Flanked by his wife, the First lady of NYC, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Israel’s Consul General of NY Ido Aharoni, Mayor Bill de Blasio welcomed on Monday what he called ‘an extraordinary diverse’ crowd of every element of the Jewish community to the annual Jewish Heritage BBQ at Gracie Mansion.

“I have a special honor that no one else in the world can say: I am the mayor of the city on this earth with the largest Jewish population,” Mayor de Blasio told the hundreds gathered in the tent outside Gracie Mansion. “And that comes with a responsibility to stand up for the Jewish people, protect the Jewish people and stand up for the state of Israel. And I take that very, very seriously.”

“I can also say that in the last two thousand years there haven’t been enough places in this world that said ‘this is the people’s house and you’re welcome in the people’s house.’ But in New York City, you are always welcome in the people’s house,” he added.

The mayor mingled with the crowd, spending over an hour snapping pictures with almost every attendee and tapping people he has known for years on the back. At some point, the mayor’s staffers were grinning their teeth and shaking their feet anxiously trying to get the mayor out of the mob to attend another scheduled event.

JCRC’s Michael Miller, who sponsored the event and is known to be a close friend of the Mr. de Blasio, introduced the mayor, hailing him as a true friend the community should come to recognize. “There is one thing I know about Bill de Blasio, in terms of his relationship with our community, that when you use the word ‘friend’ you use a word with all the meaning that it has,” Miller said. “I know very few people and very few political figures who have that deep level of friendship – or partnership – that he has with our community.”

During his remarks the mayor showered words of praise on the Jewish community, feeling comfortable in his own skin, in company of many friends he had worked with and come to know over the years. “This community has such a fantastic impact on this city. We would not be New York City, we wouldn’t have had the dynamism, we wouldn’t have the creativity, we wouldn’t have the entrepreneurship, we wouldn’t have the [C]hutzpah and we wouldn’t have had so much if not for the Jewish community,” Mr. de Blasio said. “What has truly enriched this city, for generations, is the values of the Jewish people.”

he then quoted the comedian Lenny Bruce, “even if you are Catholic, if you live in New York you’re Jewish.

Mr. de Blasio concluded his speech by reiterating his comments at AIPAC, at the beginning of his term, that it is his “obligation as the mayor of the city with largest Jewish population in the world to stand up and defend the state of Israel.”

“It is my obligation to be one of the people you can always depend on, automatically, to stand up and be counted. And I will do that,” he pledged. “But equally, it is my obligation to fight here at home against any instance of antisemitism. Whether it is intolerance or biased violence, we don’t accept that in this city.”

Commenting on international matters, the mayor added, “Leaders all over the democratic world need to act like they are leaders in the democratic world. And when they see intolerance against the Jewish community they have to stand up or else they are not leaders of a democracy.”

“Together, we can not only protect this community but we can teach the world what understanding and embrace of all people actually looks like,” Mr. de Blasio concluded.

A Knesset delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzahi Hanegbi also honored the event with their presence.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)