The letter’s signers, Elizabeth Forspan, Benjamin Kaufman, Jeffrey Miller and Matthew Kluger, said they were particularly bothered by Mamdani’s rejection of retired Appellate Division Justice John Leventhal.
However, Mamdani’s office shot back that Leventhal was denied over his ties to convicted sex trafficker and notorious madam for Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, rather than his religion.
“To date, Mayor Mamdani has had the privilege of appointing a dozen qualified judges from a range of backgrounds, including Jewish judges,” Joe Calvello, Mamdani’s press secretary, said told Politico in a statement.
“When informed that Mr. Leventhal served on [Ghislaine] Maxwell’s legal team, the Mamdani administration chose not to move forward with his appointment. Any suggestion that the decision around MACJ was motivated by religion is false.”