A Jewish Mayor’s Mission to Turn Miami Beach into a Haven for Jewish Supremacy

​​Steven Meiner’s tenure as Miami Beach’s Orthodox Jewish mayor reveals his mission to make South Florida a secure redoubt for organized Jewry, leveraging police visits on dissenters and public outrage over Nazi anthems to consolidate ethno-religious power. In January 2026, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner faced two incidents that showcased his commitment to upholding Jewish interests no matter the context.

At Vendôme nightclub, right-wing influencers such as Andrew Tate, Nick Fuentes, and Sneako celebrated while Kanye West’s song “Heil Hitler” blared through speakers during a VIP bottle parade. Meiner, whose grandparents’ families died during World War II, sharply criticized the incident. A few days before, Miami Beach police detectives appeared at veteran Raquel Pacheco’s home, questioning her about a Facebook comment criticizing the mayor’s support for Israel.

What connected these incidents was the application of Jewish power at the municipal level. The woman visited by police had accused Meiner of calling for Palestinian deaths and censoring a documentary about Israeli occupation. For the Orthodox Jewish mayor who has transformed Miami Beach governance into an expression of his religious identity and Zionist convictions, these moments revealed his willingness to use state power and informal pressure mechanisms to intimidate individuals critical of Jewish endeavors.

Steven Meiner’s story begins in Brooklyn, where he was born around 1970 to Sheldon Meiner, a career IRS agent, and Dorothy Weiss Meiner, a public school teacher and guidance counselor. Raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in Brooklyn and later Staten Island, he attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, a flagship Modern Orthodox day school that would shape his religious identity for life.

Meiner excelled academically. He graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and majored in political science. On top of that, he earned his J.D. cum laude from Brooklyn Law School.

After law school, Meiner joined the upper echelons of New York corporate law. Between 1998 and 2002, he worked at Dewey Ballantine, focusing on complex financial litigation. From 2002 to 2007, he continued at Mayer Brown, handling large scale financial and securities disputes.

In 2007, Meiner made a pivotal move in relocating to Miami Beach and joining the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a civil enforcement attorney in its Miami office. Over roughly 17 years, he remained at the SEC while simultaneously building a profile in Miami Beach civic life.

Before holding elected office, Meiner served on Miami Beach advisory panels and was active in local charitable organizations. In 2012, he was recognized as Man of the Year by a local civic group, placing him within the city’s professional Orthodox Jewish and civic networks well before his first campaign.

In November 2019, Meiner ran for Miami Beach City Commission Group IV and won a runoff against former commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez in what local press described as an upset. Orthodox outlets highlighted that he was, by their account, the first Orthodox Jew ever to sit on the Miami Beach commission.

As commissioner from 2019 to 2023, Meiner’s brand coalesced around public safety, pushing to expand the city’s misdemeanor prosecution program and increase successful prosecutions for quality of life offenses.

When term limits forced out Mayor Dan Gelber—also of Jewish confession—in 2023, Meiner ran for mayor as a No Party Affiliation candidate, though he had been a registered Republican until switching to NPA in 2018. In a four-way race including Michael Góngora, Mike Grieco and Bill Roedy, Meiner advanced to a runoff with Góngora and won with roughly 54% of about 10,000 votes, becoming the 39th Mayor of Miami Beach.

He branded himself as tough on crime by vowing to clamp down on Spring Break chaos, jail homeless people who refused shelter, expand city prosecutor powers, and restrain overdevelopment. In 2023, he eschewed political committees, and raised $86,600 through his campaign committee, with the vast majority coming from personal checks.

Beyond tackling local issues, Meiner used his mayoral position to assert the Jewish community’s racial will to power. In early 2024, after pro-Palestinian demonstrations took place near Art Basel and at Jewish sites, Meiner sponsored and secured passage of an ordinance making it a crime to obstruct streets or sidewalks after being ordered to clear them, while requiring that an adequate and available alternative forum be offered for protests.

Meiner justified the ordinance by citing an incident in which he said pro-Palestinian protesters harassed elderly Jewish residents leaving their synagogue, drawing parallels to National Socialist Germany. At the city commission hearing, he repeatedly cut off and yelled at speakers, who criticized Israel’s conduct in Gaza or mentioned Gaza in relation to the ordinance.

He told one speaker he would not allow her to “debase and lie about the Israeli government” and cut her microphone. Civil liberties advocates argued that despite formal First Amendment carve outs, the law and Meiner’s conduct signaled that pro-Palestinian speech would be policed much more harshly in Miami Beach than pro-Israel speech. For his steadfast defense of the Jewish community in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation sent a formal letter to Meiner and the city commission praising the Miami Beach Police Department for its unwavering commitment to protecting synagogues, Jewish schools, the Holocaust Memorial, and the Jewish Community Center.

