event to honor Holocaust survivors in Brooklyn Sunday after Israel supporters heckled her and refused to let her speak.

She spoke briefly before departing when the heckling subsided in what had become an ugly spectacle, video shows.

"I'm going to leave to honor the survivors. I, too, have Holocaust survivor family and I wish I could be here with you today to do this remembrance for all our families," Wisdom said.

"I hope survivors get more respect than this," Wisdom said, before leaving Holocaust Memorial Park in Sheepshead Bay.

There were about a dozen Holocaust survivors and one was crying amid the chaos, an eyewitness said.

"Phylisa Wisdom, shame on you! These are holocaust survivors," said Stephanie Neta Benshimal, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, who heckled Wisdom throughout. 

"This is sacred ground. You're on Hitler's side! Shame on you!"

Organizers tried to stop the heckling of Wisdom — to no avail.

"She is an invited guest. How about showing some respect," one organizer said, according to a four-minute video of the encounter.

But an attendee shot back sarcastically, "Why don't you invite Nazis? Why don't you invite Hamas? She works for Mamdani!" 

Democratic state assembly candidate Joey Saban, who was at the Sunday event, said Wisdom should not have been invited.

But he added, "It was wrong to take the focus off Holocaust survivors. This is sacred ground.  Haven't they been through enough? We have to do better."

Elected officials, including Councilwoman Inna Vernikov and Assemblyman Michael Novakhov, boycotted the event.

"I don't think Wisdom is representative of the Jewish community. I think she is a self-hating Jew and Mamdani is an antisemite," Novakhov — whom Saban is challenging in the general election — claimed.

A Mamdani spokesperson said of the chaos: "It's sad and unfortunate that a handful of hecklers chose to disrupt a Holocaust memorial event and prevent Phylisa — whose own family came to New York after fleeing war-torn Europe — from delivering remarks by shouting hateful and deeply offensive insults.

"That behavior, at an event dedicated to remembering the victims of the Holocaust, does not reflect who we are as a city, nor the views of the overwhelming majority of those who gathered to honor their memory. The Mayor's Office to Combat Antisemitism will continue its essential work every day to ensure Jewish New Yorkers are safe, supported, and able to thrive in across the five boroughs."

The mayor's office provided a draft of the remarks Wisdom intended to deliver. She said her objective was to increase "intergroup cohesion and decrease anti-Jewish bias."  

"As long as there have been Jews in New York, there has also been antisemitism. This is a complicated reality," Wisdom's speech said.

"Despite this painful history, New York City has been, and will remain, the greatest place to be Jewish in the diaspora. Like many Jewish New Yorkers, my family’s American story started in this city, as one branch of my family fled Salonika, Greece, where more Jews per capita ultimately died than any other European city. My great grandmother and her sister came here, but their two sisters who remained, as well as their children, were killed in the camps," the speech said.

"My office is in the midst of a listening tour with members of the Jewish community across the five boroughs, and that sentiment rings true no matter who we speak to. We’ve heard universal appreciation for the diversity of this city, its rich Jewish culture, and the ability to observe your Judaism in any way that feels right to you …and we’ve even heard much appreciation for how much holy disagreement can exist in a place with such immense jewish diversity!  

"We are so fortunate to live in a city that prioritizes places like this, where we can mourn the friends and families we never got to meet, remember the horrors we have faced, and teach future generations about the resilience of the Jewish people."

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has unveiled a $15 million plan to expand transgender medical services for youths and adults across New York City, as local hospital systems have shuttered their treatment programs amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration.

The taxpayer-funded initiative appears to be a scaled-down version of Mamdani’s campaign promise to spend $65 million on medical treatments for transgender New Yorkers, and will go toward establishing a fund to ensure Big Apple youths will retain access to those services.

“Every New Yorker should have the freedom to live as themselves and access the health care they need,” said Mamdani said in a statement Friday.

“As the federal government attacks transgender people and attempts to intimidate patients, families and providers, New York City is stepping up," he said. "We will protect care, support the providers delivering it and make clear that trans New Yorkers belong in this city. Health care is a human right, and we will do everything in our power to defend it.”

The funds will also be used to establish a phone and text hotline for transgender New Yorkers seeking information about care, services or other resources and support.

NYU Langone Health and Mount Sinai Health System both put the brakes on offering trans medical care to patients under 18 after the Trump administration made moves to yank federal funding from healthcare institutions offering such treatment to minors.

Both healthcare systems have since received federal grand jury subpoenas seeking “information pertaining to patients under the age of 18 who received gender affirming care" between 2020 and 2026 – along with the names of any staff members who performed the treatments.

NYU Langone shuttered its transgender youth program in February, citing the “current regulatory environment.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s bid to hash out an agreement with the City Council on a $124.7 billion proposed city budget has reached an impasse over a controversial housing voucher program, The Post has learned.

The city has until midnight Tuesday to pass a budget, although failing to do so carries no consequences other than bruised political egos for not green-lighting a spending plan on time during Mamdani’s first year in office.

“They put political people in charge and they just don’t know the budget,” one insider gripes.

The main sticking point is the expansion of the cityFHEPS housing voucher, insiders said. 

Mamdani continued to balk at funding the voucher – a prospect that could cost the city billions of dollars for years to come. 

City Council Speaker Julie Menin and her allies – including some lefties otherwise aligned with Mamdani – are pushing a bill to expand the voucher program, albeit with guardrails for spending.

The pro-voucher crowd held a rally Sunday and fired up a supportive storm of X posts that rankled the social media-focused Mamdani, sources said.

“The CityFHEPS rental assistance program is a lifeline for 65,000 of the most vulnerable New Yorkers – but it could and should be serving thousands more,” Menin posted. 

“Today we rallied at City Hall to demand that the Administration fund the program’s expansion in the city budget: New York families can’t wait.”

City Council members in 2023 voted to expand cityFHEPS, potentially roping in up to 50,000 new families at a cost of more than $10 billion during its first five years.

Former mayor Eric Adams desperately fought the expansion -- which he contended would cost billions of dollars more than advertised -- by first issuing a veto that was overridden, and then with a court battle.

The former mayor's court fight drew jeers from then-state Assemblyman Mamdani, who deemed it a “ridiculous waste of time during a housing crisis.” He double-downed by promising during the mayoral campaign to drop the lawsuit and let the voucher program go forward.

But Mamdani, once in office, changed his tune significantly. 

The freshly minted Hizzoner rankled many of his lefty allies by fighting the City Council-led housing voucher expansion in court -- continuing the battle first waged by his predecessor Eric Adams.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted that his slate of candidates campaigning against Israel in favor of the Palestinian cause helped secure Tuesday’s election sweep — and repeated that he opposes Israel functioning as a Jewish-led state.

Mamdani, 34, said it’s a turning point in the Democratic Party with rank-and-file members opposing — rather than supporting — Israel in Middle East conflicts.

“We’ve seen on Tuesday evening, we saw Democrats turn out in districts across the city to make clear that they were tired of tens of billions of dollars being spent in our taxpayer dollars to violate international law, to kill thousands of civilians,” the mayor said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week” program.