(Oct. 2, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
When P.S. 321, a popular elementary school in Brooklyn\u2019s Park Slope neighborhood, quit holding its graduation ceremonies in the spacious sanctuary of Congregation Beth Elohim, with which the public school had a 50-year relationship, it did so quietly. There was no fanfare, and it didn\u2019t give the local Reform synagogue notice before moving its graduation in June to the auditorium of another area school.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Rachel Timoner, senior rabbi of the congregation, heard rumors from some congregants, whose children attend P.S. 321 that it was \u201cbecause of Israel,\u201d she told JNS. When she contacted the principal of PS 321 William Penn Elementary School, Elizabeth Phillips, she was told that the decision had already been made, the rabbi said.<\/p>\n
After five decades of hosting thousands of P.S. 321 children in after school programs and nearly 20 years of holding graduations at the synagogue, assumptions being made about the synagogue since it is a Jewish institution hurt, Timoner told JNS.<\/p>\n
She identifies as Zionist and has protested the Israeli government\u2019s prosecution of the war against the Hamas terror organization in Gaza. In fact, Timoner was arrested while protesting the war outside the Consulate General of Israel New-York in 2024.<\/p>\n
In a Yom Kippur sermon last month, Timoner told congregants that \u201cthe official reason was that a public school shouldn\u2019t hold graduation in a religious building.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s legitimate,\u201d she said in the sermon. \u201cBut upon inquiry, the principal told me that the desire to change venues stemmed from discomfort about Israel and therefore about us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision was made without anyone at the school reaching out to us as neighbors to talk about their concerns or to see whether their assumptions about us were right, or even tell us that they were severing this tie,\u201d she told worshipers, who filled the entire 1,300-seat sanctuary for the Kol Nidrei service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat made many of us feel lonely and misunderstood,\u201d she said, to what she told JNS was a \u201cgasp\u201d from congregants at the more than 150-year-old congregation.<\/p>\n
The school\u2019s decision to end the relationship felt like a double gut punch, since it came around the same time that the Park Slope Food Coop voted to ban Israeli products, Timoner told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat moment felt so lonely,\u201d she said in her Kol Nidrei sermon. \u201cMany of us felt misunderstood and alienated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the co-op and primary school are beloved neighborhood institutions in the stately brownstone-lined neighborhood, which feels more like a village than part of America\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n
P.S. 321 is located on the neighborhood\u2019s main street, Seventh Avenue, and the synagogue is just a block away, on Eighth Avenue. The food co-op is a handful of blocks away from the other two.<\/p>\n
The school, where many of the synagogue members have sent their children over the years, deciding to shun the Jewish congregation sparked a wave of upset at Beth Elohim, Hebrew for \u201chouse of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Timoner again contacted Phillips, the public school principal, and the two met on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Timoner told JNS exclusively that she and Phillips will soon issue a joint statement addressing the issue to their communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we have this history of a really warm relationship between our institutions, we can do something to address the hurt and harm, an opportunity for everyone to have their voices heard,\u201d Timoner told JNS after the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hopeful that we will continue the conversation and break down assumptions,\u201d said.<\/p>\n
When JNS sought an interview, the principal emailed that \u201cRabbi Timoner and I had a very good meeting, and I look forward to continuing to work together respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe value our relationship with Congregation Beth Elohim,\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
Timoner is deeply committed to the idea that dialogue can lead to mutual understanding and that will improve the Jewish community\u2019s safety at a moment when it feels precarious to many New York Jews.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to quietly and gently approach and say, \u2018Let me tell you why this hurts. Please don\u2019t make assumptions about us,\u2019\u201d she told JNS. \u201cWe have an opportunity to learn from each other. In the long term that will make us safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips told JNS that she does not know how many of her school\u2019s 1,330 students are Jewish.<\/p>\n
Two of Ramon Maislen\u2019s sons graduated from P.S. 321, and his youngest is currently a third grader at the public school.<\/p>\n
A longtime member of the Park Slope Food Coop, he faced intensely antisemitic hatred leading up to the vote to ban<\/a> Israeli products, which took place on May 29. The campaign to ban Israeli products went on for years and had previously been voted down.<\/p>\n Maislen strongly disagrees with Timoner\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rest of us will be shot first, and she can watch,\u201d Maislen told JNS after the rabbi met with the principal. \u201cWe need to call a spade a spade, and Timoner needs to call out antisemitism, even if it\u2019s on the so-called left.\u201d<\/p>\n Maislen is a dual American and Israeli citizen.<\/p>\n On Oct. 7, 2024, he filed a complaint<\/a> against the co-op with the New York City Commission on Human Rights alleging that the member-owned food market discriminated against him based on his national origin when it did not sanction the members who intimidated and attacked him.<\/p>\n He shared a copy of the complaint with JNS and is awaiting a decision from the city commission, he said.<\/p>\n He was in the Signal chat of the Coop Members for Palestine group advocating for the boycott. \u201cThey literally posted \u2018long live Sinwar,\u2019\u201d of the since assassinated Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar, \u201cand multiple people hearted it,\u201d he told JNS.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are people who really hate us,\u201d Maislen told JNS.<\/p>\n On Sept. 28, five other former food co-op members, with the support of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the market in New York Supreme Court.<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleged that the ban violated the co-op\u2019s procedural rules and violated state law prohibiting discrimination.<\/p>\n The plaintiffs experienced much the same treatment as Maislen did during the multi-year boycott campaign by \u201cPSFC Members for Palestine,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe campaign was accompanied by repeated hostility toward Jewish, Israeli and pro-Israel members, including derogatory statements, interference with members\u2019 rightful participation in co-op meetings and disparate enforcement of PSFC\u2019s disciplinary rules,\u201d the suit stated.<\/p>\n Proponents of the boycott \u201calso repeatedly singled out \u2018Zionists,\u2019 Jewish members and persons with ties to Israel for criticism and exclusion,\u201d it alleged.<\/p>\n Timoner wants Jews to take a calmer, more conciliatory approach to the Jew-hatred bombarding the community.<\/p>\n