Jewish group condemns antisemitic outburst at progressive Brooklyn food co-op

A leading Jewish group in New York condemns an antisemitic outburst at a meeting held by a progressive food co-op in Brooklyn.

The Park Slope Food Coop has been riven by an attempted boycott of Israeli products for years, although there are only a handful of Israeli products on its shelves.

Jewish members have said the anti-Israel activism bleeds into anti-Jewish discrimination.

The New York Post reports that, at a Tuesday Zoom meeting focused on the boycott, an attendee said, “Jewish supremacism is a problem in this country,” prompting applause from dozens of others.

“We can’t keep making the same mistakes between what we did with the Nazis and what we did with other hateful, racist groups,” the speaker said, comparing the Jewish state to the Nazis.

Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, says, “This inflammatory rhetoric does not emerge in a vacuum.”

“It is the predictable result of a sustained disinformation and demonization campaign advanced by some Coop members under the pretext of legitimate criticism of Israel. It is not. It is textbook antisemitism,” Treyger says.

Treyger called on the New York State Division of Human Rights and the New York City Commission on Human Rights to review the situation.

“New York’s strength is rooted in diversity, pluralism, and the rule of law. Jewish members of the Coop should not be demeaned, targeted, made to feel unsafe, or subjected to collective blame because of disagreements over Middle East policy,” Treyger says.

The co-op is a major institution in the neighborhood, with around 16,000 members. The co-op’s membership works shifts at the store to receive discounts and a voice in the organization’s policy.