Director of appointments resigns after antisemitic social media posts from over a decade ago surface
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s incoming administration faced an immediate governance crisis when Catherine Almonte Da Costa, newly appointed director of appointments overseeing all City Hall hiring, resigned after the Anti-Defamation League identified antisemitic social media posts she wrote more than a decade earlier. The public controversy forced the transition team to conduct an emergency overhaul of its vetting procedures and highlighted fundamental questions about whether the administration adequately scrutinizes appointees for statements contradicting its stated values.
The Posts That Changed Everything
Da Costa, 33 years old, had been appointed to a position of significant power and access, overseeing the hiring of hundreds of city employees. Hours after the ADL brought her social media remarks to light, she resigned. The posts included calling Jewish people “money hungry” and referring to the Far Rockaway train as the “Jew train.” These were not recent remarks made in the heat of contemporary political debatethey were posts made when Da Costa was 19 years old, yet they were publicly available on social media for anyone conducting even basic research to discover.
Mamdani’s Immediate Response
At a news conference on Staten Island, Mamdani stated he had been unaware of the posts before the ADL’s disclosure and said he would not have hired Da Costa had he known about them. This statement, while acknowledging the problem, raised uncomfortable questions about how a person could be appointed to oversee hiring without basic social media vetting. The mayor-elect said clear changes to the transition committee’s vetting process were underway.
The Vetting Process That Failed
The transition team’s vetting procedures had been conducted by an internal team of paid lawyers and transition committee members overseen by executive director Elana Leopold. This internal team, despite having access to the same public internet available to journalists, had not identified Da Costa’s posts. The discovery by the ADL, a nonprofit organization with neither law enforcement powers nor special investigative resources, exposed the inadequacy of the internal vetting process.
Bringing in Outside Experts
In response to the Da Costa resignation, the transition announced it would hire an outside legal firm to review candidates and all previously hired appointees, with special emphasis on top positions. This acknowledgment that outside expertise was necessary suggested the internal process had been fundamentally flawed from inception. The failure to properly vet a person being placed in charge of vetting others compounded the embarrassment.
The Broader ADL Report Context
The Da Costa resignation occurred within a larger controversy in which the ADL identified that approximately 20 percent of the 400-person transition committee had ties to anti-Zionist groups or individuals with documented antisemitic statements or associations. This finding created substantial tension between Mamdani and the city’s Jewish community, which comprises the world’s second-largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
Mamdani’s Interpretation Dispute
Mamdani disputed the ADL’s characterization, arguing the organization conflates legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy with antisemitism. He stated that the distinction between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government must be maintained. However, this argument held little weight regarding Da Costa’s posts, which did not involve any political critique but rather stereotypical statements about Jewish people and ethnicity.
Responses From the Jewish Community
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said he was not surprised by the controversy. He noted that while he was grateful Mamdani accepted Da Costa’s resignation quickly, the controversy was predictable given the positions Mamdani and his supporters hold regarding Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Rabbi Hirsch stated that the people interested in supporting Mamdani’s campaign and serving in his administration include individuals with what he described as acute animus toward the state of Israel.
A Different Perspective
Lincoln Restler, a Jewish Democratic City Council member from Brooklyn, offered a more charitable interpretation. He noted he had known Da Costa since both worked on Bill de Blasio’s transition team, and while her antisemitic posts were unacceptable, they were made when she was young and should not be used to judge Mamdani’s broader commitment to Jewish New Yorkers. Restler stated that Mamdani has worked to build relationships with the Jewish community across the five boroughs.
Da Costa’s Own Response and Defense
In a statement Thursday, Da Costa expressed deep regret for her past statements. She wrote that the remarks were not indicative of who she is, and as the mother of Jewish children, she feels profound sadness and remorse about the harm the words caused. She offered her resignation as a way to remove herself as a distraction from the administration’s work.
Her Husband’s Defense
Ricky M. Da Costa, the city’s deputy comptroller and Catherine’s husband, defended his wife publicly. He stated that as someone married to Catherine and deeply engaged with her life, he can guarantee she has grown substantially since making what he characterized as dumb tweets when she was 19. He wrote that her remorse is deeply genuine and that she works hard for a New York City where everyone is safe.
What This Means for Vetting Standards
The Da Costa case establishes a baseline: the Mamdani administration will conduct social media vetting and will ask people to resign when significantly problematic historical statements emerge. Whether this standard will be applied consistently to all appointees, or only to those who become publicly controversial, remains unclear. The fact that the outside vetting firm must now review all 400 transition committee members suggests ongoing risks of additional disclosures.
Implications for the Administration
The vetting scandal in the transition period, before Mamdani even takes office, underscores the risk of appointing individuals without thorough background review. It also reveals tensions between the administration’s stated commitment to the Jewish community and the composition of its transition team. Whether appointing an outside firm to conduct additional vetting will resolve these tensions or merely delay their emergence remains to be seen.
Looking Forward
The handling of the Da Costa situation will set expectations for how the administration responds to future controversies. If additional problematic social media posts or statements by appointees surface, observers will judge whether the administration responds with the same swift action or attempts to retain appointees despite disclosed problems. The administration’s credibility on issues of antisemitism may depend on how consistently and fairly it applies its newly adopted vetting standards. Read ADL work on antisemitism at Anti-Defamation League official site. Explore NYC Jewish community at New York Jewish Community Relations Council. Learn about vetting standards at Partnership for Public Service government transition guide. Understand hiring best practices through Society for Human Resource Management.
