Add The New York Post on Google The movement to ban Mayor Zohran Mamdani from this year’s 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero — marking the 25th anniversary of New York City’s darkest day — is mounting.
In less than three weeks, more than 62,000 people have signed the Change.org petition demanding Hizzoner skip the solemn event.
The mayor’s past remarks and associations with people openly hostile to the U.S. or scornful of the worst terror attack in American history has made his planned attendance a lightning rod for criticism, but he’s so far brushed off the growing chorus and pledges to be there.
The petition lists many reasons for wanting to exclude Mamdani, including his long reluctance to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” and his associations with individuals like his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented an al-Qaeda tanker-bombing pilot.
“This anniversary is one of remembrance grounded in shared American values: respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks, and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence,” the petition reads.
The Post first reported on the skyrocketing number of signatories last weekend. Organizer Giovanni Galante this week estimated that thousands of family members of the 2,977 innocents killed on Sept. 11, 2001, have signed on.
If Mamdani shows up at the ceremony, he should expect many 9/11 family members to turn their backs on him in protest, warned Galante, whose 29-year-old wife Grace was killed in the attack.
“They don’t want to look at him,” he said.
“A lot of people are signing,” said Angie Pesce of Staten Island, whose 34-year-old brother, Danny, was one of 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who lost their lives in the Twin Towers. “And it’s not only the family – it’s friends of family, too. . . . It’s getting circulated and growing every day.”
Charles G. Wolf, whose 40-year-old wife Katherine Wolf was killed only two weeks into her job at Marsh & McLennan, said the Ugandan-born socialist mayor has alienated too many family members of 9/11 victims by pushing an anti-American agenda and associating with terrorist sympathizers like left-wing influencer Hasan Piker — who once said “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
“He doesn’t want the United States to exist as it does today,” alleged Wolf, whose compensation fight for 9/11 victims’ families was told in the 2020 Netflix film “Worth” with Emmy-winner Stanley Tucci playing him. “He wants to turn it into a third-world government … and continue the work that the 9/11 hijackers were doing.”
An FDNY captain said the petition is circulating widely in the department, which suffered the loss of 343 firefighters that day. Tom Van Essen, the city fire commissioner during and after 9/11, enthusiastically signed, and said he’d delight in delivering the mayor an icy surprise.
“Yes I signed it — I can’t wait to hit him with a snowball in his phony face!”
First responders in other agencies also weighed in.
John Ryan, a retired Port Authority chief of department who helmed the rescue operation for nine months after the attack, wants Mamdani to stay away.
“I did sign the petition. Where was the mayor for the previous 9/11s? I have been there every year, and I’ve seen a steady parade of politicians come and go, who say they support the families and then you never hear from them again,” he said. “Words are shallow, actions are what counts.”
Retired NYPD cop Jim Smith, whose wife, Moira Smith, was one of two female police officers who died on 9/11, said, “I didn’t sign the petition because Sept. 11 should not be about politicians. It should be about the people that we lost that day and continue to lose — and their families.
“Petitions like this just take away from those heroes. The honorable thing would be for people who are distractions not to show up.”
Mamdani apologists have criticized the petition’s creators and alleged The Post overestimated the number of victims’ families who don’t want Hizzoner at the solemn remembrance.
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The Post in the last week contacted more than 150 families shattered by 9/11. A handful said they disagree with the petition.
Dozens of relatives said they support the petition but declined to go on the record. They said they feared reprisals, including those with city jobs.
The vast majority of the family members said they signed the petititon, or intend to sign. Here are some of their stories:
A probie and the youngest firefighter to die on 9/11, Christopher Santora played stickball and basketball growing up in Long Island City, Queens, and was a rare Toronto Blue Jays fan living in NYC. After graduating from Queens College and briefly working as a substitute teacher, he followed his father, Deputy Chief Al Santora, into the FDNY. Young Santora’s shift had ended that day, but when the WTC alarm came in that morning, he didn’t hesitate to jump on the back of a fire truck. His mother still grieves and is not happy that Mayor Mamdani plans to be at the 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero. “He has never supported the 9/11 community – ever,” Maureen Santora said. “And I just feel his presence is detrimental to the purpose of why we gather together: to honor the people who died on September 11th and to remember them in a respectful, dignified … way. This is not a political day. He’s a divisive individual as well – and has made comments against many, many different groups.. . . That is not a person that should be present at a somber ceremony to remember people who were murdered by terrorists.”
