A former co-chair of the Women’s March, Tamika Mallory, who was removed from the organization in 2019 over allegations of anti-Semitism, has joined New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team, according to the Washington Free Beacon, and will serve on the Committee on Community Safety.
According to the Free Beacon, “the Women’s March cut ties with Mallory in 2019 after founder Teresa Shook wrote in a Facebook post that Mallory and three other leaders had ‘allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment, and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs.’ Shook called on the co-chairs to leave the organization, stating that their extremism had ‘steered the Movement away from its true course.’”
Mallory has been criticized for making statements blaming Jewish people collectively for exploiting Black and brown communities. According to a 2018 report from the Tablet, during the first Women’s March meeting in November 2016, Mallory reportedly “asserted that Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people—and even, according to a secondhand source, claimed that Jews were proven to have been leaders of the American slave trade.” Mallory has also demonstrated a close association with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, known for anti-Semitic views.
The transition team includes other contentious figures, such as Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer known for representing al Qaeda terrorists, and Abby Stein, a transgender rabbi who was previously removed from a Biden White House pride party due to disruptive anti-Israel chants. Additional members have been linked to radical or extremist views, including calls to abolish law enforcement agencies and support for convicted cop killers, the Free Beacon reports.
The inclusion of Mallory and others with controversial backgrounds on Mamdani’s team has drawn significant public scrutiny and political criticism, intensifying concerns about anti-Semitism and extremism within the incoming administration’s advisory ranks. Mamdani’s team is composed of over 400 members representing a wide range of political and social viewpoints, but these appointments have raised alarms among Jewish and other communities worried about the direction of the city’s leadership.