A community garden at Ridgewood, Queens that enforces a strict no-Zionist member policy may be evicted for violating city park guidelines. 

The Sunset Community Garden was first thrust into the spotlight last year when Ridgewood locals complained that the garden’s anti-Israel activism created a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli residents. 

Now, city officials are seeking to uproot the community garden for imposing a de-facto ban on Zionists by requiring members to support a “statement of values” that condemns Zionism, homophobia, transphobia, and more. 

The New York City Parks Department informed the garden in an April 16 letter that they were violating city guidelines by forcing members to affirm the group’s “political and ideological” positions. “Such litmus tests as a barrier to membership are not permitted, regardless of the ideological content,” the department proclaimed. 

The garden, which is located at Onderdonk and Willoughby Avenues, was built with public funds by the city Parks Department and environmental nonprofit GrowNYC. Community gardens in New York City are required to abide by anti-discrimination laws that bar them from excluding individuals based on protected characteristics like race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation. 

“The Adams administration stands against all forms of hatred, and our community gardens should be safe, inclusive, and welcoming spaces for all New Yorkers. Let’s be clear: barring Zionists — which the overwhelming majority of Jews consider themselves to be — from anywhere is reprehensible,” a City Hall spokesman tells the Sun. 

“This garden’s current operators have broken multiple rules even after our Parks Department met with them and offered potential solutions. Still, we will never penalize the public — this space will remain a community garden under new leadership,” he noted. 

The organizers describe the garden as “a space for folks to connect with plants, the earth, community, and with themselves.” However, their laundry list of uber-woke “community values” — as shown in a publicly accessible document — make the garden look less like a community greenspace and more like a social justice movement. 

The doctrine is rife with statements of solidarity for “oppressed and marginalized people” like those in “Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Hawaii, and Borikén, as well as with land and water defenders globally.” Locally, the group pledges to “uplift our community members that are the most oppressed within the bounds of capitalism and colonialism.” That includes members of the “Queer, Trans, Disabled, Chronically Ill, Femme, Poor, Immigrant, Refugee, Fat Bodies and Richly Melanated community.” 

Next, under “community agreements,” the garden calls on its members to “commit to interrupting violent behavior or rhetoric that expresses all forms of hate” which, according to the group, includes “homophobic, transphobic, sexist, ableist, fatphobic,  xenophobic, Zionist, antisemitic, nationalist and/or racist beliefs.” 

Other highlights include a community commitment to challenge “white supremacist values of perfectionism by acknowledging that mistakes are ok,” and encouraging “asking and giving for consent” when interacting with fellow members — for example, pausing to ask “Hey is it ok if I vent about my weekend during lunch?”

The last time that the city revoked a garden license was in 2022 when a group was caught using the greenspace to grow marijuana plants. Concerns with the Sunset Community Garden, however, have been growing for more than a year. 

Even the local Queens resident who spearheaded the garden’s fundraising efforts, Christina Wilkinson, lamented back in 2024 that the garden “started out non-political, then it got hijacked by crazies,” she told the New York Post. Ms Wilkinson, who stepped away from the garden after it opened in 2023, asked “Why is DOE tolerating this group forcing participants to pledge allegiance to pet causes in order to participate?”

The Sunset Community Garden has not yet responded to a request for comment.