One of Meiner’s most nationally visible conflicts emerged in early 2025 over O Cinema, a non-profit art house theater leasing space in a city-owned historic building. After O Cinema scheduled screenings of No Other Land, an Oscar-winning documentary about Palestinian dispossession in the West Bank, Meiner sent the theater a letter demanding cancellation of the showings.

He characterized the film as a “one-sided propaganda” attack on the Jewish people that is inconsistent with the values of the city and its residents. He introduced a resolution to terminate O Cinema’s lease, revoke at least $40,000 in previously approved city grant funding, and cut off future subsidies, explicitly tying this to the decision to show No Other Land.

O Cinema initially considered canceling but reversed course within hours, asserting that compliance would betray their mission and the First Amendment. Civil liberties groups including PEN America and Artists at Risk Connection condemned Meiner’s move as “beyond the pale,” warning that terminating a lease in retaliation for film content would constitute unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.

At a March 2025 commission meeting, it became clear Meiner lacked support from his colleagues. Under pressure, he withdrew the lease termination resolution and tabled a related measure urging O Cinema to screen films reflecting the perspective of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Nonetheless, he continued publicly describing No Other Land as a false attack on the Jewish people and a public safety threat.

By his 2025 re-election bid, Meiner had moved from his earlier anti-PAC posture to soliciting funds for Miami Beach First, a political committee backing his campaign. According to an investigation by The Real Deal, while Meiner touts a tough line against overdevelopment, Miami Beach First had been heavily funded by major real estate and hospitality figures of Jewish extraction.

Stuart Miller, the Jewish co-CEO of home construction company Lennar, contributed $50,000. Michael Simkins and Marc Roberts, co-owners of E11even nightclub, gave $35,000 combined. David Grutman of Groot Hospitality contributed $20,000. In addition, New York’s Naftali Group pitched in $10,000.

Backed by Jewish donors and the local Jewish community, Meiner pressed forward with his campaign to turn Miami Beach into a safe space for organized Jewry. In January 2026, Meiner’s approach to dissent drew intense national scrutiny when Miami Beach police visited Raquel Pacheco’s home over a Facebook comment she posted criticizing him. Pacheco had replied to an official mayoral Facebook post in which Meiner described Miami Beach as a sanctuary for everyone and one of the most tolerant cities in the country.

Her response accused him of consistently calling for the death of all Palestinians and trying to shut down a theater for showing a movie that hurt his feelings. About six days later, two detectives from the Miami Beach Police Intelligence Unit arrived at her home, showed her the comment, and questioned whether she had written it.

On video, they stated they were concerned her words could spur somebody to commit an extreme act and advised her to refrain from posting similar content. Pacheco refused to answer questions without a lawyer present.

Axios and local reports initially cited police sources saying Meiner’s office had flagged the Facebook post. The Miami Beach Police Chief later issued a statement claiming he alone ordered the visit, while affirming that the mayor had no role in directing enforcement.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression called the visit an “egregious abuse of power” that suppresses protected political speech, observing that Pacheco’s post neither endorsed violence nor met the legal bar for incitement. The subsequent Vendôme nightclub further highlighted the uncomfortable nexus between Meiner’s public postures and his private financing. Videos circulating online showed right-wing influencers including media personality Nick Fuentes, Andrew and Tristan Tate, and social media provocateurs Sneako, Clavicular, and Myron Gaines, celebrating at the South Beach nightclub while Kanye West’s song “Heil Hitler” played during a VIP bottle parade.

The track, which includes repeated chants of the National Socialist salute, has been banned in Germany and restricted on major U.S. music platforms. In the song, West raps about becoming a National Socialist and includes audio of a 1935 speech by Adolf Hitler.

Meiner issued a forceful public statement condemning the incident. He declared on Twitter, “I am deeply disturbed and disgusted by these videos of twisted individuals glorifying Hitler and the murder of millions.” He added that “these ‘influencers’ who spread hate should never have been welcomed into this club or allowed to play a song with Heil Hitler lyrics.”

Vendôme issued its own apology, calling the song’s playing at the club “hate speech.” According to multiple reports, David Grutman, who owns Vendôme through his Groot Hospitality empire and has previously bankrolled Meiner’s mayoral efforts, immediately banned the influencers from all his properties.

Looking at his track record, Meiner is on a mission to make Miami Beach safe for Jewish supremacy. Meiner’s mayoralty thus stands as a stark case study in Jewish political overreach, successfully molding South Florida’s premier beachfront city into a bespoke safe space for his people, insulated from the critiques and provocations that unsettle them elsewhere.