Free Republic

When Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week unveiled the 18-person committee that will advise him on his judicial nominations, he said the committee reflected the city it served. But to some observers, something seemed off. Though Jews make up an estimated 10 percent of the New York City population and represent such a significant share of New York City lawyers that the Jewish lawyer has become a cultural stereotype, the mayor’s 18-person committee seemed to have no Jews on it. On Monday, Elizabeth Forspan, the president of the Brandeis Association of Queens, a group of Jewish legal professionals, sent a letter...

When Mayor Zohran Mamdani named the 18 members of his Advisory Committee on the Judiciary on July 22, he said "the committee will help ensure that our judicial system reflects the city it serves." Mamdani's chief legal counsel, Ramzi Kassem, said the new appointees to the committee offered "a truly representative cross-section" of the city's legal profession. But a coalition of the city's Jewish bar associations demanded Monday that the mayor fix what they said is an apparent failure to appoint a single Jewish member to the panel that is responsible for choosing judges in New York City.