Dear NYJA community,
We are proud to share that Phylisa Wisdom, Executive Director of New York Jewish Agenda, has been appointed to lead the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism.
This is extraordinary news for New York City and a moment of deep pride for our NYJA community. The Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism is a critically important new office in this administration. The Office is charged with ensuring that the city confronts the rise of antisemitism in our city with commitment, credibility, and care. We have full confidence that Phylisa will be the right person at the right time for this job. Her appointment reflects both her exceptional leadership at NYJA and Mayor Mamdani’s continued commitment to fighting antisemitism while building constructive, enduring relationships with New York City’s diverse Jewish communities.
Over the past two and a half years, Phylisa has built NYJA into a principled, trusted voice in the civic life of New York City. Her leadership has been defined by clarity, integrity, and an understanding that combating antisemitism cannot be siloed from the broader work of building a city that is safe, democratic, and pluralistic for all New Yorkers.
Phylisa helped shape NYJA during a formative moment. Since our founding in 2020, NYJA has worked to make something essential visible: the idea that New York’s Jewish community is not monolithic, and that liberal and progressive Jewish New Yorkers—many of whom have not always seen themselves reflected in established institutions—deserve a Jewish home grounded in democratic values, inclusion, and human dignity. Under Phylisa’s guidance, NYJA translated those values into serious policy engagement, trusted relationships with elected leaders, and a growing public presence that reflects the full complexity of Jewish life in New York.
Her appointment is also a recognition of NYJA’s role in shaping how antisemitism is understood and addressed in this city. It affirms that meaningful progress requires moral clarity, thoughtful policy and political sensibility, as well as a nuanced approach to thinking about the diversity of Jewish life in the world’s largest diaspora community. It requires the very sort of listening and coalition-building that have been the trademarks of Phylisa’s leadership style during her time with NYJA. We can think of no one who will do a better job at adeptly navigating the complexities and emotions within the Jewish community during this fragile moment than Phylisa.
While we will miss her greatly, we are confident in the strength and durability of the organization she leaves behind. NYJA is ultimately defined by its mission, its volunteer leadership and staff, and the trust it has earned with Jewish New Yorkers of all backgrounds and the elected officials who serve them. I will oversee day-to-day operations as we begin a thoughtful and deliberate search for our next Executive Director.
This moment signifies that NYJA has definitively arrived as a serious, values-driven institution in New York’s political life, one that is uniquely equipped to meet the moment and advocate for the safety of Jewish New Yorkers.
We congratulate Phylisa on this well-deserved appointment, thank her for her extraordinary service to NYJA, and look ahead with confidence to what comes next.
With gratitude,
On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
Nancy Kaufman
Board Chair
New York Jewish Agenda
