Mamdani Faces Backlash After His Judicial Screening Panel Includes No Jewish Members, Groups Say Now

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism from Jewish legal organizations after his newly appointed judicial advisory panel was found to include no Jewish members, prompting demands from bar associations that the mayor correct what they described as a significant omission.

Mamdani’s office announced the 19-member Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary on July 22, describing it as a “truly representative cross-section” of New York City’s legal profession. The panel is responsible for screening and recommending candidates for judgeships across the city’s five boroughs and multiple court types, including Criminal Court, Family Court and, on an interim basis, Civil Court. Four Jewish bar associations, backed by the Anti-Defamation League, said no Jewish attorney, law professor or former judge was included among the appointees.

Elizabeth Forspan, head of the Brandeis Association of Queens, a Jewish bar group, said the omission stood out given the committee’s long history. “It was shocking for us to learn that this all important committee that every mayor since 1978 has put together did not include a single Jewish attorney, law professor, former judge,” Forspan said.

In a joint letter sent to the mayor on July 27, the presidents of the Brandeis Association of Queens, the New York County Jewish Lawyers Guild, the Brooklyn Brandeis Society and the Bronx County Jewish Bar Association said they were “deeply disappointed” by the committee’s composition. “Excluding Jewish representation from this committee is neither reflective nor inclusive,” the letter said. “It follows a troubling pattern that has left many Jewish New Yorkers feeling increasingly marginalized.” The letter urged Mamdani to “correct this exclusion” and “reaffirm that Jewish New Yorkers are entitled to the same representation, respect and protection as every other community.” New York City is home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the United States, and Jews are heavily represented within the legal profession from which the committee traditionally draws its members.

The letter also pointed to the rejection of retired Appellate Division Justice John Leventhal, who is Jewish, during the committee’s vetting process, calling the decision “disconcerting” given what the groups described as a broader lack of outreach to Jewish attorneys. Mamdani spokesman Joe Calvello addressed that specific case directly, saying the mayor’s team declined to include Leventhal after learning the retired justice had served on the legal team representing Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Mamdani forcefully denied that religion played any role in how the panel was assembled. “I did not ask for the religion of each of the person that was put forward,” he said during a press conference addressing the controversy. He said his broader commitment to diversity in judicial appointments includes the Jewish community specifically. “The thing that matters most to me is that in the judges that have been appointed and reappointed, that they do reflect that diversity of New York City, and that diversity includes Jewish New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

Calvello separately pushed back on suggestions that the panel’s composition reflected discriminatory intent, telling reporters it was “false” to say the selection of committee members was “motivated by religion.” He noted that Mamdani has already appointed a dozen judges from a range of backgrounds during his time in office, including Jewish judges. Calvello did not specify whether other Jewish candidates had been considered for the advisory committee itself, and he did not directly dispute that none of the 19 appointees are Jewish.

The panel that drew criticism does include a range of other backgrounds. Its members include former prosecutors, former judges, law professors, public defenders and divorce attorneys, drawn from institutions ranging from CUNY to Ivy League law schools. Among them is Joseph Drayton, a partner at the law firm Proskauer Rose with decades of experience in commercial litigation, and Dianisbeth Acquie, a Harvard Law graduate who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York before becoming assistant dean of judicial careers at Columbia Law School.

The controversy adds to broader tension between Mamdani’s administration and segments of New York’s Jewish community, which has largely centered on the mayor’s positions regarding Israel and related foreign policy issues. Critics cited in the bar associations’ letter also pointed to Mamdani’s prior omission of Jewish communities from a map of New York’s ethnic enclaves and his decision to revoke a definition of antisemitism previously used by the city that some Jewish groups had supported.

Under former Mayor Eric Adams, Jewish attorneys had held seats on the same judicial advisory committee. The panel’s composition carries practical significance beyond symbolism, since it directly filters the pool of candidates considered for judgeships handling a wide range of cases, from criminal matters to family court disputes.

As of the most recent reporting, Mamdani had not indicated any plans to alter the committee’s current membership in response to the bar associations’ letter, leaving the dispute unresolved as of early August.