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Rep. Dan Goldman on June 18, 2025. Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Jacob Kornbluh<\/a><\/p>\n May 20, 2026<\/p>\n Rep. Dan Goldman of New York and his primary challenger Brad Lander are wading into the contentious debate over a proposed boycott of Israeli products at a Brooklyn cooperative grocery store ahead of an expected vote next week.<\/p>\n In a statement shared exclusively with the Forward on Wednesday, Goldman urged members of the popular Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn to attend a May 26 vote<\/a> and cast ballots against the boycott resolution \u2014\u00a0and condemned the measure as antisemitic.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is free to criticize the Israeli government \u2014 which I do not hesitate to do \u2014 but joining a movement that was founded on the principle of the elimination of Israel will have no impact on the Israeli government or the Israeli economy,\u201d Goldman said in his statement. \u201cInstead, it only succeeds at shifting the responsibility for the Israeli government\u2019s actions to American Jews \u2014 which is quintessential antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldman said that he is aligning himself with Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim, a progressive leader, as the debate has spilled into local politics<\/a> and Jewish communal life in the progressive neighborhood.<\/p>\n The resolution<\/a> says the boycott would persist \u201cUntil Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices, in its treatment of Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n Timoner addressed the proposal in her weekly Shabbat sermon<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cMany simply want to see the Palestinian people be free and safe and equal, and I do too, but this is not the way,\u201d Timoner said. \u201cThis way is wrong.<\/p>\n Calling it a \u201cproxy war\u201d to what has been dividing Americans in recent years over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one \u201cthat is laced with antisemitism, Timoner said that many members of her congregation \u2014 she and herself \u2014 would be forced to resign from their co-op membership if the resolution passes.<\/p>\n The rabbi\u2019s sermon reflected the careful line she has tried to walk since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the war in Gaza \u2014 openly criticizing Israeli government policies while rejecting the singling out of Israel. In March 2024, Timoner attended for the first time<\/a> what was then a weekly protest to call for a bilateral ceasefire and hostage deal, one that Lander attended regularly. In her remarks she said that she had held back until then from calling for a ceasefire in Gaza \u201cbecause it was being used by people who celebrated Oct. 7, people who do not hold Hamas responsible, and people who want to eliminate the state of Israel \u2014 and I did not want to be associated with that.\u201d<\/p>\n Timoner is a co-founder and board member of the New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive advocacy group formed in 2020<\/a> to be a voice for liberal Jews in New York. Lander is a member of NYJA\u2019s leaders network. A Goldman campaign official noted that the congressman and Timoner have met several times privately to discuss issues affecting the district and that Goldman has attended services at Beth Elohim in the past.<\/p>\n Goldman, the two-term incumbent, challenged his Democratic primary rival to publicly oppose the measure as well, \u201cto stand with our neighbors, and make it clear that this dangerous bigotry has no place in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n Lander, a close ally of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, told the Forward he isn\u2019t a member of the Coop but would vote against the resolution if he were, pointing to Timoner\u2019s sermon. \u201cPrincipled people can disagree here,\u201d Lander said in a statement that did not take a position on the resolution. \u201cBoycotts, divestments, and sanctions are legitimate tools of advocacy campaigns. Unlike my opponent, I don\u2019t believe all opposition to Israel is antisemitic.\u201d<\/p>\n A long-running boycott fight<\/p>\n The proposal to boycott Israeli products has riven the Brooklyn institution\u2019s roughly 16,000 members. It was introduced in 2024<\/a> by a local advocacy group called Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine. The resolution would require the Coop to boycott Israeli-made products \u201cuntil Israel complies with international law in its treatment of Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n Coop4Unity, opposing the resolution, is urging shoppers to \u201cbring back cooperation\u201d and \u201cstop polarization.\u201d<\/p>\n The measure is largely symbolic, given that the Coop only carries a handful of items imported from Israel, like EcoLove shampoo and conditioner. At least one, Al Arz tahini, is made by an Israeli Arab in Nazareth. The coop first considered a boycott resolution in 2012.<\/p>\n The debate has grown increasingly heated in recent months, erupting most recently publicly during a general meeting when a member made said \u201cJewish supremacism is a problem in this country,\u201d a remark that many attendees<\/a> and Jewish organizations<\/a> condemned.<\/p>\n The comment \u2014 which received applause at the meeting \u2014 came during a second resolution that would\u00a0 lower the voting threshold for boycott measures from 75% to 51%.<\/p>\n Goldman strongly condemned the remarks in his statement on Wednesday. \u201cThat is not a critique of Israeli policy or advocacy for Palestinian rights,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is an old and ugly antisemitic conspiracy theory that fueled the Nazis and then was used by David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.\u201d<\/p>\n A heated primary over support for Israel<\/p>\n The boycott fight is the latest issue in an already heated primary challenge to Goldman being largely battled over Israel and antisemitism.<\/p>\n Last month, Lander, who has described himself as a liberal Zionist, joined some progressive House members in calling for an end<\/a> to U.S. aid to Israel. Lander \u2014 who described Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as \u201cgenocide\u201d \u2014 said he would apply that as well to Israel\u2019s defensive Iron Dome system, high-tech missile interception that protects lives, property and infrastructure against assaults from Iran and allied groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Lander said\u00a0 that Israel has the ability to purchase its defense with its own funds.<\/p>\n The 10th Congressional District, which includes Borough Park and Park Slope in Brooklyn as well as parts of lower Manhattan, voted heavily for Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel. Mamdani is backing Lander in the primary.<\/p>\n Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and former Trump impeachment prosecutor who was elected<\/a> in 2022,\u00a0 is aligned with the mainstream positions of national Democrats on Israel: supportive of Israel\u2019s security while finding a pathway for a two-state solution, sharply critical<\/a> of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing government, and opposed to settlement expansion<\/a> and settler violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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