Katherine — who was born in Swansea, Wales, and was a classical pianist who graduated from Royal College of Music in London — began working at the insurance brokerage just two weeks before the terror attacks. “I kissed her goodbye at 8:06 a.m, and never heard from her again,” recalled Charles G. Wolf, a licensed pilot, adding he could hear the roar of the hijacked Boeing 767 airplane flying low over their Greenwich Village apartment seconds before it slammed into the WTC. Wolf — whose fight for compensation for 9/11 victims’ families was told in the 2021 Netflix film “Worth” with Emmy winner Stanley Tucci playing him — said Mamdani doesn’t belong at the ceremony because “he brings pain” and has “no respect” for the United States. “He does not have our interest at heart, and he does not care about the families. The memorial observation is for 9/11 family members and . . . public officials who’ve supported us all along the way after 9/11,” including former Gov. George Pataki.
The last words Louis Massari, 50, heard his wife Patricia utter were “Oh my god,” after the first plane struck the Twin Towers. The two had been on the phone after learning just that morning that Patricia was pregnant. They had been teenage friends whose friendship slowly turned into a love story. “She definitely lit up a room any place she went to. . . . We knew her as somebody that had the most beautiful smile, and it’s not being biased as her husband,” Massari said. For Mamdani to be at the memorial services, the widower said after signing the petition, would stir up additional emotions that already emotional families would want to avoid. He believes the mayor should bow out to help “de-escalate.”
Danny Pesce was a quiet, hard-working man who had a girlfriend in Tennessee and planned to move there, said his sister, who spoke to him at his desk twice after a hijacked plane slammed into the side of the skyscraper. With his office floor in flames, Danny called Angela to ask her if she knew what happened. Angela turned on the TV and told him a plane just hit the building and urged him to leave. Danny screamed to his co-workers, “A plane just hit the building! Our building.” She called back soon after, and Danny said the office was starting to fill with smoke. Angela could hear “desk draws slamming” as Danny and co-workers were frantically preparing an evacuation. Then the line went dead. “That conversation will be in my mind forever,” Angela said. After his death, Danny’s 1988 Mercury Cougar sat in his family’s driveway on Staten Island for 23 years. Family members are in the process of trying to fix it. Angela said she signed the petition because Mamdani “doesn’t care about our families” and is all about scoring political points. “I’m really afraid for this year,” she said. “What’s gonna happen if he does show up? Everybody’s angry. It’s a place for mourning, and it’s gonna be the 25th anniversary. I want to go there and mourn my brother. I don’t want any . . . craziness. So he should look at that petition and say, ‘Wow, I’m gonna upset these families. I’m staying home today.’”
Joseph Pick was a staff sergeant in the Air Force before going to work for Fiduciary Trust International. His daughter watched the building where he worked collapse. “I was in school when it happened. I was 9 years old. I went to school in Hoboken, right across the water, and I watched my dad’s building go down right in front of me,” Jeannette, 34, told The Post. Her final memory of her dad was of watching TV on the couch. “I saw him on September 9th at night. One of the last things we did was watch the premier of the Cartoon Network show ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force.’ I still watch that because it reminds me of him.” She feels the mayor should skip the 25th anniversary ceremony because of his association with radicals like Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. He “said in 2019 that America deserved 9/11. Are you kidding me?” she said, adding this message for Mamdani: “I don’t understand. It’s like, “Dude we don’t want you there. What don’t you get? The families just want one day to themselves. Shouldn’t we – the loved ones – get to choose who we want or don’t want there?’+”
When the first plane hit, Walter Matuza Jr. was on the phone with his wife. He tried to quell her fears and it would be the last time the two spoke. His death emotionally and physically traumatized the family. “My oldest son was 10 at the time, and from the stress of losing his father, he went blind and he lost his eyesight,” Denise said. She sees no reason why Mamdani should attend the 25th anniversary event. “He should not be able to speak. It’s all about the families, the names of the [people] who perished there. . . . This is our gravesite for our husbands and wives.” Eldest son Walter agreed: “I don’t mind that [politicians] come as long as they’re respectful. I just think it is disrespectful if he comes because of the people that he’s associated with.”
