Mayor Adams Rejects Office’s ‘Premature’ Statement, Fully Backs Holocaust Survivor Speaking at Brooklyn School

Mayor Eric Adams forcefully rejected a Wednesday statement released by his office, which had backed a Brooklyn middle school’s decision to not invite a Holocaust survivor to speak due to his support of Israel.

The first statement, given to the New York Post, supported MS 447 Principal Arin Rusch’s decision to bar Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann from speaking to students.

Writing on X from New Orleans, where he had attended a Combat Antisemitism conference, the Mayor released a clarification at 12:20AM, stating: “Unfortunately, a statement went out prematurely from my office that said he was not the right speaker,” Mayor Adams stated, distancing himself from the initial City Hall response which had claimed Steigmann “wasn’t the right fit.”

“Let me be very clear, I’ve previously met with Sami Steigmann and he is ABSOLUTELY the right person to speak with kids about the atrocities of the Holocaust,” Adams declared.

Rusch wrote that she did not think “Sami’s presentation is right for our public school setting, given his messages around Israel and Palestine.”

Steigmann, a survivor of a Nazi labor camp in Transnistria and medical experimentation, focuses his lectures on moral courage, urging students to be “upstanders” rather than bystanders. While he is openly proud of his Jewish identity and supports Israel, advocates note that he does not discuss the current Israel-Hamas war in his bio and had even offered to avoid the topic entirely if requested.

Adams made it clear that blocking survivors from speaking is unacceptable.

“As our Jewish community faces increased antisemitism and persecution across the globe, it’s more important now than ever that we learn the lessons and stories of the Holocaust,” Adams said. “New York City is the home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors in the world and we are privileged to learn from them.”

The Mayor indicated that he has taken personal steps to rectify the situation.

“We need our young people to hear these critical stories now, so we can train our next generation to never again perpetrate such evil,” Adams said. “Sami Steigmann has shared his amazing story with me at Gracie Mansion and I spoke to him tonight about how we can continue to highlight his story in the coming weeks.”

The refusal by the school, and the initial support from the Department of Education, drew blistering condemnation from Jewish leaders.
Moshe Spern, President of the United Jewish Teachers (UJT) and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, described the principal’s vetting process as “appalling,” “discriminatory,” and “personally offensive.”

“There are only so many survivors out there who still speak,” Spern said in a statement. “This is not meeting the moment. This is sending a message to Jews in [New York City Public Schools].”

Speaking to Belaaz, Spern characterized the decision as an act of “Jew-hatred” and “censorship of a Holocaust survivor who literally does not even talk about Israel.” He slammed the move as a “huge letdown” and a “backstab” to Jews in New York City.

Brooklyn City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov echoed these sentiments, warning that the school was “potentially engaging in viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.” She called it “abhorrent” to deny a survivor the chance to speak while antisemitism is “skyrocketing among our youth.”