Mamdani vetoes school buffer zone bill; leading Jewish groups pan ‘profound failure’

NYC mayor will allow measure to protect houses of worship to pass into law; Long Island congressman proposes federal legislation to protect religious sites

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday said he is vetoing a bill that sought to secure educational facilities from protests, drawing harsh condemnation from a swath of leading Jewish groups.

Mamdani said he will allow a second bill for houses of worship to become law, although that measure passed by a veto-proof majority, while the schools bill did not.

The bills are politically divisive because of perceived conflicts between free speech and free assembly, and freedom of religion and anti-discrimination laws.

Leftist groups, including Jewish organizations and Mamdani allies, had opposed both bills, calling the measures an attack on free expression.

Mamdani had been mum about his plans for the bills and speculation had swirled for weeks about whether he would issue vetoes.

The two bills were introduced to the City Council after two vitriolic protests outside New York City synagogues and were approved by the council last month. One of the protests, in Queens, was also outside a school.

The measures are part of a broader push to rein in antisemitism in the city led by City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who is Jewish, and her allies in the legislative body.

The bill for houses of worship initially called for a protected zone of up to 100 feet, but the mention of distance was removed after the NYPD expressed concerns about logistics.

Mamdani said in a statement that he will “allow it to become law,” without confirming that he will sign it himself. If Mamdani takes no action, the bill will become law by Saturday with the expiration of a 30-day deadline.

“It initially raised constitutional concerns. However, the final version of the bill that passed is narrower in scope and effect,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Following a thorough legal review, I do not believe it poses the same risks it once did, and that is why I will allow it to become law. That said, I disagree with its framing of all protest as a security concern.”

Mamdani said the schools bill was “meaningfully different.”

“As the bill is written, everywhere from universities to museums to teaching hospitals could face restrictions,” he said. “This could impact workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels, or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”

“That is why I am vetoing this legislation,” he said. His official veto had not yet appeared in the council’s records as of Friday afternoon.

Despite the “buffer zone” moniker attached to the bills, they would not establish firm zones at a specific distance, and police already set up perimeters at the site of protests. At one of the synagogue protests, at Park East Synagogue, in November, demonstrators were allowed to gather adjacent to an entrance, which the police later apologized for and vowed would not happen again. The second protest, in Queens, took place more than 100 feet away from the synagogue.

The text of the bills calls on police to enact “security perimeters” to prevent obstruction, intimidation and interference, while preserving the rights to free speech and assembly. Police are instructed to establish plans to contain those risks, submit the plans to the mayor and the City Council speaker, and make the plans available to the public on the NYPD website.

Groups organizing the synagogue protests that led to the bills said they were targeting events linked to West Bank settlements. At the protests, demonstrators harassed Jewish passersby, hurled antisemitic epithets at congregants, and chanted for killing IDF soldiers, to “make them scared,” for a “global intifada,” and in support of Hamas.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes more than all other groups combined in New York City. New York City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, who sponsored the schools bill, said at an antisemitism hearing on Wednesday that around a quarter of all antisemitic hate crimes in the city target children.

Backlash from leading Jewish groups

Mamdani noted that organizations, including reproductive rights groups, had opposed the buffer zone legislation. New York has laws that protect the entrances to facilities that provide abortions, and a law proposed in the State Assembly to form 100-foot buffer zones around abortion clinics has not drawn opposition.

The veto marked another divide in Mamdani’s rocky relationship with leading Jewish groups, and drives another wedge between City Hall and the City Council leadership, which have been at odds on some issues, and cooperated on others.

Leading Jewish groups said they were “deeply disappointed with the decision.”

“This legislation represented a crucial step toward ensuring that every school and community institution can be better protected,” said a joint statement from UJA-Federation of New York, ADL New York/New Jersey, AJC New York, Conference of Presidents, JCRC-NY, New York Board of Rabbis, Orthodox Union, The Rabbinical Assembly, StandWithUs, Teach NYS and the Union for Reform Judaism. The statement marked an unusually broad alignment of prominent Jewish organizations in condemnation of a public official.

“This veto is a profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority,” the statement said.

Menin and Dinowitz, the co-chair of the council’s antisemitism task force, also criticized the veto.

“Ensuring students can enter and exit their schools without fear of harassment or intimidation should not be controversial,” Menin said. The statement did not mention Menin’s plans. Lawmakers could attempt to whip up votes for the bill to override Mamdani’s veto. The schools bill was four votes short of the majority needed to override a veto in the 51-member council.

“The mayor promised to keep New Yorkers safe and increase police transparency,” Dinowitz said in a statement. “By vetoing this bill, he is breaking yet another campaign promise.”

Leftists, including Jewish groups, applauded the veto.

Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ), a leftist organization in the city that has supported Mamdani, called the veto “a victory for free speech and civil liberties in New York City.”

“The mayor further demonstrated his commitment to protecting New Yorkers’ First Amendment rights, and his refusal to endorse what is quite simply bad policy,” JFREJ said in a statement.

The veto was Mamdani’s first since he took office at the start of the year. On his first day in office, in his first revocation of an executive order, he revoked the city’s use of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, among other orders from his predecessor, Eric Adams. City Hall said this week that the IHRA definition will not be replaced, and the administration will not use a codified definition of antisemitism.

Congressional buffer zone bill announced

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is pushing a separate bill at the state level that would establish 25-foot buffer zones around houses of worship.

Additionally, on Friday, New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democrat from Long Island, announced a federal buffer zone bill. The proposed legislation would make it a crime to intentionally intimidate, obstruct, or harass people within 100 feet of a house of worship. The barred acts would include threats, physical obstructions, or approaching within 8 feet of someone to harass or intimidate, Suozzi’s office said.

The proposed legislation is called the Safeguarding Access to Congregations and Religious Establishments from Disruption (SACRED) Act and is co-sponsored by Rep. Max Miller, an Ohio Republican.

Unlike the New York City bills, the state and federal legislation would establish criminal penalties.

Suozzi’s bill says it will not prohibit peaceful demonstrations or picketing outside houses of worship, in line with the First Amendment.

The legislation has the backing of an array of Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the UJA-Federation of New York, Agudath Israel of America and the Jewish Federations of North America, as well as Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups.

“No one deserves to be harassed or intimidated, especially on their way to their place of worship,” Suozzi said, announcing the legislation at an event in Glen Cove, Long Island, alongside the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt.

“Individuals seeking to pray in peace at houses of worship across our country are increasingly becoming targets of harassment and intimidation,” Greenblatt said. “As we aim to stem this wave of hate, we must take substantive action to fight back.”