park-slope-co-op-0209.jpgA neighborhood institution known for its earnestness and political correctness, the Park Slope Co-op now finds itself at the center of a mounting media circus revolving around a recent proposal by a member to ban products from Israel as a statement of protest against the state’s recent actions in Gaza. About 10 people reportedly support the measure; the Co-op has about 15,000 members. While on a practical level all that’s at stake here is a few boxes of peppers and persimmons, the symbolism is causing controversy throughout the neighborhood and beyond. There are so many Jews who shop there, there are so many Israelis who shop there, there’s a huge number of frum people from all over Brooklyn who shop there, said Rabbi Andy Bachman of Beth Elohim in the original article in the Jewish Daily Forward, so my guess is that if it passes, and I want to emphasize that I don’t think it will, they will lose a lot of members. Assemblyman Dov Hikind echoed these sentiments: “[The co-op would] lose a great number of people,” he told The Post. Even TimeOut New York has chimed in: “The motion feels born from the very stiff and self-righteous soapbox awareness that many naysayers feel makes the Co-op unpalatable under normal circumstances,” writes TONY, making to sure to add “we support the Co-op’s open forum for this kind of divisive dialogue.” Still no word on where Adrian Grenier stands on the issue.
Food Fight: Brooklyn Co-op Mulls Israel Ban [Forward]
Park Slope Co-op to Ban Israeli Products? [TONY]
‘Ban Israel’ Bid Mushrooms Into B’klyn Food Fight [NY Post]
Photo by pseudoreal


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  1. im a huge video game collecter and im very anti Sony and refuse to buy any sony products. even tho i’d love a psp 🙁
    but i won’t buy one. at least not new. maybe used on craigslist in a few years when it’s super super cheap. i guess we all do pick our battles.

    *r*

  2. If the 10 are members than they are free to choose which way they want to vote. The point is, it’s more of a symbolic gesture than anything and they know it. Btw, there are people that refuse to buy anything made in China. Now, that’s a challenge…

  3. Probably, southparker, for the same reason they get riled up over the KKK. And getting riled up over decisions made by an entity that they have nothing to do with is exactly what these 10 self-righteous folk are doing. (Making them fair game for comments from the rest of us.

  4. what is the basic idealogy behind the co-op btw? im not sure i understand what its purpose is. is it just a glorified organic market that things are cheaper or is it somethign else? like locally grown stuff? im not a green person so these things are foreign to me.

    *rob*

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