New York City’s new mayor moved immediately Thursday to draw a sharp line between his administration and that of his predecessor, issuing a sweeping executive order just hours after taking office that erased most of former Mayor Eric Adams’ executive actions, including those designed to combat a surge in antisemitic incidents across the city.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed five executive orders in Brooklyn on his first day in office. The most consequential revoked all executive orders issued by Adams after Sept. 26, 2024 — the day Adams was federally indicted on corruption charges — effectively wiping away the final phase of the previous mayor’s agenda in one stroke.

The order was framed by Mamdani as a moral and political reset.

“We speak about this day as a new era,” Mamdani said. “And in order to fulfill that hope, we have to reckon with why so many New Yorkers have turned away from politics.”

Hard to overstate how disturbing it is that one of the first acts of the new @NYCMayor was to delete official tweets and EO’s addressing the protection of Jewish New Yorkers.
The letter we sent to @ZohranKMamdani, the DOI Commissioner, and the COIB Executive Director.
Let’s go. pic.twitter.com/vEcR3w5yAF

— Mark Goldfeder (@MarkGoldfeder) January 2, 2026

Amid the wholesale rollback, Mamdani made a pointed exception: his administration pledged to reissue select Adams-era orders it deems essential — including the executive order establishing and maintaining the Office to Combat Antisemitism, an office Adams created as New York City grappled with a sharp rise in antisemitic hate crimes following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the new administration said certain orders would be reinstated if they align with “continued service, excellence, and value-driven leadership.” While a full list of which Adams orders will be preserved was not immediately released, the inclusion of the antisemitism office was deliberate.

The move comes as Jewish leaders remain deeply wary of Mamdani’s ascent. The new mayor has been a vocal critic of Israel, aligned with democratic socialist causes, and supported by far-left activists, raising concerns among Jewish groups about how aggressively his administration will confront antisemitism at a moment when hate incidents remain elevated citywide.

Adams, despite his legal troubles, made combating antisemitism a signature issue in his final year, repeatedly warning that anti-Jewish hatred was becoming normalized in public discourse. His administration created the Office to Combat Antisemitism to coordinate enforcement, education, and interagency response — a step Jewish advocates hailed as overdue.

Mamdani’s decision to preserve that office, even as he dismantled most of Adams’ post-indictment actions, suggests at least an awareness of the stakes.

Adams, the first sitting New York City mayor ever indicted, had been accused of accepting Turkish government-linked benefits in exchange for favorable treatment of a Manhattan consulate project. The federal case was ultimately dropped by President Trump’s Department of Justice. The resolution left Adams politically weakened but legally cleared.

Mamdani made clear he views the period following the indictment as one of broken trust.

“That was the moment when many New Yorkers decided that politics had nothing for them but more of the same,” he said.

Beyond the executive order rollback, Mamdani used his first day to advance his core agenda, signing orders aimed at tenant protections, housing construction, and bureaucratic overhaul. He revived the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, appointed left-wing housing activist Cea Weaver as its director, and launched two new task forces to accelerate development on city-owned land and cut red tape.

Still, it was the antisemitism carve-out — amid an otherwise sweeping purge — that stood out most.

At a time when antisemitism remains one of the city’s most sensitive and volatile issues, Mamdani’s opening move sends a complex message: a decisive break from his predecessor’s governance, paired with a signal — at least on paper — that combating antisemitism will remain an official priority of City Hall.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)