Mayor Eric Adams began a three-day excursion to Israel Monday, seeking to showcase and bolster his already strong relationship with New York City’s Jewish community.
Adams, in a video posted to his mayoral X account on Sunday night, said he has several objectives for his first official trip to Israel as mayor. Those include looking at Israel’s technology sector, visiting key religious sites and meeting with local government officials to “strengthen our relationships here.”
Adams attended a reception with local faith and ethnic leaders Monday night after touching down in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem. He also plans to meet with the city’s mayor, Moshe Leon, during his visit — according to his public schedule.
The mayor detailed what his conversations with local leaders have focused on so far — including learning from the country’s tech companies — as seen in another video posted to X by Met Council CEO David Greenfield during his first event of the trip.
“Israel is known for having some of the best tech companies and we’re looking at how do we use technology for everything from building inspections to public safety to early detection of viruses?” Adams said. “Whatever we can do, we’re going to really build this whole partnership between Israel and New York City on how we can share information.”
Adams, who has traveled to Israel twice before, has close ties to the city’s ultra-orthodox community, which is a formidable voting bloc. The trip could help sure up support across the city’s Jewish communities as the mayor gears up to run for a second term in 2025.
City Council Member Eric Dinowitz (D-Bronx), who chairs the body’s Jewish Caucus and led a council delegation to Israel last December, said Adams traveling there sends a “very positive” message to the city’s Jewish community.
“New York has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. And it’s an incredibly important relationship between New York City and Israel,” Dinowitz said. “The mayor has been a strong ally of the Jewish community, and has stood up against anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in New York City.”
Chris Coffey, a Democratic consultant with Tusk Strategies who worked in former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, said that while Adams’ trip may in part be motivated by his reelection bid, traveling to Israel is something most New York City mayors do. That includes Adams’ predecessors Bill de Blasio and Bloomberg — who went there several times—and every mayor going back at least to Ed Koch, Coffey said.
“Mayors of New York City go to Israel,” Coffey said. “One of the things you do as mayor of New York is pay respects in other countries that have sizable voting populations in New York. And so, it would be unusual if he didn’t go to Israel I would think.”
“And I’m sure as you’re starting to think about your reelection, making sure that you’re thinking about your most important constituencies is part of the process,” he added.
The mayor’s trip comes amid a tumultuous time for Israel, where for the past few months there have been widespread protests over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary. Critics of the plan argue that it would curtail democracy and centralize power in the hands of Netanyahu and his far-right ultra-religious political allies.
Additionally, tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories are at an all-time high, with Israel launching a large-scale air and ground military assault in the occupied West Bank last month.
Adams is set to meet with Netanyahu during his visit, according to a report from the New York Daily News.
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