Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on Soul Words

July 12, 2025

Rabbi Shais Taub: Pleasure to welcome you here. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you for having me. 

Rabbi Taub: It's our pleasure and honor, and I want to inform you that you're our first guest in the new studio. 

Mayor Adams: I feel blessed. 

Rabbi Taub: We feel blessed to have you here. We're in Cambria Heights, not that far from where you spent some of your formative years, right? 

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Rabbi Taub: Queens. Here's a question I have for you. So you've spoken about, as a youth, you had a rough childhood involved in, not the most wholesome things, not the best things, and, like, turned your life around and became a public servant, and, you know, it's an amazing story. But here's my question. Here's my question. On the streets, involved in the things that we wouldn't want youth to be involved in, like the negativity.

But I believe that everything we experience has a message. Even the negative things, God has a plan. So here's my question to you. What did you gain that you used for good that you would not have gained had you not been exposed to the difficulties and the negativity in your earlier life?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think first, what I tried to do as mayor is to look at why was I going through some of the negative things in my life. And it came down to what I didn't realize I had undiagnosed learning disability, dyslexia specifically. And being bullied and teased and laughed at in school, I didn't feel like I had a safe environment. And because of that, I did not want to go to school and I spent days being on the streets. 

So when you go to the origin of what caused our behavior, you have a better understanding. If the opportunities were there and I had a safe environment, I would have never had to find an alternative of some of the troubling things I did as a little boy. And young people are impressionable and they go through emotional trauma. 

A story I always tell about an 11-year-old child who was, when I was a police lieutenant, a young man was arrested several times for robbery, gunpoint robbery. And as I dug into his story more, all of that anger he had is because his dad was in jail for a homicide, his mother was on crack cocaine and selling herself on the streets. And he was out of school for months and no one found him. And so if you would have just looked at the robbery he committed and not what caused it, this young man was raising himself at 11 years old. And I didn't look down on him because of the circumstances that created it.

Rabbi Taub: Before we sat down, we visited the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who is, the anniversary of his passing is coming up in a few days and there will be a lot of activity here, many people from all over the world will be visiting the grave site. And one of the things that [inaudible] spoke about very often was that if we could allocate more resources to education, we would in the long run save money that we would otherwise have to spend on the criminal justice system, which sounds like what you're saying.

Mayor Adams: Yeah. One of my heroes is Desmond Tutu. He was in South Africa during the apartheid. He had a quote that I live by. We spend a lifetime pulling people out of the river. We pull those upstream and prevent them from falling in in the first place. And we have a downstream mindset in government. 

We allocate billions of dollars on actions that we would have had pennies on the dollar if we would have only gone upstream. And so our administration is an upstream administration. We're doing dyslexia screening. We're investing in foster care children. We're doing preventive lifestyle medicine in our hospitals so we don't feed chronic diseases. 

So we believe that we should focus on upstream solutions while we address those who are already in the river. Because we have to deal with them as well. So that dual approach allows us to make some of the successes that we have witnessed.

Rabbi Taub: You know, there's an old story. It's like there's a town called Chelm, which it's like a place that's known for foolish people. So there's a whole genre of stories that people from Chelm are very foolish. So the story is like this. 

There was a bridge in town, and it was a rickety bridge, and people were falling off, falling through into the valley. And like every day there'd be someone lying at the bottom of the bridge, you know, lying in the valley with broken bones. And they convened a meeting, the people of Chelm, and they said, this is terrible, this bridge, everyone's falling off the bridge, falling through the bridge. 

What should we do? So they came up with a solution. They allocated funding to build a hospital under the bridge, right where the people needed it. They didn't fix the bridge. They put a hospital at the bottom of the valley for all the people falling off the bridge. 

Mayor Adams: And that's government. 

Rabbi Taub: Can I be a little bit bold? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, you can. 

