Mamdani Appoints Another Jew-Hating 'Activist'

In a city still raw from the surge in antisemitism since October 7, 2023, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has handed a high-profile role to an activist with a history of cheering on the very behavior many Jews see as blatant hostility.

The lightning rod? Álvaro López, newly named Brooklyn Borough Director in the Mayor’s Office. His job: coordinating city services and acting as a key liaison across the borough.

The problem, critics say, is López’s past praise for two sisters caught on camera ripping down posters of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas.

StopAntisemitism put it bluntly in a widely shared post on X yesterday:“Remember when StopAntisemitism exposed sisters Aya and Dana Baraket tearing down posters of kidnapped Israeli children while screaming ‘F**k Israel’?

A man by the name of Alvaro Lopez referred to them as ‘heroes’.

Lopez was just named as Brooklyn Borough Director by NYC Mayor Mamdani.

There are approximately half a million Jews living in Brooklyn and bigot Alvaro Lopez is overseeing them.”

The 2023 video, filmed on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just weeks after the October 7 massacre, showed the Baraket sisters yanking down “kidnapped” flyers featuring the faces and names of hostages. When confronted, they responded with a stream of profanity.

The clip went viral, landing on the front page of the New York Post and prompting widespread condemnation. One of the sisters later faced arrest in a separate incident involving NYPD officers.

López, then serving as electoral coordinator for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), replied to coverage of the event with a now-deleted comment: “All I see are heroes.”

López wasn’t just some random commenter. He’s a longtime DSA organizer who helped craft strategy for Mamdani’s successful 2025 mayoral campaign and even served on his inaugural committee. He’s written openly about building a “socialist strategy for Palestinian solidarity,” pushing arms embargoes, divestment from Israel, and what he called an “anti-Zionist future.”

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim and Indian-American mayor, a DSA-aligned progressive who took office on January 1, has faced growing scrutiny for stacking his administration with figures known for strong anti-Israel activism. Jewish advocacy groups, including the Lawfare Project, have warned that such appointments send a troubling signal in a borough home to one of the largest Jewish populations outside Israel.

Brooklyn’s roughly 500,000 Jewish residents, from the bustling Orthodox enclaves of Borough Park and Crown Heights to modern communities across the borough, have watched these hires with mounting concern.

This isn’t happening in a vacuum. New York saw a dramatic spike in antisemitic incidents after Hamas’s attack, with everything from campus encampments to street-level harassment and vandalism. Tearing down hostage posters became a flashpoint symbol for many: an attempt to erase the suffering of civilians taken by terrorists

López’s supporters frame his activism as principled solidarity with Palestinians. But for many in Brooklyn’s Jewish community, the optics are stark: a mayor installing someone who once celebrated the public defacement of hostage awareness posters into a position of influence over the very neighborhoods still grappling with fear and hostility.

The appointment has already drawn sharp rebukes from Jewish organizations and elected officials. Whether it leads to concrete policy shifts or remains symbolic political theater remains to be seen, but the message sent to half a million Brooklyn Jews is loud and clear.

Mamdani’s office has not yet issued a detailed response to the latest wave of criticism.