The couple had been married for only 11 months and were trying to have a baby, recalled Monica Iken-Murphy, a leading advocate in the creation of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. “His dream was to be a dad . . . . because he was adopted and never knew his father. He got robbed of being a father.” Iken-Murphy said Mamdani’s politics wasn’t why she signed the petition. Only politicians involved in the healing “process from the start” — such as ex-NYC Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani — should join 9/11 family members in attending “this pivotal 25th anniversary ceremony,” she said. “I don’t want families to feel uncomfortable. Others can come a different day, but let the families have their time.”
Even after a grueling recovery from eye surgery, the beloved mother and grandmother was determined to return to her job, just months before 9/11, at the securities brokerage and investment bank where she was a beloved figure. After her husband’s death she returned to work as a receptionist, where she had a front row seat to a hive of activity. “She saw everyone come and go. The young men shared their stories with her and got advice. She was the office mom – she loved it,” said son Nic Haros Jr. “I kept asking my mom to retire. It was a long daily commute, but she loved her work friends.” But on this solemn anniversary, the controversial mayor, a “poster child for the DSA,” would be “worse than a slap on the face” to grieving loved ones, he said. “Ban him — he will only anger the families. He should skip it as he did the Israel Day parade.”
Lori Brody was an assistant vice president at Deutsche Bank who had gotten her little brother Scott a job at Cantor Fitzgerald. They both worked in the North Tower. “The irony is, I told him to stay [at the investment firm] because I found out he was going to get a promotion which he didn’t know about,” Lori Brody said. “I told him, ‘No, no, just wait, just wait till December. It’s going to be great, I promise you.” Lori Brody made it out alive, but her brother perished in the collapse. Mayor Mamdani “just makes things worse,” she said. “I am Jewish, I find him to be very antisemitic. I find him to incite violence wherever he goes. He thrives on division. I find that he has proven over and over again where his loyalty on September 11th stands — his loyalty stands with the terrorists. He could do the proper thing and bow out. He won’t because he likes to inflict pain on those he can.”
Grace was a “beautiful, kind person” who was great at “reading people” and was loved by many of her 657 co-workers who perished that day. Giovanni Galante, who is the lead organizer of the petition drive, branded Mamdani an apologist for Islamic terror whose presence would be an insult to the memories of nearly 3,000 people murdered on 9/11. “Our objection is based on his public record — his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” he said. “This day is sacred to us. It is not political, and it is not a platform for those connected to such views. His presence would be deeply hurtful and inappropriate.” Grace’s sister Cathy Cava, 60, said, “It would be totally disrespectful for [Mamdani] to be there. He hasn’t shown any support” for the 9/11 family community. She described Grace as “smart, gregarious and loving.” “People gravitated to her,” Cava said. “The world lost a beautiful person, and it should not have happened.”
The couple shared twin sons, Eric and Jonathan, who were just 2 years old when Thomas died. Cheri Sparacio, one of the petition’s organizers, said there are “so many other examples” why it’s “disrespectful” for Mamdani to attend the ceremony that “we couldn’t fit them on” the petition, which cites many examples of what they believe show the mayor is a longtime terror apologist. If the mayor attends, “it doesn’t show respect for the families and it doesn’t show any understanding of the tragedy of that day if you’re going to excuse it in various ways,” she said.be deeply hurtful and inappropriate — like an unwelcome guest at a deeply personal ceremony.”
Marine Corps veteran and NYPD Sgt. John Coughlin was last seen entering the South Tower attempting to save others. His last radio transmission showed that he was on the 20th floor of the building before communication went dark. But before he perished, he ran into a high school friend in the burning building and told the person to run; that person survived. Public service was important to Coughlin, and he was also a volunteer firefighter in his Rockland County hometown of Pomona. He left behind three daughters, Erin, Tara, and Kayla. His wife Patty, 67, who signed the petition to keep Mamdani out, said, the “mayor is anti-American. He doesn’t care about the people who died on 9/11 and those that have died since. He has never shown his support. . . . He doesn’t deserve to be there.”
