When voters hand their city over to new leadership, they expect reasonably enough that the people running things will share basic American values—such as not hating Jews. The character of an administration doesn’t reveal itself through polished campaign speeches; it shows up in the individuals chosen to wield power.
For New Yorkers watching Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani build his team, the early returns are alarming.
The incoming administration has already faced intense scrutiny over its staffing decisions. Jewish advocacy groups announced plans to monitor the new mayor’s personnel picks. Polling shows a majority of Jewish New Yorkers fear for their safety under his leadership.
This week, those fears proved entirely justified.
Catherine Almonte Da Costa, a senior appointee to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s incoming administration, resigned Thursday after resurfaced social media posts showed her mocking Jews and attacking law enforcement. Da Costa was announced just a day earlier as Mamdani’s director of appointments, a top-level role tasked with staffing key positions across city government.
But within hours, archived posts from her social media account began circulating — including one that read: “Money hungry Jews smh.”
Da Costa lasted exactly one day. The woman Mamdani selected to recruit talent and screen candidates for city government couldn’t survive the most basic background check herself.
Additional posts from 2011 and 2012 showed Da Costa mocking Jewish commuters on the “Jew train” and referencing “rich Jewish peeps” at her workplace.
In her resignation statement, she trotted out the predictable defense: these posts were “not indicative of who I am.” She also noted that she is “the mother of Jewish children.”
Mamdani accepted her resignation, praising her “deep remorse.”
Her social media history also exposed visceral hostility toward police officers. She called NYPD cops “piggies,” posted “F the police,” and during the 2020 riots demanded defunding the NYPD by $1 billion and yanking officers from schools and subways.
The timing of this scandal is particularly troubling, as New York City witnessed violent, targeted assaults on Jewish residents during Hanukkah. These attacks fit a broader surge in antisemitic incidents that has left the Jewish community genuinely frightened.
Polling taken after Mamdani’s election showed a majority of Jewish New Yorkers believe his administration will make the city less safe for Jews. The mayor-elect drew heavy criticism during his campaign for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” He eventually said he’d discourage people from using it.
The Anti-Defamation League has launched a dedicated tool to track and monitor Mamdani’s policies and personnel decisions.
