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Glenn Beck Slams Co-op at Crown Heights Fundraiser

Gothamist

Glenn Beck

When it comes to the potential ban on Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Co-Op, everyone has an opinion. Even Glenn Beck. With the big vote (to decide if they should vote) coming up fast, the former Fox News host went and expressed his displeasure with the idea at a Crown Heights fundraiser for a museum in Jerusalem last night.

“What is happening with the food co-op where they are seriously considering a boycott of Israel?” the internet TV pundit asked, before “likening the suggested ban to a subtle version of drawing swastikas.” To Beck, who is not Jewish, “when you use words like ‘I’m just anti-Israel’ or ‘I’m just anti-Zionist’ — that’s anti-Semitic.”

The crowd enjoyed Beck’s speech, which included a discussion of Israel’s right to defend itself. Probably not a surprise, as the fundraiser was looking to raise money for the Gush Katif Museum, which commemorates the eviction of the Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip.

The Libertarian even got at least one politician’s support. Assemblyman Dov Hikind told the Brooklyn Paper afterward that “You have some idiots in Brooklyn. Nothing like a self-hating Jew!”

But not everyone was with Brother Beck! “People at the Co-op are very open-minded,” Jewish Co-op member Steve Dobkin told the paper while defending the store’s progressive thinking. “I’d like to boycott him.”

Don’t worry though. Soon this will all be over. The Co-Op votes on having a referendum on the issue on March 27 at Brooklyn Tech.

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14 Comments

  • Sruly Clapman

    I was at the tea lounge a few weeks ago, directly across the street from the co-op,and I wanted to see what it was like, I went inside and they said that being that I’m not a member I need to be given a tour by a shapirone, I got the full tour of the place and this is what I obsered.

    1. The lines there are so long that they litterely wrap around the entire store, customers said that they are used to it, so they come prepared with iPads and boks for waiting on line.
    2. You must volunteer 3 hours a month or your thrown out.

    3. You must register it’s $100.00 fee per person on household and then $25.00 membership a year.

    4. The prices are only good in comparison to other items that are organic however in comparison to standard products thier a huge rip off .
    Based on all the above to shop there you must be clinically INSANE and now I understand why they want to ban Isrealy products, we are talking about abunch of LUNIES!

  • from a co-op member

    i am a member of the co-op. when i signed up i was hesitant as well. the work for 3 hours bothered me. the prices were not worth the work.

    now years later i can tell you that not for the prices but for the quality of the food, its all worth it.

    i go shopping twice a month. my fruits and vegetables from the co-op after 2 weeks, are more fresh then the produce you buy anywhere in crown heights on its 1st day!!

    there are nuts everywhere. there are many respectable lubavitchers that joined the co-op, and do jobs. in fact its quite a kiddush hashem. we get to meet many other jewish people, who often come over to wish us good shabbos, ask for chanukah and other yomim tovim information. to show non-jews that we chassidim are approachable and do our duties.

    all we want is good quality healthy food. it comes at the price of having to work. we don’t go there because of the prices, its the food – its the best quality, better then whole foods.

    and about the long lines, you are right that often it is like that. you learn to find the better times to go.

    concerning the vote for a referendum, i am confident it will never pass.

    by the way the tea lounge creeps me out, no lack of LUNIES there!

  • co

    depends on what you want there, but some of the prices are great. However, sometimes you feel rigidness and hate from some of the unfortunate ignorant people there. Alot of them may have education, but they are ignorant of who Jews are and what Jews are to the world, and what Israel means to the world.

  • Response to comment 2

    Costco produce is ranked year after year with the freshest stuff and longedat lasting on your home, they have plenty of parking, you don’t have to work there 3 hours a month, and I never heard the anti semetic threats of banning Isrealy products come up there.

  • Shopper

    Go #4. I agree. These tree-huggers & left-wing loonies are so brainwashed by the poor, iddy-biddy palestinian gun-toting pre-school murderers that they can’t see history & reality.

    Anyone Jewish, let alone FRUM, who joins this bunch of crazies should be ashamed. And to have to work there? Hell, no!

  • HD

    Another co-op should be opened in our neighborhood. It’s ludicrous that a vote would even be considered! What would happen if they lose all their Jewish members? A similar shopping experience would be well received here. In my college days, I help found a co-op in an area where there were several existing already. They all are prospering still.

  • glenn beck a libertarian? LOL

    excuse me whoever wrote this article at “gothamist”. Glenn Beck is a right wing extremist NOT a libertarian! do atleast 5 seconds of research please before you write an article…

  • Milhouse

    #8, I’m not exactly Beck’s biggest fan, for a number of reasons, but what do you find so extreme about him, and how exactly do you distinguish him from libertarians?

  • to all..

    glenn beck was kicked off of fox for being to extreme…hes so far to the right its sickening even for THE conservative newschannel, as to all you needing the definition about being a libertarian, it means liberty and the right to it. glenn beck is a bible thumping moron, NOT a libertarian.
    just the other day glenn beck nodded away as rick santoroum said that going to college was obamas plan on making ppl not religious that college was indoctrination for some evil plan…

  • Milhouse

    #12, first of all Fox News is not particularly right wing; it’s a business and it does whatever it thinks will improve its ratings. Its opinion lineup used to be somewhat to the right, but it’s been swinging noticeably leftwards over the past two years. And none of us know why it dropped Beck; your claim that he was too right-wing is pure speculation.

    In any event, you certainly have no idea what “libertarian” means. Libertarians *are* on the far right of USA politics.

  • Milhouse

    Oh, and what exactly does “bible thumping moron” mean? This is a religious web site, remember!