Thursday, September 30, 2010

Beautiful! Another failed Ahava Boycott in NYC

The Buycott Israel strategy is paying off throughout the country. From the redwood highway to the gulf stream waters, people throughout America are supporting Israel with their pocketbooks and with their consumer choices.

Empowered by the Ahava buycott in Silver Springs Maryland that led to empty shelves, Ahava lovers in NYC tried the same tactic- with similar results.

Ricky's- an independent health and beauty supply store has been besieged and bullied by Code pink and other anti-Israel forces for months. But this time, Brooklyn was ready to fight back.

Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham on Remsen Street in Brooklyn sent out an action alert, and congregants responded. Ricky’s employees said that they sell out of Ahava products every time there is a protest.

Code Pink- Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If your goal is to have an economic impact on Israel, you may want to try a different strategy. For the rest of us, even if you
don't live in NYC, you can show Ricky's and Ahava some love by buying the products mail order.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

BROOKLYN — One of Brooklyn Heights’s most-influential Jewish leaders fought back against an anti-Israel rally last Friday by doing what influential rabbis do in such situations: he bought cosmetics.

Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham picked up some Ahava products at Ricky’s cosmetics shop on Montague Street just a few days after the store was picketed by protesters claiming that selling the West-Bank-made lotions supported Israel’s “illegal” occupation of the West Bank.

Raskin said he did his shopping simply to “make a stand” against the protesters. He also e-mailed his 2,000-person congregation urging members to support Ricky’s and Israel by buying Ahava goods, which are made in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

“It is inescapable to see [the protest] as anything other than an expression of anti-Semitism,” Raskin said in the e-mail.

On Tuesday, he made his purchases and even blessed the staff of the hipster cosmetic store on the way out.

“Anyone who buys Israeli products, including Ricky’s, will receive many blessings,” he said.

http://www.viciousbabushka.com/2010/07/brooklyn-rabbi-leads-antiboycott.html

Anonymous said...

Whoever does teh headlines needs some Focus Factor.
The "BUYcott" was a success. The attempted BOYcott failed.

The back of the hill said...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Beautiful! Another failed Ahava Buycott in NYC":

Whoever does teh headlines needs some Focus Factor.
The "BUYcott" was a success. The attempted BOYcott failed.



Holy cats! You're right. The headline has now been corrected.

Thank you for pointing out the error.

Anonymous said...

I wish we could have done the same here in Toronto. We also went to buy Ahava products but when we got to the store, The Bay, (The Hudson Bay Company), they were already pulled off the shelves. This was so disappointing that a company like the Bay would give into this bigoted anti-Israel campaign.

Dusty said...

According to Bonnie Brooks, CEO of the Bay, the products from Ahava wer pulled temporarily, while they are being re-formulated. They will be back.

Her statement:

HBC has made it clear that it has not "bowed to political pressure" in the past, has not done so now and will not do so in the future. HBC neither subscribes to nor endorses politically-motivated boycotts of merchandise from countries with whom Canada has open and established trading relationships, including Israel.

http://www.cicweb.ca/scene/2011/01/the-bay-and-ahava-a-marketing-decision/


All is not lost.

Anonymous said...

Ahava has to "reformulate" because their sales have been dropping for years. Sounds to me like the boycott is working.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe it's that no one wants to pay $30 for hand cream in a recession. Perhaps its that the people who want $30 hand cream buy it online, and don't end up paying the pesky sales tax.

The boycott has been failing for ten years. And with all your hoaxes (TIAA CREF, Hampshire, Harvard ), there still is not one BDS success story in America.

Unknown said...

I just brought Ahava online just because of this ridiculous boycott but I have to be honest, their products are... AWESOME!! No really, what is in that dead sea salt stuff (ok, besides salt...)

It's weird but all the attention to the boycott has made me trying to use as many Israeli products as I can!! Strange huh?? They want to divest but all anyone wants to do in Israel IS INVEST!!

Anyway, back to my Max Brenner hot chocolate!! LOL

Anonymous said...

Hannah, I completely understand. During the Day of Rage against Trader Joes, so many of us bought Israeli couscous by the case, that we ended up sharing recipes!

www.divestthis.com/2009/06/what-to-do-with-all-that-couscous.html