Rabbi Taub: Okay, you're an elected official. You're part of the government. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Rabbi Taub: And yet it sounds like you're a little bit critical of government. Like... As an insider, I mean, you're an insider. Is career politician a dirty word? 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Rabbi Taub: It is? Because I won't call you one if it is.

Mayor Adams: My career is public safety. 

Rabbi Taub: Public safety. And part of it expresses itself as elected office. Okay, very good. But you're an insider. You see how things work. It sounds like you're critical of, you're saying that in politics, a lot of the way that people are looking at things is reactive. 

Mayor Adams: Right. 

Rabbi Taub: Do you think there's a reason for that? Is that the culture? How did it get that way? Is there a way to fix that?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I do. I believe there is a reason. And when you're inside and you do a proper analysis of it, upstream, remember I said you fix a problem pennies on the dollar. Downstream is billions of dollars. There are too many people that are making money downstream. And when you start trying to correct those downstream problems, you're pushing up against them. 

Rabbi Taub: You're putting them out of a job. 

Mayor Adams: Poverty is profitable. We should always remember that. Poverty is profitable. That one child that has a learning disability that we didn't diagnose, he goes out and picks up a gun. Someone may have made profit off that gun. 

Rabbi Taub: Right. When he's incarcerated, they're going to make a lot more money off of him than hiring a tutor in the public school to help him with his learning disability.

Mayor Adams: Exactly. 

Rabbi Taub: Wow. Very chilling.

Mayor Adams: And I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist.

Rabbi Taub: By the way, it's a podcast, so it's good for engagement. A little conspiracy theory is always good for engagement.

Mayor Adams: I think we have to be honest about that because when we try to change laws, the pushback we get for the most part. 

Rabbi Taub: Pushback from whom? 

Mayor Adams: The system. Those who profit from these systems. What we've done, what we're trying to do even around homelessness, we're trying to do involuntary removal, we're trying to transition people out of temporary housing into permanent housing. There's a great deal of money that's made in homeless shelters. So we are going after how people make money. I'm not saying they're doing it intentionally. Self-interest is a driving force for many people. Our interest will always be the interest of the people of this city.

Rabbi Taub: How do we turn it around? Is it a cultural shift?

Mayor Adams: I think it's going to involve real, honest, frank conversations, and we can't be afraid to see what is taking place. People often ask me, just pick three things as the mayor, just focus on those things. And I just don't believe that. And I received a lot of criticism because so what if I fix three things when I have 99 things that need to be fixed? 

If we tried a holistic approach, and going back to what you stated, the foundation of our success, I believe, lies in education. If we educate, and I'm not talking about just academically, just that you can do geometry. 

Rabbi Taub: That's exactly what I was going to chime in. I'm sure you know, as someone who spent many years in Crown Heights, that the Lubavitcher Rebbe said that education is primarily moral and ethical.

Mayor Adams: Exactly, exactly. Our education system, what we are attempting to do, is we're trying to develop the full personhood of our children. Education means that I'm going to understand your history, you're going to understand my history, and we're going to understand the commonality that we have. 

Education is like we rolled out this week, financial literacy, teaching our young people how to control their finance. No one is teaching these unbanked communities and then placing them in perpetual debt and poverty. Education is on how to eat the right food. 

We change the food in our school system to stop feeding the health care crisis. Education is about not only your physical body but the anatomy of your spirit. We're teaching young people meditation, mindfulness, breathing exercises. 

We want to develop the full child and not just have them graduate because they can do a geometry mathematical problem. Reading, writing, arithmetic. That is not how you survive. You and I both know that it takes a lot.

Rabbi Taub: I got to tell you, I never used the Pythagorean theorem in real life.

Mayor Adams: Right, right. But you will use the skills of managing stress. You will use the skill of being socially emotionally intelligent. You will use the skill of being a deep listener so you can be a deep understander and you could be communicating. Those skills we were not teaching, but we're trying to teach those skills now. 

