A NYC Holocaust survivor who’s been trying to meet face to face with Mayor Mamdani to discuss his personal housing plight has ditched hope for a confab and is now praying for a Passover miracle, he told The Post.
Sami Steigmann survived twisted Nazi medical experimentation but isn’t going to waste another minute waiting for the socialist who ran on an affordable housing platform.
“Politicians make promises and don’t keep them. I was hoping Mamdani would keep his promise,” said Steigmann, 86, who had a scheduled one-on-one with Mamdani in January, where Mamdani was a no-show.
Sami Steigmann is hoping for an accessible apartment. Michael Nigro for NY PostSteigmann, who made headlines in December when he was banned from speaking to a Brooklyn middle school for his pro-Israel views, relies on modest reparations from Germany and his Social Security check to live in his second-story Harlem apartment.
He is desperate to leave because navigating the stairs is difficult.
But he has no affordable second option so he hoped Mamdani could help.
But their meeting was never rescheduled, Steigmann said.
The mayor is “working hard” to help Steigmann and has “connected with several community organizations and housing providers over the past several months to address his housing situation, a City Hall rep told Fox News, which first reported the story.
“Even if he calls now, I’m not interested,” said Steigmann.
“He’s a champion in words — not affordable housing,” he said of the pro-Palestine pol.
The Holocaust survivor said he wouldn’t meet with Mamdani now even if the mayor called. Michael Nigro for NY PostSteigmann is eyeing a $3,500 one-bedroom accessible apartment that can accommodate his needs, since he has difficulty even “walking one block.”
Nonprofit Chicago Jewish Alliance, launched a program called “Project Ahava,” to raise $132,000 for the ailing Steigmann to live comfortably.
“It would be a Passover miracle,” said Steigmann, who gives talks about the Holocaust and his harrowing personal account.
He’s dreading a future in a nursing home – a dismal fate that would preclude him from his “mission of educating the next generation.”
Steigmann blasts “normalized” antisemitism in NYC, criticizing Mayor Mamdani’s wife’s artwork and Jewish voters. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com
Steigmann, a Nazi experiment survivor, needs accessible housing due to poor health; a group is raising $132,000. Michael Nigro for NY Post“If I go to a nursing home, I wait for my time to say goodbye. That’s the end of life,” he said.
As a New Yorker of nearly 40 years, Steigmann said he’s never seen this level of “normalized” antisemitism, and draws critical lessons from his painful past.
“Antisemitism is 4,000 years old. It will always be there,” he said, adding, “but what’s happening now is that it’s in the open” in NYC and around the world.
Steigmann blasted the “hypocrisy” that’s saw Boerum Hill’s MS 477 reject his appearance because of his support for Israel, but include “antisemitic” artwork from the mayor’s wife Rama Duwaji — the mayor’s wife — in the very same school.
Steigmann believes that under the new mayor, who has been dogged by accusations of fueling antisemitism with his anti-Israel rhetoric, “things will get worse before they get better.
Ever optimistic, he continued: “We survived many other things. We’ll survive another three years.”