McDonnell was a cop’s cop — known for wearing his brass-buttoned formal uniform and swinging his police baton while out on the beat. Prior to his 15 years on the force, McDonnell served as an elite Army paratrooper. On Sept. 11, 2001, he sprung to action as part of Emergency Service Unit’s Squad 1 and was last seen entering the South Tower in an heroic attempt to save lives. His widow Maggie McDonnel-Tiberio signed the petition because she feels Mamdani’s presence would be salt in the wound. “The mayor stands for everything that made 9/11 happen. He doesn’t support the victims and their families. He has never said anything publicly or done anything to show his support,” she said.
Jennifer Nilsen was married to Troy for four years and thought they would grow old together. She loved his humor and how attentive he was to their oldest son, Scott, who has autism. “My kids miss him daily . . . my older son, he understands. . . . [He] was 5 and the youngest one was almost 3” on that dark day. Her signing the petition had nothing to do with politics or religion, she said, but a way to keep the day focused on the families who lost loved ones. “We don’t want it to turn into a circus and people getting arrested or whatever. We don’t want that. We want it nice and calm. Let us remember our loved ones that day.”
Anne Marie Martino-Cramer worked at Fiduciary Trust for nearly her entire adult life, having joined the firm soon after graduating high school and only leaving for a brief stint at Bank of New York. She was famous for her work ethic, and in fact, had a vacation scheduled for September 11, 2001, but decided to push it back to October. She was already hard at work early that morning when Flight 11 knifed into the North Tower. Anne Marie calmly explained on the phone to her mom, with whom she lived on Staten Island, that she was alright. A modest leader, it was her character to calm and comfort others before herself. “She just picked up and would just keep going. That’s just the way she was,” her sister Patricia, 79, said in Anne Marie’s obituary. Even though she was seven years older than Anne Marie, Patricia looked up to her younger sister, and she’s taken offense to the idea of Mamdani attending this year’s memorial. She is one of the original organizers of the petition. “His association alone with Hasan Piker, the man who said ‘we deserved’ [9/11’ – I think that’s what put me over the edge to get a petition started,” she told The Post. Her sister’s remains were never recovered, and the thought of people like Mamdani attending the 25th anniversary, she said, “turns my stomach.”
The oldest of eight siblings, Raymond R. York was a born leader who served valiantly with the FDNY for nearly 20 years until a shoulder injury put him on light duty. Then he taught fire safety at Rockefeller Center’s The Fire Zone, where children affectionately called him “Fireman Ray.” When he learned of the 9/11 attacks from a TV crew covering The Fire Zone, he refused to leave his brothers behind. He hopped on the closest firetruck heading downtown and then transferred to an ambulance when it got stuck in traffic, ultimately reaching the FDNY command post at Ground Zero. His brother Richard, then a construction worker in Times Square, hoped Raymond had gone home, but knew in his heart that nothing would stop him from trying to help. “I’m praying to myself. I went to bed [that night] . . . saying he probably did make it down there [but] I’m saying to myself I hope he’s in the hospital,” he told The Post. Raymond’s widow, Joan, was notified the following morning that he didn’t make it. Richard said his brother would be disgusted by the idea of Mamdani attending the 25th anniversary memorial. Richard, who retired and lives in Florida, said he and his wife are so distraught by Mamdani’s attendance that they may skip the event altogether. “The way the city is, it feels like we’re not welcome,” he said.
Waltz was among 10 firefighters at Ladder 9 in the East Village who responded to the terror attacks and perished (another four weren’t inside the North Tower and survived). The Staten Island native was the son of a retired firefighter and left behind a wife, Rani Walz, and a 3-year-old son, Bradley. “He loved his job,” said Ciaccio. “He was known as a gentle giant. He was not a man of many words, but he always listened to what you were saying. When he was taken away from us, my family was never the same again. It’s been 25 years, but it still feels like it happened yesterday.” Ciaccio also said she signed the petition because she doesn’t believe any politicians should be attending the memorial ceremony. “It’s a day for the families, for us to mourn our loved ones who were innocently murdered,” she said.
Professional baseball player, boxer, golfer, model, actor, Michael Thomas Weinberg did it all, but his highest calling was helping others as an FDNY firefighter. He was on vacation on 9/11 waiting for his tee time at Forest Park Golf Course in Queens when he heard the World Trade Center was attacked. He rushed to the scene to rescue his sister Patricia, who worked for Morgan Stanley on the 72nd floor of Two World Trade Center. She managed to escape, but when the towers collapsed, Michael was killed instantly as he sheltered behind a fire truck. “Michael was the best of the best. . . . He used to help people he was very, very good with people. . . . To this day, my heart is broken, that’s all I can say,” said his father, Morton, 89, a retired firefighter. Too infirm to sign the petition, he added, “I don’t like Mamdani, he’s screwing up the city.”
