A community meeting at the lefty Park Slope Food Coop over a proposed boycott of Israeli goods erupted into chaos on Tuesday night after a member declared, “Jewish supremacism is a problem in this country,” and compared Jews to Nazis, according to a recording obtained by The Post.
The vile remarks, which were made over Zoom by a coop member with a screen name of Michael Huarachi, prompted applause from at least 50 people who were attending the meeting in person, according to multiple witnesses.
It also sparked disgust from Jewish coop members.
“It was shocking,” longtime coop member Ramon Maislen told The Post. “That’s not who we are.”
The monthly meeting was being held to discuss whether the socialist-leaning grocery store should lower the current voting threshold required for a boycott from 75% to 51%, according to Maislen.
This move would make it easier for members who support the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement to push through a ban on Israeli products.
On the same recording, Huarachi said: “We can’t keep making the same mistakes between what we did with the Nazis and what we did with other hateful, racist groups,”
His offensive remarks quickly spread through local group chats and even Reddit, where members called the statement “deplorable” and “blatant antisemitism.”
Maislen, alongside other Jewish members, took to the floor to condemn Huarachi’s hate-filled statements.
“I stood up onstage at the meeting, facing a hostile crowd, and said, ‘Applauding a speech that labels Jews as supremacists is not principled. It is wrong,’” Maislen told The Post.
He added: “You could hear a pin drop when I called everybody out. It was silent.”
Another meeting attendee, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Post: “I was disappointed that the moderators didn’t do anything. They just said, ‘Thank you for your comment. Please don’t clap.’ You know, they didn’t step in and say, hey, this is out of balance.”
Barbara Mazor, a coop member since 1989, is currently running for the board so she can have more time to speak during community meetings and help fight antisemitism at the grocery store.
Mazor said the boycott campaign has consumed the monthly meetings and turned the institution into a political battlefield.
“It’s just, let’s, let’s get our Jew hate on,” she said. “And we saw it unabashed last night.”
Maislen said the debate at the storied market is over roughly 10 Israeli-sourced products.
In recent years, it has become less about what is being sold and more about turning the coop political.
In 2024, he formally filed a complaint with New York state’s Division of Human Rights, citing Jewish members being harassed for opposing the boycott calls.
According to the complaint, a Jewish coop member who was standing outside the store and trying to inform those strolling by about the boycott effort was confronted by a shopper, who called her a “Nazi.”
The odious member began walking away, but not before shouting “Sieg Heil” at the 35-year-old, according to the complaint. Maislen said the first member, who was Jewish, later apologized.
In another incident, the complaint details a shopper who said she was harassed by a worker who said she couldn’t work or stand next to the Jewish woman because she smelled “of Palestinian blood.” The investigation was later dropped with no explanation, according to Maislen.
The Park Slope Food Coop, founded in 1973, has roughly 16,000 members who work in shifts in exchange for discounted groceries and a say in store policy.
But the debate over Israel has divided the left-leaning community.
According to one member, who didn’t want to be identified, the tensions have been growing since 2012 —and they are tearing apart a community whose aim is to work together in a “positive and productive” way.
The member also noted that Huarachi’s antisemitic comment was made with his camera off, which is typically against coop regulations.
“I would really like to see a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians,” a jaded Mazor told The Post, noting that most members just wanted to go and do their shopping without having to think about politics.
“There are roads to coexistence, and this BDS effort is very misguided and prolongs the conflict.”
But according to the PSFC Members for Palestine, the discussion had many different shared viewpoints and reactions to the BDS proposal. “We are a multi-ethnic, multi-generational coalition including Palestinian and Jewish Coop members, and our position remains as follows: ‘Until Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices, in its treatment of Palestinians, the Coop will not sell goods produced in Israel (pre-1967 borders) or in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestine,’” they said in an email to The Post. Huarachi did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
For Maislen, the episode reflects a broader breakdown inside the coop.
“I’m very pro-peace, but I don’t think that these people are pro-peace at all. I think they have an agenda and it’s pretty extreme,” he said. “It was really disturbing seeing all the toxicity that I feel online, feeling it in person.”
