The Boycott That Separated Me From My Neighbors

Rachel Timoner is the senior rabbi of Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim and a board member of New York Jewish Agenda.

Last week members of a hyperlocal community institution voted to boycott Israeli products.

“Big deal,” I hear you saying. But it is, because the vote by members of the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn is a microcosm of what’s happening all across our country.

We are fighting among ourselves based on interpretations of one another’s words and actions that are often wrong. We are dividing our communities into two camps — pro-Israel versus pro-Palestine — when, I believe, the only hope for the over 14 million people who live in Israel and........

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