A Jewish mom says she was forced to pull her six-year-old daughter from a progressive Brooklyn arts camp after she raised concerns about what she called “antisemitic” Israel-Hamas war signage.
Artshack in Bedford-Stuyvesant — which prides itself on being an “anti-racist, queer affirming organization” — put up signs with the words “Ceasefire Now” — a call to action synonymous with anti-Israel protesters.
“I felt that standing firm with the signage was standing with terrorists and aggressors and antisemitic people who do not welcome Jews,” Rachel Hillman told The Post this week.
Hillman — a mother-of-two — had been sending her daughter to Artshack for two years and had chosen it for its creative and previously welcoming environment.
The Bed-Stuy mom lives just blocks from Artshack and was told of the alarming signage by her daughter, prompting her to reach out to the director of youth programming at the institution, Dini Dixon.
A local parent started the signage campaign through her child’s school, and Artshack’s founder and director, McKendree Key, agreed to put up the posters in “solidarity with the people of Palestine,” Hillman claimed.
Hillman said she was left bewildered when Dixon told her that while “diversity helps [Artshack] thrive,” leadership at the center had “decided to keep the signs in the window.”
Key then echoed Dixon’s comments in a separate email exchange — adding that she’d be happy to talk face-to-face — but admitted the meeting may be fruitless, according to Hillman.
“I am not sure if either of us will gain any closure from the meeting,” Key wrote.
Key ended the conversation by saying Hillman and her daughter “weren’t a fit for Artshack,” and then immediately refunded her the close to $3,000 she paid for the program and providing no further correspondence, the mom said.
It’s not the first time Artshack has been at the center of controversy.
It’s former co-owner with Key, Dany Rose, resigned and issued an apology in 2019 for plastering her home with Halloween decorations showing three cartoon figures with nooses that were made out of brown craft paper— drawing accusations of racism and outrage from the historically-black community.
Key also weighed in at the time, recognizing the “hurt and anger” sparked by the decorations — which Rose said were referencing the horror film about a possessed doll “Annabelle” — and called for a community meeting to have an open conversation about racism.
But Hillman said the same empathy was not afforded to her when she brought up concerns about the signage, noting the political climate is especially fraught for people in the Jewish community who have faced an uptick of antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“I hate to use the term, but I felt like I was being gaslit,” Hillman told The Post.
“It felt like there was something wrong with me bringing this to their attention, because of my position, my impression of the sign, like I was somehow supporting this war, which is absolutely not what I was doing,” she said.
“I could not be more clear in saying that I just wanted the sign to say ‘peace’ [or] something a bit more neutral.”
The Post contacted Artshack for comment but did not immediately hear back.
