Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

ZOA is appalled that the New York City Council Progressive Caucus hired virulent Israel-hating bigot and antisemitism-enabler Emily Mayer to be the Progressive Caucus’ director, at a time when Jews are being subjected to daily physical and verbal attacks in New York. Hiring Mayer flatly contradicts the Progressive Caucus’s “Statement of Principles” – which states that the Progressive Caucus is “dedicated to . . . combating all forms of discrimination.”

The 34-person Progressive Caucus dominates the 51-person City Council. This important caucus should not be directed by someone such as Mayer, who opposes protecting Jews, promotes antisemitic calumnies against Israel, and attacks Jewish organizations and officials for refusing to oppose Israel’s rights and existence. Notably, five members of the NY City Council’s Jewish Caucus are also members of the City Council’s Progressive Caucus: Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams (ex-officio); Jewish Caucus Chair Eric Dinowitz; Julie Menin; Lynn Schulman and Lincoln Restler. ZOA especially urges those Council members – as well as all decent members of the City Council – to stand up and demand that Emily Mayer be immediately fired.

Mayer has opposed protecting Jews from antisemitic attacks: For instance, Mayer tweeted that Democrats should not “become self-appointed protectors of the Jews.” This alone should disqualify her.

Moreover, Mayer has a long, well-documented history of hostility towards fellow Jews. She co-founded and was national coordinator and political director of the radical Israel-hating group IfNotNow (INN). INN attacks mainstream American Jewish organizations for failing to join INN’s opposition to Israel’s very existence. Mayer was arrested while holding a twisted anti-Israel Seder in the lobby of a building housing a Jewish organization, and bragged on anti-Israel website +972 about bringing “Jewish resistance” to the doorstep of AIPAC because AIPAC “perpetuates the occupation.” (“Occupation” is the vicious propaganda term used by INN, Mayer, and their radical anti-Israel confederates to falsely claim that Jews living in the Jewish homeland have no right to be there.)

Mayer also participated in an INN action in which INN blocked the doors to Senator Chuck Schumer’s office, and recited Kaddish (the Jewish mourner’s prayer) for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists (who were killed while trying to breach the border to murder Jewish children).

INN also urged others to “say the names” of the terrorists. And last month, Mayer tweeted that AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel are “destroying our democracy.”

Under Mayer’s leadership, INN also repurposed Jewish traditions to attack Jews and Israel; endorsed Israel-hater Betty McCollum’s antisemitic pro-boycott legislation; and partnered with Hamas-supporting American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which opposes the Jewish state’s existence. During Democratic primaries, INN pushed all candidates to condemn Israel’s existence.

Mayer also sought to connect Black Lives Matter in protests to Israel, and called for defunding both Israel and U.S. police. Mayer falsely claimed: “there is a clear connection between the billions of taxpayer dollars used to fund militarized police in our cities and the billions of taxpayer dollars used to enforce a military occupation in Israel. . . . The time has come for our political leaders to defund the police, defund the occupation.”

Mayer is married to Waleed Shahid, communications director of the so-called extremist group “Justice Democrats,” which backs political efforts to promote and expand the anti-Israel Congressional “Squad” (Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Betty McCollum, AOC, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, etc.). Shahid and Mayer and their organizations moreover work together to promote their mutual anti-Israel agendas. For instance, an INN-Justice Democrats-AMP-Code Pink, etc. joint statement demanded that the official Democratic party platform should condemn Israeli “occupation” of “Palestinian” land. The joint statement quoted Mayer on behalf of INN and quoted Shahid on behalf of the Justice Democrats.

More information on Emily Mayer’s dangerous, disqualifying record can be found at: Canary Mission’s archives on Mayer; NGO Monitor’s compilation on INN; and “NYC Dems Tap Anti-Israel Activist Emily Mayer to Head Progressive Caucus,” by Reuven Fenton, Nolan Hicks and Bruce Golding, NY Post, June 10, 2022.