“Mike was a student of history, now he’s part of it,” said his brother Dennis, a retired firefighter. His brother was a beloved father, world traveler and amateur artist, and just two days from retiring when the terrorists struck NYC. He planned to go to Australia to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef. He rushed with ladder company into the North Tower. The building collapsed on them as they frantically tried to carry a wheelchair bound woman down the stairs. “I was there when they found his body, I got to put my hand on his arm,” Dennis said. Though he originally liked Mamdani’s economic policies, Dennis was disgusted to learn of Mamdani’s radical statements and associations. “I got no use for someone who supports terrorism, forget him.” But he will not sign the petition because he doesn’t believe in silencing people.
Suzanne Oelsclager, 63, called her husband Douglas her soulmate. She recalled how hands-on he was with his two young daughters, even filling in as a Girl Scout leader for their troop. Suzanne told The Post that becoming a firefighter was a calling for her husband, who was a volunteer firefighter for nearly 20 years before joining the FDNY. “He always wanted to be a New York City fireman. So he set out to do that journey, and unfortunately, it was one of his last journeys in his life,” Suzanne said. She said she signed the petition because Mamdani’s presence would “take away” from the day. “He is just being a political figure. And it’s not a day about political figures.”
Robert J. Mayo could easily have escaped the 9/11 attacks with his life but he was determined to save as many other people as possible. As deputy fire safety director in WTC’s building 4, it was his job to evacuate people in an emergency. “I called him twice that day begging him to leave. He could have easily run out to the boats that were waiting by the West Side Highway the way a lot of other people did, but he said, ‘This is what I’m trained to do. I need to save as many people as I can,’” his widow Meryl, 67, recalled. She said her husband would be livid if he knew Mayor Mamdani would be at the memorial. “It’s so distasteful. He surrounds himself with people who make inflammatory statements about 9/11, he disparages law enforcement and the NYPD and supports terrorists,” she said. Meryl will stay home if he attends. “The idea of reading names and looking over and seeing him is nauseating.”
Weatherwax, 82, a retired United Airlines flight attendant, lost 16 friends — some of whom she had worked with for 35 years — on Flights 175 and 93 on 9/11. Five Islamic terrorists took control of Flight 175 out of Logan Airport in Boston between 8:42 a.m. and 8:46 a.m., using knives, pepper spray and the threat of a bomb. “We weren’t ready for that when it happened,” she said. “We didn’t know what an Islamist was.” When the hijackers flew the screeching jet into the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. some of the first to die would be her friends — Capt. Victor Saracini, 51, First Officer Michael Horrocks, 38, and flight attendants Amy King, 29; Michael Tarrou, 38; Robert Fangman, 33; Amy Jarret, 28; Kathryn LaBorie, 42, and Alicia Titus, 28. She recalled “Amy and Michael were from Connecticut and they were just darling and they were engaged to be married. “Dying together, for their parents it was just awful.” Weatherwax, who now serves as a docent and artifacts specialist at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, signed the petition against Mamdani. “We’re just furious that he’s going to be there,” she said. “I don’t want him to be there. If Mamdani didn’t come nothing would happen. Especially on the 25th Anniversary. I don’t want him to be there.”
Robert Crawford was a firefighter for 32 years and was planning to retire. “He had just bought his first brand new car ever, and he got to enjoy it for about a month,” recalled his daughter Jennifer Eppolito, 56. Her parents had also bought a house up in Maine in preparation for their new life. As a child her father would go sailing up north and loved the Pine Tree State. “There’s not enough time,” Eppolito told The Post when asked what type of man her father was. “It didn’t matter who you were, if you needed help he would help you. He was just the friend that everyone would have wanted to have. I was just very fortunate to have him in my life for 31 years.” He was a man of faith, involved in charitable work, and a wonderful grandfather. Eppolito signed the petition. “That might sound harsh but he’s not welcome at Ground Zero, he shouldn’t even come there. . . . his policies and everything he is talking about [would be] disgraceful to people who were killed during September 11th.”
