NEW YORK — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive Jewish candidate for city mayor, laid out his plans for combating crime and antisemitism this week as the mayoral race formally began and he vies for position in a crowded field.

Lander’s 17-page proposal includes measures to combat hate crimes, which overwhelmingly target Jews in New York City. Lander discussed the details of his proposals in a Thursday interview with The Times of Israel, saying that countering antisemitism was a priority.

“I take that very seriously as the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in city government, and will do everything I can to combat it as mayor,” he said.

The hate crimes proposals are only one plank of the outline. Lander also called for appointing a deputy mayor for public safety, modernizing police data systems, combating retail theft, ending street homelessness for the mentally ill, and increasing NYPD staffing by hiring more than 1,000 officers.

Lander said he will retain NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish. Tisch was appointed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, with whom Lander has had an adversarial relationship as comptroller. Adams entered politics after a long career with the NYPD, but his administration has been mired in corruption allegations, including in the police force.

“She’s doing a good job making all New Yorkers feel safe, and it makes me proud that she’s a Jewish New Yorker,” Lander said of Tisch.

Parts of the outline mark a shift for Lander, who supported diverting police funds to social services in 2020 while he served on the city council. Crime has become a leading concern for voters, including Jewish New Yorkers. Some progressive policies have been widely criticized as too light on crime, in a wrinkle for leftist candidates as parts of the city drift toward the right.

“I think progressives, myself included, were slow to respond to the elevation of crime and disorder that came through and out of the pandemic and that has given us many of the challenges that we’re dealing with today,” Lander said at a Tuesday briefing outside One Police Plaza.

A Jewish community organizer whose group has yet to weigh in on the mayoral race criticized Lander’s change in position, accusing him of “hiding his deep-seated socialist beliefs he will implement once elected.”

“Lander wants to have it both ways, always. Sure he’s claiming he wants to support measures to address public safety and crime now, after he has spent years calling for defunding the police,” they said.

Phylisa Wisdom, the head of the New York Jewish Agenda (NYJA) liberal advocacy group, said Lander and other progressives are “reassessing the role of police in public safety and there are nuances to that.”

“I don’t think it’s unusual for politicians to have a position, see data, talk to their constituents, understand what’s happening on the ground, and refine their position. I think that’s what good politicians do,” she said. Lander was a founding member of NYJA, but is no longer part of the group due to his status as an elected official. NYJA cannot make political endorsements because of its nonprofit status.

Hate crimes in the city have increased in recent years, driven by a surge in antisemitism that gained steam after the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel. Jews were targeted in hate crimes more than all other groups combined in 2024, according to NYPD data.

Lander said that, if elected, he plans to work with the Citizens Crime Commission, a nonprofit focused on criminal justice and public safety. The group uses tools to monitor online extremism, allowing for early intervention. In the case of a mental health crisis, that could be a “public health approach,” Lander said, and for someone at risk of committing extremist violence, law enforcement would be brought in.

The technology monitors all forms of extremism, and because anti-Jewish discrimination is so prevalent, “it absolutely includes a clear focus on antisemitism,” he said.

For the NYPD’s use of technology, Lander said he approves of new tools such as AI that help identify when someone is moving in a dangerous direction, but expressed caution over technology like facial recognition.

“One wants to be thoughtful with all uses of technology because they are a double-edged sword,” he said. “We also want people to have privacy and civil liberties, so the balance is important.”

He also plans to increase resources for the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.

For long-term prevention, Lander supports education, such as trips to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. He highlighted a program by the Chinese American Children and Families group that trains Asian high school students to educate others about anti-Asian discrimination and supports expanding the program to Jews and other students.

Anti-Israel street protests are a leading concern for many New York City Jews. The city has seen thousands of protests since October 7, including instances of antisemitism and outright support for terror groups.

On Wednesday, protesters in Brooklyn flew a Hamas flag, and activists at Barnard College stormed a campus building and injured an employee. On Sunday, protesters held a funeral event for Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Last week, protesters rallied in a Jewish area of Boro Park, Brooklyn, and harassed Jewish passersby. Jewish community advocates, including elected officials, said the protest should not have been allowed. Lander condemned the rally as antisemitic after it took place.

“Police have to be as clear as possible when things cross the line into specific harassment of individuals, when things move to violence, like they did at Barnard last night, where a staffer was physically assaulted. That’s when the PD appropriately arrest people,” he said. Lander supports state legislation that would mandate colleges to appoint a Title VI coordinator to ensure compliance with civil rights protections. Title VI lawsuits are often used by Jewish advocates against universities.

Lander compared the recent protests to neo-Nazis marching in Skokie, Illinois, in 1977.

“That was just gross, was horrific, and was protected by the First Amendment, and to me, Jews have thrived here with our First Amendment protections,” he said. “Some things that are hateful are protected free speech, and the job of the police is to keep people safe, and that means setting up and making sure there isn’t property damage, and people don’t start to provoke and then move into something violent.”

Some of Lander’s opponents have condemned his ties to leftist critics of Israel, saying those progressives fostered a hostile environment for Jews.

Lander considers himself a progressive Zionist. He protested against the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul ahead of the October 7 attack and has joined ceasefire rallies held by Israeli leftists in the city since then.

Lander added that he supports anti-masking legislation that would add a penalty to crimes committed while wearing a mask, similar to hate crimes legislation that stiffens punishments for offenses motivated by discrimination. Jewish groups and Jewish legislators are pushing for anti-masking laws to combat antisemitism at the state level. The legislation has become a fault line, with left-wing opponents, including Jewish leftists, saying the law would violate civil liberties.

For the incarceration of hate crimes offenders, Lander differentiated between violent offenses and crimes like graffiti.

“When you’ve physically assaulted someone or used violence, the charges are higher and incarceration is much more likely and appropriate,” he said.

Progressive candidates need to weigh support for police and safety with the desires of their leftist base. Lander, for example, has worked with the progressive activist group Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JFREJ), which opposes security funding for nonprofits, including synagogues, a position he disagrees with.

“If what you want is an NYPD car sitting outside, you ought to be able to get that. But if what you want is to pay for cameras that will be recording what’s going on outside your house of worship, there should be resources for that,” he said.

Wisdom said there is no “progressive monolith” when it comes to issues like security and that officials like Lander are not in favor of leaning heavily on law enforcement, “but understand that they’re part of a bigger picture of public safety.”

“They’re making calculations about where they think the New York City electorate and the kinds of voters they want to turn out are,” Wisdom said. “For those with a more progressive base, they might lose some and they might gain some [voters].  I think that they’re all making that calculation before our eyes.”

The mayoral race formally started this week, with candidates collecting signatures on designated petitions that are required for a spot in the June primary. For the mayoral race, candidates need at least 3,750 signatures. In the mostly Democratic New York City, the citywide election will almost certainly be decided in the primary.

Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo leads the race by a wide margin, according to polling conducted ahead of Cuomo’s formal entry into the race on Saturday.

Following Cuomo in most polls is Adams, who retains a base of support despite the corruption allegations and his dealings with the Trump administration. Both Cuomo and Adams are supporters of Israel with longstanding ties to Jewish communities, although a poll last month by GBAO Strategies found that Cuomo’s favorability with Jewish voters was only 24%. Jewish voters prefer Lander over Cuomo, the poll said.

A poll this week put Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel, in second place, in his strongest showing yet.

Most polls put Lander around fourth place with about 7% of the vote. Former city comptroller Scott Stringer, who is also Jewish, is polling at around the same level.