Eric Adams ended a 3-day visit to Israel with addressing a group of top Israeli business, finance, and technology leaders. in Tel Aviv.

New York Mayor Eric Adams hailed Israel’s culture of innovation and said one should 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 at the ‘’White City Soirée’’ in Tel Aviv on Thursday, where he spoke with a group of top Israeli business, finance, and technology leaders. The event was co-hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), F2 Venture Capital, and Ximus Forum

. “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!”

“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.”

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.”

CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa said of Adams’ visit, “We greatly appreciate the mayor’s strong and deeply felt friendship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and we’re excited to continue collaborating with him to tackle common challenges and capitalize on shared opportunities as we navigate the path forward in an increasingly interconnected world.”

Adams was on a three-day visit to Israel.