By COLlive reporter
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was in Crown Heights on Monday afternoon, where he was hosted at the Jewish Children’s Museum for a private tour.
Mayor Mamdani was welcomed by the museum’s co-founder, Devorah Halberstam, a longtime community activist, Honorary NYPD Commissioner of Community Safety, and Chair of the Board of Commissioners to Combat Antisemitism.
Accompanying the Mayor were NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and City Council Member Crystal Hudson, who represents the Crown Heights area.
Halberstam said the visit built on a meaningful first meeting with the Mayor during the tense hours following the January car-ramming attack on the nearby Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters – 770 Eastern Parkway back in January 2026.
“On the night of the car ramming at 770, the Mayor immediately reached out to me and expressed his concern, and visited the site within hours of the attack,” Halberstam said. “We had a meaningful conversation that evening,” she said. “He was very forthcoming, very respectful to the Rebbe, as well as to the community.”
She recalled how the Mayor showed a sincere curiosity and openness to learning, especially after hearing that the incident occurred on Yud Shevat, an important day in the Chabad calendar, as the Yartzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe and the day of the Rebbe’s assuming leadership. “The Mayor asked me how to pronounce Yartzeit, and actually used the word during the press conference,” Halberstam said. “He showed great sensitivity during that time.”
The two also discussed the need to protect 770, which led to further discussions and ultimately to an invitation to visit the Jewish Children’s Museum to see its impact firsthand and to discuss community issues.
The visit began on the museum’s upper floors, where Halberstam guided the Mayor through exhibits and shared the story behind the museum’s founding in memory of her son, Ari Halberstam, who was murdered by a terrorist on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994.
“As we walked through the exhibits, he really enjoyed seeing everything that we’ve done,” she said. “I explained to him that this week is Ari’s birthday, it is both his Hebrew and English birthday on May 6th, the day after Lag B’Omer, and I told him I believe that Ari’s spirit is welcoming him here today.”
As he toured the exhibits, the Mayor showed a personal connection to the displays. Seeing a poster for the popular Israeli peanut butter Bamba snacks, “The Mayor said that he likes Bamba, having grown up eating them with a Jewish friend,” Halberstam said with a smile. At the kosher supermarket exhibit, she said they discussed kosher practices and dietary laws.
“He loved the Shabbos table,” Halberstam added. “I explained how women and girls light the Shabbos candles,” sharing with him about the Rebbe’s campaign for candle lighting.
The visit continued with an in-depth conversation on the museum’s sixth floor, where Halberstam spoke about her decades of work in combating terrorism and hate crimes.
“The Mayor was shocked to hear about how Ari’s case was initially treated,” Halberstam said, after describing how the FBI first classified Ari’s murder as a road rage incident. “He didn’t know about all the years that I had to work with the FBI to reclassify his murder as an act of terrorism.”
Halberstam detailed her role in helping shape New York State’s early terrorism laws. “I told him that I worked with Governor Pataki when we wrote the laws on terrorism in the state of New York… they were written before 9-11,” she said. “I told him the story of how those laws came about, that they were written before 9-11, and the police commissioner was just amazed because they were written in June, just before the September 11 attacks. Right after it happened, Governor Pataki called me and said, ‘Devorah, you were the prophetess, how did you know?’
“It was the week of Rosh Hashanah when we signed them into law. I told him how all the bridges were closed that day, and I had to get back home, and how I walked into the house a minute before Rosh Hashanah began because the governor wanted me there for the signing.”
Halberstam noted the lasting impact of that work, including CLE-approved training programs for prosecutors today.
The conversation also turned to the evolving fight against antisemitism. “We talked about how my work against terrorism morphed into my work with hate crimes,” she said, adding that she now leads panels reviewing such cases and continues to work internationally with law enforcement agencies.
During the visit, Halberstam and the Mayor also had a brief private meeting. Reflecting on the tour and the meeting, Halberstam emphasized the tone of openness and respect. “I found him to be not only receptive, but he listened very intently,” she said. “He was really, really nice, super interested, and so very accommodating.”
She added that the visit may open the door to greater educational outreach. Council Member Hudson raised the idea of bringing public school students to the museum, a proposal Halberstam hopes will move forward with the Mayor’s support.
“It was a terrific meeting,” she said. “Hopefully, this will be the first of many conversations that we will continue to have.”