Rabbi Taub: There's so much stuff. My brain is like popping with so many different connections. Okay. First of all, I want to talk about handling stress in a second. I'm going to come back to that because I want to ask you a personal question with handling stress. 

But you mentioned meditation. I'm sure you're aware the Lubavitcher Rebbe was very in favor of a moment of silence. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Rabbi Taub: Not to lead a prayer because we're talking about public schools where there shouldn't be any specific religion being promoted, but a moment of silence and the children should be able to think about whatever they want at the beginning of the day just to focus their minds. And the way that Rebbe described it is let the children go home and ask their parents what the parents want them to think about, not the schools, not government, but the parents. And Rebbe said that that moment of silence could be transformative. So, yeah, I mean–

Mayor Adams: Yes. You know, wisdom has been around a long time, and there have been men and women like the Grand Rebbe for many years and how they are able to really heighten the awareness that all of us have because we all have that awareness. Some are able to heighten it even more. Like we could all put a ball in the hoop, but Michael Jordan was able to do it at a heightened level. But it doesn't mean we can't do it also.

Rabbi Taub: You're saying there's certain spiritual giants who are on another level?

Mayor Adams: Like the Grand Rebbe. I could go through so many people who have walked among us and who have possessed a level of spirituality. They've exercised their spiritual muscle, and oftentimes that exercise of the spiritual muscle comes from those reflection moments, the meditation, the breathing, the reconnection, because we have so much noise going on that the Grand Rebbe was right. Having that child sit down for a moment and having that child reconnect. 

Because by the time these children get into school, the trauma they experience in the household and en route to school is unbelievable. And so we want them to add and subtract, but who's going to put them back together first? And that's why we said we wanted to introduce meditation and breathing exercises. This is not a form of religion. It's a form of reconnecting oneself, quieting the noise, and getting prepared to absorb the lesson of the day.

Rabbi Taub: Okay. Now let me ask you, I said I want to ask you about stress. You're a public figure. A lot of people have opinions about you who've never met you. A lot of them are not very polite about how they speak about you. I've heard you speak about this. You know, people posting stuff or, you know, Twitter or whatever. I'm asking a personal question. How do you deal with all of the, just the negative energy and like stay focused on what you got to do?

Mayor Adams: I remember going into one of the tombs in Egypt and on the wall itself says, to thyself be true. And I'm able to deal with all of the incoming of criticism and stress because I'm true to myself. I know my heart and I know the work that I'm doing. And oftentimes, think about it for a moment, how many times have you text, tweeted something negative about someone? 

People who have healthy hearts don't have healthy, unhealthy communication. People who are saying those things, they're hurting. And hurt people hurt themselves and they hurt others. They don't only do it physically. They use any object or method that they can to hurt. So all I can say is God forgive them. They know not what they do.

Rabbi Taub: I want to get back to what you're saying about your undiagnosed learning disability and specifically dyslexia.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Rabbi Taub: I have a friend, Tamir Goodman. Sports Illustrated called him the Jewish Jordan. A very talented basketball player. Actually, he was given a scholarship to Maryland when they had a very strong basketball program and he couldn't play for them because he was keeping Shabbos. So he's a friend of mine. He told me that he had dyslexia. He still has. He has dyslexia. 

He said that in school he was miserable because he would look at the blackboard and the letters and numbers would just swim around. He couldn't make heads or tails of it. But that same brain, same exact brain, when he would stand on a basketball court and he would play point guard, he would see what no one else could see. Two, three plays ahead. 

So he said he had to realize that he wasn't dumb. His brain was, he had a superpower that was a liability in one context, but it was an asset in another context. Here's my question for you. Your brain that suffered so much in school, particularly undiagnosed and unsupported, I have a lot of people who connect to my content who identify as neurodivergent or differently wired. So as someone whose brain is differently wired, what's something that you pick up on or you see that you don't think neurotypical or the average person sees?

Mayor Adams: That's a great question because I think that the creator does not take something away without giving you something extra. And I have had the ability throughout my career, which has been a blessing in my career, to be able to feel the emotions of people.

