NYC Mayor Eric Adams (Photo credit: Adam Sherez)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was the guest of honor on Wednesday evening at the “White City Soirée” in Tel Aviv where he spoke with a group of top Israeli business, finance, and technology leaders. In his remarks, the Mayor said that all of Israel was a “unicorn.” Interestingly, Tel Aviv recently made the top of the list of cities in the world that create the most high-tech unicorns, startups with a $1 billion valuation.
In his remarks at the event celebrating New York-Tel Aviv economic ties, Mayor Adams hailed Israel’s culture of innovation and encouraged the audience to look to Israel’s past for inspiration to overcome current challenges.
“Hard is starting this country being surrounded by people who hated you,” Mayor Adams noted. “Hard is figuring out how to do drop irrigation so you can start growing your own products. Hard is building and being not only a start-up nation, but now leading a number of start-ups you’re seeing across the globe. And the reason you’ve survived layers and layers of difficulties and you’re still here, it is not because of the soil but because you’re made of good quality. It’s the people, folks!”
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“Don’t stop believing, Israel,” he added. “That is the potent secret weapon. All of you who are start-ups, you believed in something. The original start-ups were your parents and grandparents, they believed in something. Israel is a unicorn because of them. Don’t abandon what they built.”
Eric Adams also commented on the global fight against contemporary Jew-hatred, saying, “When you start to combat antisemitism, if you miss all the layers, then you will only peel off the top. We have to go to the crevices, to all of those who are participating in antisemitism, who are hiding their hand. They throw a rock, hide their hand, and when you’re bleeding they give you a bandaid and you thank them, when in fact they were the one who threw the rock in the first place. If we want to dismantle and combat antisemitism, we have to go to the core and the heart of it and dismantle the entire team. That’s how you get rid of antisemitism.”
Wednesday evening’s event was the final stop for Mayor Eric Adams on his three-day visit to Israel, his first since taking office.
Mayor Eric Adams met with Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.
On Monday he laid a wreath at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. He said Yad Vashem “is also a solemn reminder that we have an obligation to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and not only say ‘never again,’ but live that message and stand up against the scourge of antisemitism. Always.”
And Eric Adams also laid a wreath at Rabin Square (the site of Rabin’s assassination) in central Tel Aviv – located below the city hall building – and commented, “Yitzhak Rabin dedicated his life to peace. He gave his life for it. His loss was a tragedy. But we take from his example and continue his mission.”
