Singling Out Israel, Even At The Market

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Singling Out Israel, Even At The Market

Rabbi Andy Bachman: A “pretty left-wing person,” he’s against a boycott of Israeli goods — and of Israel’s anti-boycott law.
Julie Wiener




In Brooklyn’s upscale, politically liberal and increasingly family-friendly Park Slope, the battles that have seized most of the headlines in recent years have concerned fancy strollers that occupy too much sidewalk space — and not so much Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

But a proposed boycott of Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Co-op — a thriving grocery/community institution known for its wide selection of organic foods and the strict work requirements it imposes on its more than 15,000 members — is bringing the Mideast conflict to the land of brownstones.

In a recent official statement submitted to the co-op, Rabbi Andy Bachman, whose Congregation Beth Elohim is just a few blocks away from the co-op, explains that he and the Reform temple oppose the boycott because of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s singling out of Israel, its long-term goal of delegitmizing the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state and because a boycott “will greatly divide the delicate fabric of a community institution with as diverse a membership as any democratic community organization in the United States.”

Rabbi Bachman, who spends five weeks each summer in Israel, teaching in the Bronfman Youth Fellowship program, spoke with The Jewish Week about how the issue is playing out in his community.

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Read more: http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/new_york_minute/singling_out_israel_even_market