It all started at the Park Slope Food Coop's Open Forum, that bastion of free speech and open expression. A coop member asked the group to consider a ban on Israeli products as a protest against Israel's attacks on Gaza.
According to Alan Zimmerman, who spoke with the Jewish Daily Forward, the woman who gave her name as Hima B. "spoke for less than 60 seconds."
News of this requestJewish Daily Forward includes quotes from Rabbi Andy Bachman:
people from all over Brooklyn who shop there,” said Rabbi Andy Bachman
of Brooklyn’s largest and most active reform congregation, Beth Elohim,
“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.”
Since the meeting others have joined Hima B's cause.They plan to put the issue on the agenda at the next general meeting. There have been thoughtful letters in the Coop's newsaper, The Linewaiter's Gazette.
Somehow this story found it's way to the Jewish Daily Forward, which was launched as a Yiddish-language
daily newspaper in 1897 and made its name as a defender of trade unionism and democratic socialism.
Hi There again, I just want to re-iterate that this item is NOT on the agenda for the next General Meeting. There is a clear process for Coop members to submit items to the committee of people who schedule the agenda items. The Coop members who are working together to research this issue are doing that, but have not yet even submitted an item to the Agenda Committee.
I clarify because there seems to be a lot of confusion about this important fact. It may come up at a future General Meeting, where it would be discussed, but it’s not even been submitted yet.
Thanks,
Charlene