The Mamdani administration’s pick to lead an office tasked with fighting Jewish hate couldn’t define the word “antisemitism” during a testy Wednesday City Council meeting — sparking one frustrated politician to storm out.
Phylisa Wisdom, who was tapped last month for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, said that she could not define the term and that it would be approached with a “case-by-case” approach.
“The first thing I’ll say is that across city government, there is not a definition codified for any form of hate at all,” she said during a meeting of the City Council’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
“So the way that we combat hate, and that our colleagues at NYPD address these incidents is without a codified definition,” she said, when pressed on the issue by Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R) on the issue.
The standoff comes after Mamdani, a fierce Israel critic, signed an executive order on his first day in office dropping the Big Apple’s official definition of “antisemitism,” which was backed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
The democratic socialist mayor said he opposed the definition because it conflated criticism of Israel — which he has previously bashed as an “apartheid state” — with antisemitism.
The IHRA definition was adopted in June 2025 in the twilight of the Adams administration, in what he said was part of a push against anti-Jewish hate.
Wisdom told lawmakers at the hearing that antisemitism was prejudice, violence and discrimination against Jews because they are Jewish. She added that it’s understood “broadly in the universe of civil rights.”
Wisdom doubled down on not using a definition, even when pressed further on the question.
“The policy of this administration is that we will not — we will continue to not have any codified definition of any form of hate,” she said.
Jewish Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder became increasingly frustrated during the hearing with Wisdom’s mealy-mouthed responses and stormed out of the meeting.
“This is outrageous! Nuts! Crazy!” Felder told The Post after exiting the hearing.
“We have two kids [in the mayor’s office] deciding on a case-by-case basis on what constitutes antisemitism and hate. I have never seen an administration that can’t determine what is hate or antisemitism.”
Other witnesses were flabbergasted.
“The Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism is a token gesture to the Jewish community with zero action,” said Moshe Spern, the president of United Jewish Teachers. “I sat there and heard that there is no way to contact Ms. Wisdom and that they refuse to adopt a definition of antisemitism.”
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
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