‘Nazis’ – NY food co-op accused of targeting Jews and Zionists

One Jewish employee of the Brooklyn grocery store was told she smelled “of Palestinian blood” by an anti-Israel colleague.

By World Israel News Staff

Pro-Israel Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) blasted a Brooklyn co-op for creating a menacing atmosphere towards Jews and supporters of Israel, after numerous incidents of employees verbally harassing their Zionist co-workers and customers.

The management of the Park Slope Food Co-op has engaged in “an insidious pattern of harassment, intimidation, and discrimination” against Jews and Israelis, Torres wrote in a letter to New York Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“Anti-discrimination laws must be rigorously and impartially enforced – without exception,” Torres wrote in the missive, which demands that the New York State Division of Human Rights and NYC Commission on Human Rights investigate the co-op.

Numerous incidents of verbal harassment and demonization of Israel at the store have “created a hostile environment for Jews, particularly those who affirm a connection to the Jewish homeland,” he concluded.

The socialist-aligned store allows some 16,000 members to work a shift every six weeks in exchange for heavily discounted groceries, according to a New York Post newspaper report.

But following the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacres, members of the co-op attempted to push out their Jewish colleagues and pressured the store to adopt a public pro-Palestinian stance.

Ramon Maislen, a Jewish co-op member, filed a complaint with the state Human Rights Commission last October, detailing numerous incidents of anti-Jewish intimidation that occurred at the store.

Members of the co-ops who were opposed to a ban of Israeli products in the store were called “Nazis,” Maislen noted.

An anti-Israel co-op member yelled “Sieg Heil” at a Jewish colleague who was opposed to the boycott of Israeli goods.

“I’ve had antisemitic stuff happen to me, but like that publicly, that brazen, with that language … I was really shaken up,” the woman who was targeted told the Post.

One Jewish member of the co-op was harassed by another member, who falsely claimed that Israelis had celebrated the murder and rape of a Palestinian woman.

The pro-Palestinian co-op member said they could not stand next to the Jewish employee, claiming that she smelled “of Palestinian blood,” according to the complaint.

Co-op members also distributed flyers claiming that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the complaint noted.

A spokeswoman for Adams said his office was taking the complaints seriously.

“Mayor Adams has been clear that far too often we see antisemitic propaganda masquerading as activism, and it has led to an unacceptable rise in antisemitism throughout our city and country,” spokeswoman Sophia Askari told the Post.

“This is on full display in incidents at the Park Slope Food Co-op – where Jewish people are being harassed simply for being Jewish.”

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