Rabbi Taub: Like a sixth sense?

Mayor Adams: Yes. To read people. I could walk in the room and address a crowd. My staff knows oftentimes they would give me something to read, and I'd get there and I would look in the crowd and I can feel that's not what they need right here.

Rabbi Taub: Yeah, right.

Mayor Adams: And I think it has a...

Rabbi Taub: Reading the room, they call it.

Mayor Adams: Right, right, right.

Rabbi Taub: So you have a speech prepared, and it's prepared, but you don't use it.

Mayor Adams: Right. 

Rabbi Taub: Because you realize... 

Mayor Adams: I am feeling something else, and I've always had that feeling. And I'm sure that many people who are dyslexic would tell you they, too, have that feeling. Because it's not that we are dumb. 

We learn differently, and we have to use more senses. We have been taught as children that we have five senses, and that's just not true. We have so many more senses, but our senses are like muscles. Our sense of taste, smell, hear, and touch, we have to learn about those. We never exercise the muscle of our other senses.

Rabbi Taub: No one sat you down and taught you how to develop that sixth sense. You probably developed it as a compensation for the struggles you were having. My question to you is, is it transmittable? Could you sit someone down and teach this to them?

Mayor Adams: I'm not sure. I don't know if it's teachable. I saw someone, a documentary I saw the other day, about a person who was blind. And he used the same clicking sounds. 

Rabbi Taub: Yeah, sonar. 

Mayor Adams: Exactly, similar to what bats use. And he was able to walk and be able to tell if an object is in front of him. Could that be taught? Possibly. But being blind did not have the distractions of what our visual interactions may be. I love reading about unusual people and what we would call superhuman skills they may have. In fact, it's not superhuman. It's just exercising those muscles. If you exercise those muscles of all of the talents and senses we have, many of us can do far more than what we're doing.

Rabbi Taub: Do you think that there's a way to develop more of these, or maybe even just recognize more of these unconventional talents? 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Rabbi Taub: And here's my real question. Could public policy play a role in that, or is that something that just has to come from the home or from...?

Mayor Adams: No, I think public policy can. We have to first remove the fear we have. 

Rabbi Taub: What's the fear? 

Mayor Adams: The fear to be different. Because remember, as human beings, we are communal human beings. We want to be part of the group. And if you all of a sudden start to talk about the ability to do remote viewing...

Rabbi Taub: Oh, now you're getting conspiracy theory. This is good for the clicks. You believe in that?

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. And our government is aware of that. It's a known thing the CIA did. We did use remote viewing, but all of our children could be capable of doing that, but you have to exercise the muscle. 

So if your son or daughter comes to you and said, Mom, Dad, I saw something, instead of us embracing that and teaching them how to continue to exercise that muscle, we look down on them. We dismiss it. Right, exactly. We laugh at it. That's where we've gone wrong. 

What I'm learning now, when I go to the Sloan Kettering Cancer Treatment Center, they're saying patients who heal from their cancer are those who come with a positive attitude, positive energy. They're more likely to have a greater success. 

We're not appreciating how much our mind and our attitudes and our thoughts create our reality. Just look at quantum physics. You are what you think. And so when I ran for mayor, and I was behind in the polls and people told me I couldn't win, I never thought that I couldn't win. No, I put out into the universe what I desire and what I needed. Now, the universe may not give you what you want because sometimes your wants are not what you need. 

Rabbi Taub: Right. You mentioned, is it okay that I mentioned, you said when you were behind in the polls, that Devorah Halberstam, is it okay that I mentioned Devorah?

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes, she's a good friend.

Rabbi Taub: Okay, so when we were at the Rebbe's grave site, so after we came out, you visited Ari Halberstam's grave and you told me that that's something that you do every time you come here. And then you mentioned to me that when you were behind in the polls, Devorah told you to come here and pray and that things turned around.

