AP Photo/Seth Wenig
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s newly appointed Director of Appointments, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, resigned after one day on the job on Thursday, following a report on past anti-Semitic social media posts.
“As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused,” Da Costa said in a statement. “As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.”
Independent journalist Timmy Facciola uncovered the posts and published some of the most inflammatory ones on his substack.
“NEW: Zohran Mamdani’s Director of Appointments Catherine Almonte Da Costa has an archive full of anti-semitic posts. “Far Rockaway train is the Jew train,” she wrote in 2012. After I reached out to Mamdani’s transition team for comment, she deleted her X account,” Facciola wrote on X, but not before screenshotting Da Costa’s many anti-Semitic posts.
Some of the tropes Da Costa pushed included writing, “Money hungry Jews smh”; “Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps.”; and “Far Rockaway train is the Jew train.” Da Costa, now 34 and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, made the posts when she was between 19 and 20.
Mamdani has been under scrutiny over his association with some on the far left, who are widely seen as anti-Semitic – like Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.
In recent weeks, Mamdani has made clear condemnations of anti-Semitic vandalism and violence, including a strongly worded statement in solidarity with the Jewish community following the horrific Bondi Beach shooting in Australia during a Hanukkah celebration. Mamdani has also worked to distance himself from the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which he initially refused to condemn as an explicit call to violence.
“Catherine expressed her deep remorse over her past statements and tendered her resignation, and I accepted,” Mamdani said in a statement, announcing Da Costa’s resignation.
