Only in New York: A kosher vegan meal, priced up to $5,000, drew attendees to Shabbat dinner on June 12.
And not just any attendees. Brad Lander, a far-left Jewish candidate for New York’s 10th Congressional District challenging Jewish Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) in the Democratic primary on June 23, and Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour joined others at an event organized by the activist group Climate Defiance as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.
“Just community and connection and tradition,” organizers wrote.
Held at the Lower Manhattan home of filmmaker Jill Goldman (no relation), it was billed as an “intimate Shabbat dinner” (no phones or cameras allowed), following the premiere of the 2026 full-length climate documentary “Just Look Up.”
The film included a scene of the group’s founder, Michael Greenberg, preparing a Shabbat meal.
“Spending $5,000 to eat a Shabbat dinner with Linda Sarsour and other anti-Israel activists,” said Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel school district in Upstate New York. “Every single part of that sentence is completely insane.
Trisha Posner, founder of Antisemitism Watch, described the gathering as “progressive Jews embracing those who would eliminate Israel, and feeding the frenzy of antisemitism,” adding that Lander has “given antisemites the perfect cover.”
She described Jewish participants as “useful idiots providing kosher stamps for those who cheer Hamas, push BDS and call Israel’s war on genocidal terrorists ‘genocide.’”
Calling the event “the latest example of suicidal empathy,” she stated that “this isn’t ‘progress.’ It’s self-delusion that endangers ultimately every Jew. History shows us where allying with those who chant ‘From the river to the sea’ leads. No more giving cover to our enemies at the Shabbat table.”