Mayor Adams: She called me one night and she said she had a dream, Devorah Halberstam, who's the founder of the Brooklyn Jewish Children Museum, her son Ari was killed on the Brooklyn Bridge by probably one of the first acts of modern-day terrorism in our city. He's buried near the Grand Rebbe. He was close to the Grand Rebbe. He spent a lot of time in his house. 

And she called me, Devorah called me one night in 2021 and I was behind in the polls, and she said that I had a dream that the Grand Rebbe said go to the grave site. And he said, write down what you want, write down your concerns. 

I wrote it down, tore it up, I put it in front of the Grand Rebbe's grave site, and you just started to see the changes in the polls. And so those who... 

Rabbi Taub: So you're a believer. 

Mayor Adams: Those who don't believe won't achieve. The lack of belief is probably the biggest impediment that gets in the way of people achieving their great success. You know, we have so much more.

Rabbi Taub: But getting back to the question of, is there anything public policy can do? Like, I see you have a great, like, appreciation for undeveloped potential, unconventional potential, spiritual potential of human beings. Where can government, if at all, do anything to foster that, or at the very least not to hinder it?

Mayor Adams: Yes, right, you said something there. Foster, not hindering. Don't underestimate the power that we're teaching children how to read. You know, there's a great book that's called Read. I encourage everyone to read it. It's probably one of the best books I've ever read. 

Because we don't realize that we have never been taught how to breathe. Breathing is a function. It's not just putting air into your body. Breathing is an important function. And if you don't learn how to do it correctly, it could have serious health risks, and it won't allow you to really manage stress properly. Like when I came in here today, I was thinking about something that was, you know, problematic that I have to do today. I just took a moment, and I just, you know, slowed down my breathing.

Rabbi Taub: So you're running a city, and you're running for reelection. You got stuff going on. You have a personal life, too, I'm sure.

Mayor Adams: So a lot's going on. And I'm glad you said that. Because you have the professional, you have the personal, and you're dealing with all of that. So you have to take a moment of breathing. And you have to take a moment, you know, when you think about it, for a moment. Like, we just saw one of our greatest...

Rabbi Taub: You're reminding me right now to breathe, by the way.

Mayor Adams: That's what you're talking about. And we do have to be reminded, you know, to breathe. We do. You ever had to do something, and you get nervous, and all of a sudden you feel your breathing pattern is off, or you're hyperventilated? It's because...

Rabbi Taub: You know what it says in the book of Exodus, when God tells Moses to tell the children of Israel, we're going out from slavery? He goes to them, says they did not believe him, because, I'll tell you the Hebrew word, kotzer ruach, shortness of breath. Shortness of breath. They could not believe that the redemption was at hand because of shortness of breath.

Mayor Adams: Right, right. That's why breath work is important. And then you have to have a full... And I hope your listeners, they don't take anything away from our conversation. Okay. I'm hoping that they take away that this is not the end of our journey. You know, I say this... This is the physical embodiment? Physical, yeah, embodiment. And I share this all the time at funerals.

Rabbi Taub: By the way, this is... I don't hear politicians speak this way. This is not... I mean, this is out of the ordinary. Like, you get... I love this. This is my speed. I love this.

Mayor Adams: And, you know, when you think about it, is that the... As I share often at funerals, you know, energy cannot be [created] or destroyed.

Rabbi Taub: Conservation principle, yeah.

Mayor Adams: Right, and we are energy. Yeah. And so the question becomes, when we leave our physical and transition to spiritual, we're still here. The Grand Rebbe is still here. We have to learn how to see their existence in their new form. Just as you burn a piece of paper, it turns to smoke and heat. 

If you're still looking for it in the original form of the paper, you'll never find it. The paper's not there, but it's there. But feel the heat, feel the warmth, you know, the smell. And so once you understand that, you don't get trapped into everything that's happening into life. It's all... It's gonna be all right. 

Rabbi Taub: I love that. It's gonna all be all right. Because God is running the show.

