The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is urging a Brooklyn food cooperative to cancel a vote on a proposed boycott of Israeli products or conduct it through a confidential referendum process, citing what it described as an atmosphere of intimidation and antisemitic hostility targeting Jewish members.
The Brandeis Center sent the letter to the board of the Park Slope Food Coop ahead of a scheduled May 26 vote on a proposal to ban Israeli products tied to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. The co-op, founded in 1973, has about 16,000 members and has debated Israel-related boycott measures for more than a decade.
The organization demanded protection for Jewish members and urged the co-op to cancel the vote, calling it “inappropriate” in light of escalating tensions surrounding the debate. It said discussions over the boycott proposal—and a related effort to lower the co-op’s current 75% supermajority requirement for boycott measures—“have been rife with antisemitic tropes and rhetoric with escalating hostility.”
Tensions intensified after remarks at an April co-op meeting, which drew applause from some attendees, that “Jewish supremacism is a problem in this country.” The comments sparked outrage among some Jewish members.
In late 2024, Jewish co-op members filed a discrimination complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, alleging antisemitic and anti-Israel harassment by some co-op members, with reports of shoppers being accosted and accused of bearing responsibility for the Israel-Hamas war.
If the vote proceeds, the Brandeis Center says “fundamental fairness requires that the voting process protect Jewish members from intimidation, retaliation, social targeting or coercive pressure based on their national origin, religion, ethnicity or identity.”
The organization urged the co-op not to require members to attend the May 26 meeting in person to vote and instead to conduct the process “exclusively through a confidential referendum process, including anonymous electronic or similarly private balloting procedures that prevent members’ votes from being publicly identifiable.”
In a message to members following an April 28 meeting, the co-op’s general manager acknowledged that recent meetings had become “tense, combative or unproductive,” adding that some members—including those “whose identities feel threatened”—had stopped participating. The message specifically referenced Jewish members who said they felt “hurt,” “targeted” and “unwelcome.”
Ramon Maislen, a co-op member, said that when he joined 15 years ago, “antisemitism within its walls was the last thing on my mind.”
“Yet here we are in 2026,” he said. “Many of our fellow members, distraught at the war in Gaza, have aligned themselves with a movement where anti-Jewish rhetoric has become routine.”
The Brandeis Center stated that “when an institution acknowledges its Jewish members no longer feel safe participating openly, it bears a responsibility to implement meaningful protections rather than simply proceed and hope for the best.”
Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center, said Jewish members “should not have to choose between local and organic food and their safety and their voice.”
“The Park Slope Food Coop has an obligation to protect its Jewish members, not just during this vote, but as a matter of basic institutional responsibility,” he said.
