New York Mayor Bill de Blasio Plans Visit to Israel
Image by Getty Images
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will visit Israel to speak about ways to combat anti-Semitism.
De Blasio is to leave Thursday for Jerusalem, where he will be the keynote speaker at a conference of international mayors sponsored by the American Jewish Congress and other Jewish groups.
De Blasio, who has been trying to plan a trip to Israel since the summer, will stay roughly three days and hold several events, the New York Times reported.
The first-term mayor, who is of Italian and Catholic heritage, has made strengthening ties with his Jewish constituency a priority since taking office in January 2014. He has spoken at synagogues of various denominations and loosened restrictions on the controversial metzitzah b’peh circumcision ritual at the request of Orthodox Jews.
De Blasio also flew to France soon after the attack on a kosher market in Paris to “stand in solidarity” with world Jewry.
New York politicians regularly visit Israel, in part because of the city’s large Jewish population.
De Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, made headlines for traveling to Israel during the 2014 Gaza war and saying that the country was still a “safe” place to visit during the conflict.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
