Shortly after attending the 25th anniversary commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, Julie Menin, the New York City Council’s first Jewish speaker, released a video message to Jewish New Yorkers ahead of Rosh Hashanah, which begins on Friday night.
“While I’m prouder than ever of the strength of our community, I can appreciate that, amidst an unprecedented rise in antisemitism, some of us may not feel the force of that fortitude,” Menin said in the video, which runs about 90 seconds and which the council shared exclusively with JNS prior to its release.
“Yet, as we enter a new year, may this be a moment to come together once again, a moment to instill hope in the months to come, to gather faith in the face of fear and to relish the joy of being surrounded by our loved ones,” Menin said in the video.
Sitting at a table with candlesticks, challah, apples and honey, Menin wished Jewish New Yorkers a “Shanah tovah and Shabbat shalom.”
“Over the next two days, millions of Jews here in the five boroughs, across the country and around the world will usher in 5787 and celebrate Rosh Hashanah,” she said.
“Congregants in their shuls will hear the shofar, families at home will dip apples in honey and nosh on pomegranate seeds and communities everywhere will share a round challah commemorating the cycle of life and symbolizing a hope for a sweet, complete new year,” the council speaker said.
Menin has pushed repeatedly for increased protections for Jewish New Yorkers amid rising Jew-hatred in the city. In January, shortly after becoming speaker, she announced a five-point action plan that included a council task force on Jew-hatred, a dedicated hotline for reporting incidents and increased funding for Holocaust education at public schools.
In July, she allocated an additional $750,000 to the Brooklyn district attorney’s hate-crimes bureau.
Those efforts have repeatedly put her at odds with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom she has criticized.
On his first day in office, Mamdani revoked orders from former mayor Eric Adams protecting Jews, including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred. In May, he skipped the annual Israel Day on Fifth parade.
The mayor also vetoed a bill that passed the City Council without a veto-proof majority to protect people entering and exiting religious schools. A virtually identical one about houses of worship passed the council with a veto-proof majority.
The video features several photos of Menin with Jewish leaders, including speaking at a press conference after Moshe Grunhaus, a Jewish man wearing a kippah, was stabbed outside his synagogue on July 23.
“As we look ahead, it’s also a time to reflect on the year that’s passed,” Menin said in the video.
“For myself and my colleagues, it’s been a year fighting for the people of the five boroughs, and a year that has been marked by particular pride, too, as I became the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council,” she said.
Rosh Hashanah “demands action,” Menin said, “to recommit to that hope, to reengage in our faith and to spread that joy.”
“As we enter 5787, may the sounds of the shofar enliven the city that never sleeps for every Jewish New Yorker who calls our great city home,” she said. “Shanah tovah.”