Mayor Adams: It's gonna be all... And I say this to my team. It's all part of the process.

Rabbi Taub: It's all part of the process.

Mayor Adams: Everything. Everything. It's all part of the process. You know? So being re-elected, not elected, somebody writing a bad editorial about me or not, you know, it's all part of the process.

Rabbi Taub: Yeah. Just ride the wave. And to thy known self be true. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. So wisdom has been around a long time. 

Rabbi Taub: Let me ask you an off-the-wall question. Yes. Tomorrow... Yes. ...Eric Adams is suddenly in an alternate universe where they tell you you have all the same skills, same weaknesses, same strengths, same story, everything, but you cannot be a public person, meaning not a public servant. You have to be anonymous. What would you do? Where would you channel your skills, your wisdom, your experience, in a way totally, like, off the grid, in an alternate universe?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. I traveled several years ago. I traveled to Myanmar and Bhutan, a couple other… Sri Lanka, with a group of monks, and I long to, when this is over, the public life, I'm longing to get reconnected to our real purpose, you know? I don't have the time...

Rabbi Taub: You would go and meditate all day?

Mayor Adams: I would spend... I would go into a point of meditation. I would go into a point of really looking at some of our ancient societies, and I would like to really explore, learn more, go to some of those regions and see, and do some more research. 

Rabbi Taub: And you could see yourself... 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, no, I'm going. 

Rabbi Taub: ...pray, meditate, study ancient texts all day. You'd be happy. 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, this is a wrap. When I finish being mayor, you know, I've done the best that I can for the people. It's time for me to do the best I can for myself. 

Rabbi Taub: Like Shaolin monks?

Mayor Adams: Whatever it takes. Whatever. 

Rabbi Taub: Really, that's amazing. 

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. It's been a good journey. God has blessed me. Yeah. I'm blessed with good people in my life. I'm blessed, you know, with health. So, you know, I don't look back. How could I complain? There's only been 110 people who have become the mayor of the greatest city in the world. 

Rabbi Taub: I didn't know that, by the way. If you were to ask me... 

Mayor Adams: Right, right. It's actually less than 110 because each cycle, if you're the same mayor, you hold on. I will always be 110 no matter how many times I'm mayor. Mm-hmm. But how could I complain, you know? From where I was to where I am, it's a true testament that the Creator is real.

Rabbi Taub: Let me ask you this. Everything you're talking about, this appreciation for the spiritual and for the noncorporeal and developing people's untapped potential, sell me on, if it exists, if you could envision it, New York City. And I'm just asking New York City because you're the mayor of New York City. 

What could New York City look like if we could get people thinking that way about there's more than just the material? What would society on a city level, some of that, what would that look like... Right, that's a great question. ...if that revolution in consciousness would happen?

Mayor Adams: And we're trying, you know, because it's, like you said, it's evolution and revolution to just change the dog-eat-dog world that we are in and what we emphasize on. We're trying by doing our breathing exercises, doing our meditation, doing our Breaking Bread, Building Bonds, when we have different ethnic groups coming together and sit down. 

We won't see people attacking each other based on their beliefs because it's all the same vehicle trying to get to the same destination. So if you're driving a Volkswagen and I'm driving a Cadillac... 

Rabbi Taub: We're on the same road. 

Mayor Adams: We're just trying to get to the same destination. We would start to appreciate each other. And I just think we'd be more tolerant of each other and not just try to hurt each other. That's what we're missing. We could change our finance. We could be economically strong. We could be all of those things. But if we're broken internally, we're never going to get where we ought to get to.

Rabbi Taub: I know you have a very full schedule today. I'm grateful for the time you were able to spend. 

Mayor Adams: Thank you. 

Rabbi Taub: This has been very enlightening. I'm glad that you were open and you just spoke about the real stuff, not just the regular talking points that, you know...

Mayor Adams: And this is an Arnold Schwarzenegger moment. We'll be back. Thank you.

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