‘Don’t stop believing,’ NYC mayor tells Israel at the end of his three-day visit

Adams praises Israel as a ‘unicorn’ at event celebrating New York-Tel Aviv economic ties

New York City Mayor Eric Adams concluded his three-day visit to Israel at the “White City Soirée” in Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening, where he met with top Israeli business, finance and technology leaders.

At the event celebrating New York-Tel Aviv economic ties, Adams hailed Israel’s culture of innovation and encouraged the audience to look to Israel’s past for inspiration to overcome current challenges.

“Don’t stop believing, Israel,” Adams said during his speech. “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.”

A unicorn is a privately held start-up company valued at $1 billion or more. According to a recent study, Tel Aviv is the fifth-largest producer of unicorns in the world.

“Hard is starting this country being surrounded by people who hated you,” 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!”

Adams also talked about the global fight against antisemitism, 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.”

“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.”