{"id":817650,"date":"2026-05-23T21:42:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/817650\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:42:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:42:43","slug":"israeli-food-boycott-battle-at-brooklyn-food-co-op-exposes-deepening-nyc-divisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/817650\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli food boycott battle at Brooklyn food co-op exposes deepening NYC divisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A contentious proposal to boycott Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Coop is roiling a liberal Brooklyn community<\/a> and exposing a deepening divide across NYC, even spilling into the NY-10th District congressional primary <\/a>between Democrats Rep. Dan Goldman and challenger Brad Lander.<\/p>\n

Members of the co-op are set to vote Tuesday on a heavily-debated proposal to ban all made-in-Israel items<\/a>, with members staking out sides on both sides of the measure.<\/p>\n

Supporters say the ban would amount to a small but potent gesture of opposition to Israel\u2019s policies<\/a> in the Gaza and Iran wars and discrimination against the Palestinians. They compare the anti-Israel push to similar economic actions against apartheid South Africa <\/a>and segregation in the Deep South, even though the only Israeli products the co-op stocks are a little-known brand of Israeli hummus, corn snacks and Ecolove hair products with Green Vegetable and Purple Fruit options.<\/p>\n

\"CanvassersCanvassers from BDS and Coop 4 Unity hand out fliers at the Park Slope Food Coop on Friday. (Emma Seiwell \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the fact that we\u2019re complicit in what\u2019s happening over there and it needs to stop immediately,\u201d said John Caramichael, 27. \u201cThis is what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents counter that the proposed boycott is a divisive waste of time.<\/a> Some also consider it anti-semitic to blanketly boycott Israeli products.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just an excuse to show your power,\u201d said Andre Schklowsky, 84, who joined the co-op in 1974. \u201cIt\u2019s not gonna affect much of what I actually buy. It is just an excuse to divide people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA sign for the Park Slope Food Coop. (Chris Hondros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bruno Grandsard of Park Slope called the co-op a successful \u201cjewel\u201d that brings an amazing array of products to the community. A 25-year veteran member, he says anti-Israel politics has nothing to do with its mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible for the co-op. (It) creates division,\u201d he said of the boycott push. \u201cMost people don\u2019t care. It\u2019s a supermarket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the co-op Friday, a couple confronted a pro-boycott organizer to ask why getting rid of Israeli vegetables would change the trajectory of Middle East conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you want to get rid of chili peppers?\u201d the man asked.<\/p>\n

The fight picked up momentum last week when Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a prominent progressive Jewish leader and ally of Mayor Mamdani, delivered a sermon denouncing the boycott push <\/a>at the popular Congregation Beth Elohim temple on Eighth Ave. a couple of blocks from the store.<\/p>\n

\"CanvassersCanvassers from BDS and Coop 4 Unity hand out fliers at the Park Slope Food Coop on Friday. (Emma Seiwell \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The fight has since become an issue in the contentious Democratic primary in the NY-10 district in which the store is located. The district has one of the highest concentration of Jewish voters in the nation, with Goldman and Lander staking out divergent views on the Israel question.<\/p>\n

Goldman has issued a call for defeat of the boycott measure that he says is part of an anti-semitic campaign and push to wipe Israel off the map.<\/strong> The so-called BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement has come under fire from a broad array of Jewish groups and politcians.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoining a movement that was founded on the principle of the elimination of Israel will have no impact on the Israeli government or the Israeli economy,\u201d Goldman said in a statement. \u201cInstead, it only succeeds at shifting the responsibility for the Israeli government\u2019s actions to American Jews, which is quintessential anti-semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lander, who like Goldman is Jewish, counters by saying he also would vote against the boycott push but defends proponents against charges of anti-Jewish bias.<\/p>\n

\"BradBrad Lander speaks outside Jacob Javits Federal Building. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cPrincipled people can disagree here,\u201d Lander said in a statement. \u201cBoycotts, divestments, and sanctions are legitimate tools of advocacy campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The co-op war in the heart of brownstone Brooklyn comes against a backdrop of deepening antipathy between supporters of Israel and Palestine across New York. Though 6,000 miles away, the conflict continues to feature heavily in NYC politics; it became a divisive and contentious issue during last year\u2019s mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n

Political analysts say the political fallout from the food co-op debate reflects a broader and widening schism over Israel among Democratic voters, especially progressive Jewish Democrats.<\/p>\n

That dynamic is on display in the 10th, where recent polls suggest Lander has taken a strong lead<\/a> in his fight to unseat Goldman, a two-term incumbent, in the June 23 primary.<\/p>\n

The dispute could offer Goldman a chance to gain a foothold in the more-populous Brooklyn portion<\/a> of the district that also includes his home in lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Park Slope Food Coop on Friday, May 22, 2026. (Emma Seiwell \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

It could also give Goldman a chance to pry some of of the district\u2019s Jewish voters away from Lander<\/a>, although some progressive Jews support the movement to boycott Israeli products especially after the war in Gaza and Israel\u2019s alliance with the U.S. in the war against Iran.<\/p>\n

Goldman says he\u2019s a progressive Zionist who frequently disagrees with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critics point to his support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

Lander, a former comptroller and mayoral candidate, was once a more vocal supporter of Israel and a fierce opponent of the boycott Israel movement, including during a previous contentious fight over Israel<\/a> at the co-op in 2012.<\/p>\n

But Lander, who lives a stone\u2019s throw away from the food co-op on Union Street, has moved to the left in recent years, especially since he forged a feel-good bromance alliance with Mayor Mamdani<\/a>, a fervent longtime critic of Netanyahu who calls the Gaza war an act of genocide against the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Flag Raised In Manhattan<\/p>\n

\"CongressmanRep. Dan Goldman. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Chris Sosa, a Democratic strategist, warned that Goldman could be making a political misstep by reminding NY-10 voters that he is a stauncher supporter of Israel<\/a> than Lander.<\/p>\n

The incumbent may gain some limited support among older more moderate Jewish voters with that stance, but lose much more support among the majority of Democratic voters in a very progressive district<\/a> who do not agree with Israel\u2019s actions in the age of Trump, Sosa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy highlighting this issue, Goldman isolates him from all the other voters who don\u2019t agree with him on Israel,\u201d Sosa said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any political sense.\u201d ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A contentious proposal to boycott Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Coop is roiling a liberal Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":817651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,56666,99801,6626,1121,327,160774,10889,99,31034,107935,405,403,5226,5225,5228,285190,5227,336471,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-817650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bds","tag-boycott","tag-brad-lander","tag-brooklyn","tag-congress","tag-dan-goldman","tag-democratic","tag-israel","tag-jewish","tag-midterms","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny-10","tag-nyc","tag-park-slope-food-coop","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116626073357514069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}