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August 30, 1991 - Image 47

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1991-08-30

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

An uneasytruce prevailed in Crown Heights after three days of violence.

ambulance operated by
Chasidim, carted the car's
driver to safety, leaving the
black child on the street,
pinned against a window
gate.
"It's been confirmed that
Hatzolah did what a
policewoman told it to do,"
Mr. White said. "The crowd
on the street was attacking
Yoseph Lisef (the car's
driver), and the police decid-
ed to let EMS, a city am-
bulance, handle the boy and
let Hatzolah handle the
driver."
Rabbi Kagan said a simi-
lar incident happened last
September when a black
driver accidentally struck
and killed a French Jewish
child.
"The boy ran into the mid-
dle of the street outside 770
while his parents were
waiting to see the Rebbe,"
Rabbi Kagan - said.
"Everyone mourned and
grieved. Not a finger was
laid on the driver. We saw it
for what it was — an accident.
We expect no less from the
black community." ❑

Detroit Reaction

Continued from Page 1

tion and the Labor-Zionist
Alliance of Metropolitan
Detroit. Mr. Naimark said
that in Crown Heights,
blacks and Chasidic Jews
live side-by-side, creating a
"pressure cooker."
"The communities them-
selves are very intense," he
said of the two Brooklyn
groups. "Here, you don't
have that direct an-
tagonism."
Detroit's Jewish and black
communities rarely live
near each other. Where they
do, like in Oak Park, the
poverty of Crown Heights
does not exist. And as far as
some local observers are
concerned, that makes all
the difference.
"When the economic pie is
small, it creates the envi-
ronment for violence," said
Sister Theresa Blaquiere,
who works for CORE City
Neighborhoods, a Detroit ac-
tivist organization. "The
violence of poverty, of
unemployment, of ig-
norance, begets violence,"
she said. Ms. Blaquiere add-
ed that while violence bet-
ween Detroit's blacks and
Jews is unlikely, other inter-
minority squabbles could
erupt, like between blacks
and Hispanics.
"The African-American
community in Oak Park

does not see itself as em-
battled," said Bill Nabers,
president of the South Oak-
land County chapter of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP).
"What you have in Crown
Heights is a poor, urban,
close-knit, old tenement
area — it just doesn't exist
here," said Allan Gale, the
associate director of the
Detroit Jewish Community
Council. "It's an unfor-
tunate case, but it is very
unique."
At the official opening of
Rothstein Park in Oak Park
last Sunday, Crown Heights
was the last thing on any-
one's mind.
"There's not too much hate
in Michigan," said Rachel
Thomas, one of the few
blacks who attended the
park's dedication and who
came with her friend, Edna
Skolnick, who is Jewish.
Both Ms. Thomas and Ms.
Skolnick have lived in Mich-
igan for over half a cen-
tury.
Ms. Skolnick bewailed the
violence in Brooklyn, but
said, like Ms. Thomas, that
Detroit is not that kind of
community. She fears,
however, for the next ge-
neration.
"Today, with this new ge-
neration, it's a different
world."
Most troubling, according
to some black-Jewish dia-

logue leaders, is the possibil-
ity that the violence in
Crown Heights will only
deepen suspicions on oppo-
site ends of the spectrum.
"I don't think tension ex-
ists here as it does in New
York," said Frank Sklarsky,
who heads a Detroit black-
Jewish dialogue group spon-
sored by the American Jew-
ish Committee. "But where
the two groups do not coex-
ist," he said, "something
like this will only confirm in

the minds of people who
removed themselves from
the other group that they
were right all along."
Mr. Nabers of the NAACP
agreed.
"I'm certain that any
bigoted sentiments that ex-
ist would be exacerbated by
the events in Crown
Heights. But I don't see it
causing an upsurge of
racism in this locale," he
said. ❑

Isaac Bitton cries
after his father was
beaten during last
week's riots.

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

47

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