City Council Speaker Julie Menin called for a probe Thursday into the Mayor Zohran Mamdani-led Department of Health over its “Global Oppression Working Group” and whether taxpayer funds were misused.
“Our health care officials should be fighting infectious diseases and addressing skyrocketing health care costs instead of spending public time debating geopolitics on city time,” Menin (D-Manhattan) told The Post.
“A thorough investigation into the use of taxpayer resources is necessary to protect the public trust and address the unacceptable rise in antisemitism across New York City.”
As The Post exclusively reported, the DOH group was created by staffers accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, with participants meeting in the middle of the workday Tuesday at the agency’s headquarters in Long Island City and remotely.
Council Member Lynn Schulman (D-Queens), the health committee chair, ripped into the politicization of the agency as fanning the flames of antisemitism.
“This incident is especially troubling given the alarming rise of antisemitism we are seeing in New York City — including multiple antisemitic [acts] reported in recent weeks,” Schulman said.
“Hosting a meeting that promotes inflammatory accusations while ignoring antisemitism entirely only deepens and alienates Jewish employees and residents.”
Both Menin and Schulman are Jewish and represent districts with a large numbers of pro-Israel Jewish constituents.
“City employees are public servants, and with that comes a responsibility to use taxpayer-funded time and resources appropriately,” Schulman said. “Politicizing a public health agency undermines trust, morale and the core mission of the department.”
Schulman said she spoke to DOH brass about the Israel-bashing group and was pleased to learn that “an investigation is underway.”
Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said the creation of a health department group to demonize Israel was beyond the pale.
“This is clear political activity in a city agency during work time, which also made staff feel unsafe and unwelcome,” Treyger said.
“In addition to the Health Department’s leadership ensuring accountability, City Hall needs to remind all agencies about city rules and regulations, including ensuring all staff feel welcome, safe, and supported,” he said. “That is non-negotiable.”
Jewish workers in other city agencies — including the Department of Education — said they were alarmed by the politicization of the DOH.
“Antisemitic and anti-Israel presentations are happening across city agencies. Working in NYC, whether it’s the DOH or DOE [Department of Education], is very difficult,” said Moshe Spern, president of the NYC United Jewish Teachers.
“Jewish city workers are struggling and honestly, all agencies are turning a blind eye. That is why we are all collaborating together. They cannot and will not divide the Jewish community anymore. We cannot allow this bias in NYC to continue.”
The working group’s mission statement, included as part of the slide presentation at the meeting, said its formation was a “cross-divisional effort led by Division Equity Liaisons (DELs) and action teams from Disease Control.”
“Developed in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the working group aims to address the growing interest among health department staff to learn about current and ongoing global oppression in its many forms and how it influences the advancement of health equity,” the group statement said.
GOPH said its goals were to better understand the impact of global oppression on “the health and well-being of priority communities in NYC vis-à-vis trauma, violence and discrimination” as well as “supporting colleagues negatively impacted” by it, according to a slideshow presented at the meeting.
